Psychology/Social psychology

Psychology/Social psychology

Eyewitness testimony is often a compelling form of evidence in legal proceedings. However, several factors determine the accuracy or inaccuracy of eyewitness testimony (Jones & Penrod, 2017). These testimonies are deemed unreliable when they are affected by memory contamination, environmental factors, and misinterpretation during the trial.  Accuracy of eyewitness testimony is not 100% assured; nonetheless, the use of lie detectors has incredibly reduced the rate of false assertions (Jones & Penrod, 2017).

Empathy can be described as the ability to share in other’s feelings. The more one shares in these emotions, the more they become empathetic. According to Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, human beings develop certain behaviors for two primary reasons; Intrinsic or internal motivation and extrinsic or external motivation (Levy & Feldman, 2017).  Some find these behaviors suitable to their lifestyles while some develop these behaviors for fear of punishment. Researchers suggest that empathy is a behavior that influences one’s intrinsic motivation to assist others (Levy & Feldman, 2017).

Positive moods have been closely linked to numerous helping behaviors, such as blood donation and contributing to charities. Even though positive emotions increasing helping behaviors, negative emotions evoke both helping and unhelping behaviors. For instance, feelings of guilt might evoke helping practices, while feelings of vengeance completely disrupt assisting behaviors to.

During the conflict, most people drop all their communication skills and only focus on saying what one feels. However, during the conflict, there several other practical communication skills that can be used to prevent yelling. These include; Listening to the other party when speaking, reading nonverbal cues, and identifying the problem or misunderstanding.

Depression is the globe’s prevalent psychiatric disorder, which impairs and affects a patient’s thinks and feelings about their environment and their self. Cognitive depression theories have hypothesized that numerous thought processes are involved in the recurrence, maintenance, and development of depressive episodes.  These theories also state that these cognitive processes directly affect a patient’s inferences, thoughts, interpretations, and attitudes. Their memory is also impaired, and this increases the risk of depression recurrence or prevalence. Additionally, three mechanisms have been linked to the biased dysregulation of emotions and cognitive processing in depressed patients; deficits and inhibitory process towards the working memory, the inability to develop and implement rewarding and positive stimuli responsible for regulating negative emotions, and reflective responses to negative life happenings and negative emotions.

There are numerous psychological therapies used to treat depressed adults and children. All these treatments also have different approaches, activities, time, people, and theoretical assumptions. For instance, treatment might involve numerous social events such as; calmly talking with Alex daily, gradually involving family members in the talks, and collectively clarify reasons for his withdrawal, unhappiness, and all his other symptoms (Thabrew et al., 2018). The purpose of this treatment method is to recognize the causing factor, be it bullying in school, grief, and lack of parental guidance. On the other hand, treatment might focus on identifying communication patterns and family roles for his entire family on actively changing Alex’s depressed behaviors of social isolation, staying in bed and continuously sad, and self-neglect. Additionally, the treatment can focus on enabling Alex to find new healthy ways to express and communicate his feelings through creative works such as; sports, music, and art.

A wide range of psychosocial and psychological treatments can also be combined to treat Alex’s depression. There is growing scientific evidence that psychosocial and psychological therapies assist patients in achieving long-term depression treatment (Thabrew et al., 2018).

Stereotype activation is the process of choosing to accept or reject a prejudiced opinion, culture, person, and thoughts (Burns et al., 2017). This process explains prejudice as it suggests that everyone is given an opportunity or the chance to determine how to react to information received. Some will respond in prejudice, while others will let it go.

Everyone processes information differently, and in her article, Devine attempts to explore two ways through which patients process information; controlled and automatic processing and how these two processes are related to prejudice and stereotypes (Marx & Ko, 2019). She uses three tested underlying assumptions studies that were derived from theoretical models based on the disconnection of controlled and automatic processes related to prejudice.  In direct correlation to the research findings, Devine’s results reveal that bias is not automatic and can be controlled. The notion of an automated process cannot hold because it leaves no room for change in personal beliefs and intellectual growth.

The justification-suppression model of prejudice explains how people experience conflict between their desire to keep positive self-concepts and the desire to express feelings of discrimination.  Often these conflicts between responses cause people to seek justification for hating an outcast and additionally use the justification to suppress negative emotions when they practice prejudice. This model also suggests that substantial or personal biases are often not expressed directly; instead, they are restrained through societal norms, values, and beliefs.  The model supports the notion that, when justifications are used to show prejudice, suppressed prejudices are released.

Illusory correlation can be defined as the assumption of the existence of a relationship between two variables that are not related. This concept explains prejudicial thinking through the creation of false associations. These associations are created because rare occurrences are more noticeable to stereotypes.

The ability to change stereotypical beliefs and behaviors is entirely personal and internal. This is because stereotype behaviors are rooted in our values, norms, and ideas. By changing norms, beliefs, and values, one changes stereotypical behaviors.