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Home » Blog » A Quick Introduction to Psychology – The Bits You Can Actually Use Part 1
  • A Quick Introduction to Psychology – The Bits You Can Actually Use Part 1

    Ask any psychology student and they’ll be familiar with the ‘you study psychology, that must mean you can read my mind!’ approach. This fun definitely starts to wear off after a while. Learning psychology involves a lot of biology, statistics and sociology and less about Jedi mind tricks – it’s a real shame.

    But there are many aspects you can use to your advantage! These are definitely worth knowing which is why we’ve decided to share them with you.

    Attention

    Most psychology classes have been shown a video carried out by Daniel Simons. They’re asked to watch people in the video throw and catch a ball dressed either in black or white. During the video they’re supposed to count the number of times the players in white pass the ball.

     

    This task absorbs all your attention. As a result most completely fail to see the large gorilla walk right into the middle of the game and smile at the camera.

    psychology, gorilla, attention, cbt, defense mechanisms, counselling, birmingham,

    Try it on your friends and family and see how attentive they’re being: http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html

    Another example by Daniel Simons is the door study. In this experiment an innocent stranger is approached and asked for directions. During this conversation 2 men carrying a door pass between them and the person asking directions swaps places with someone carrying the door.

    Approximately 50% of those giving the directions had no idea they were talking to a different person! They were so focused on the task in hand they failed to pay any attention to who they were talking to.

    These demonstrate how much we can miss when we are only paying attention to one thing. This phenomenon is known as the ‘change blindness’. Our attention is limited and only so much information makes it through this bottleneck into our conscious awareness. Beware, this is the foundation used in all magic tricks.

    Defense Mechanisms

    When you learn about Freud, things get really weird and you hear about all kinds of strange and largely disputed creepy ideas. Although, not all of Freud’s work is completely outdated. In fact he’s responsible for our ideas about the ‘unconscious’ mind.

    Defense mechanisms are extremely useful. People use them all the time and learning to spot them can really pay off. For instance take reaction formation as an example. This is when someone acts categorically as though they believe the opposite to how they really feel. This can offer them a layer of protection from facing up to their real feelings. For example when a loved one dies, many go into a state of denial and insist they are coping well. Believing this avoids the difficultly of accepting that someone is gone forever. Thinking nothing has changed can protect them for a short period of time.

    Being able to notice these patterns in behaviour can provide a new context that changes the way you might react.

    If you need help to be able to see the whole picture, may you have a tendency to focus upon one aspect and become frustrated or angry, get in touch with Birmingham Counselling Services now at: https://birminghamcounsellingservices.co.uk/

    Related Articles: The Neuroscience of Emotions
    Edited by Anna Perry
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