Unearthing psychology!

Psychology is a field that has always intrigued me. The reason for this is pretty evident. On one hand, the scope and the depth of the subject fascinates many but the problem is that we seldom put the effort required to go beyond what is directly fed to us. Sadly even today many dismiss its presence and downplay its importance.

For most people, the knowledge graph extends only till the Stanford prison experiment or if you are so keen to get a grade higher then you must be aware of the plight of Phineas Gage and how the poor man survived with a mutilated brain (after an iron rod went through his left eye and completely destroyed his frontal lobe) for twelve years. Ok I’m sorry; the start shouldn't have been gross.

Let me give you one more rationale for my argument. Erik Erikson, a renowned psychologist wisely quoted:” In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity “. Any guesses as to what I am trying to get at? Well it is completely justified if you are sitting in a dilemma, utterly baffled by what you have just read. Stay there for a while I present an amazing psychological case study (with nil ambiguity I promise) that is sure to change your attitude towards this subject.

Note: For the faint hearted too.

CASE STUDY 1: You: Hey you're 420. Reply: don't worry, not many will know.

Psychology at its root is about being able to identify and associate with ourselves. For my first case study I ask you to picture this situation. You're standing at the corner of a road and out of the blue a person comes to you asking for directions. Just when you have digested all this and are replying back, two men carrying a wooden door come in between making you feel as if their obvious intention was to irritate you.

Once they leave, you return back to normalcy and give out the directions. That is when the other man drops a bomb and says that you were a part of a psychology experiment. He further asks if you felt any change before and after the door was moved and you blatantly say no. Then another man in the foreground appears and says that he was the one initially asking you a query and that he left as the wooden door was being moved to be replaced by another. It does remind us of the perk ad featuring Alia right?

Note: These two men had a visibly distinguishable physical body structure and they both highly varied in their height, weight and the attire they wore. Still they were able to play games with the person’s mind mind and dupe him.

This isn't a lame joke but a serious thought experiment conducted by Daniel Simons, a psychologist at Harvard University and his colleague from Kent state university. According to their report, more than 50% of those who took the experiment fell to the trap.

A related incident was orchestrated by Christopher Cabris (again from Harvard University). A large group of people sat to watch a baseball match and they were assigned the task of counting the number of passes being made. They were so engrossed in the game that most didn't notice a man in a gorilla suit walk up the field for around 45 seconds. When the tape was replayed, many couldn't believe the detail they had missed and defended their claim by calling it a fake recording of the match.

Conclusion: In the book” Consciousness explained”, philosopher Daniel Denett claims that we are very selective in what we see and perceive. We have the tendency of ignoring visual items in our surroundings and this has only partially got to do with our vision or the significance of the objects around us. For instance, there is a high chance that you could miss out a misspelt or a repeated word in a long essay( I am relieved as I don’t have to pay attention to proofreading ) . I guess that i have put you on vigil as you finally realize how it is human nature to be ignorant to unprecedented circumstances.

CASE STUDY 2: Abracadabra! Not really magic after all.

Psychology is very relatable since it is solely based on us. There are so many small psychological tricks that we can put into use to make everyday life fun and more importantly get work done. Here are examples:

1) If you are aware that your boss or teacher is going to give you a blast, then all you have to do is to sit next to them with a genuine attitude on. It makes it really hard for a person to lash out at another when they are at proximity and this increases their inner tendency to forgive you.

2)The next time your friend starts a conversation, keep your ears open and your head ready. Note the one word that they keep repeating( for example the word holiday) and nod your head every time they utter it. After a point of time, they keep telling the word again and again with the frequency of its occurrence rapidly increasing. This is a person’s response to appreciation. WARNING: don’t use it on teachers when they tell homework.

3)If you want to coax someone into drinking milk or a health shake, don’t just simply say ” hey, better drink your milk”. Instead if you were to say “finish your drink from the boost mug signed by Kohli” or “here is your tea in a china cup”, there is a higher chance of them giving a positive affirmation. This is because humans readily fall for material objects and are hence ready to bear its complement too (milk in this case).

Through the above examples all I want to justify is that psychology matters, each and every aspect of it truly does. It is of absolute importance that we understand our mind which is the commander of our thoughts, beliefs and our actions. So I would like to sign off by quoting P. Valry:

“ The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know the best.”