Language And The Brain Assignment Sample

Introduction of Language And The Brain Assignment

Get free written samples from subject experts and online assignment writing service in UK.

The study of psychology contains the explanation of different ways that influence the manner of one’s certain behaviour under specific circumstances. The study will focus on the identification of those certain circumstances under which one's behaviour can change. The way the characteristics can change one's behaviour as it is observed that the consequences of a particular phenomenon give rise to the characteristic changes of the behaviours. Based on these specific identifications and understanding, this study is aimed to discuss the way psychological research has been influenced and changed eventually.

The way psychological research is conducted

The core objective of conducting a psychological study is to understand and have an explanation for people's changes in behaviour. The question that explains the basic reason for psychology study is to know the proper influences that act as the main reason behind what man does (McAvoy, 2020). Following these basic purposes of conducting psychological research, the explanation of each man's personality is considered one of the main grounds of study. In accordance with the terminology of psychology, the personality of a man reflects the basic characteristics and traits that lead one to behave in a balanced way.

In order to maintain an orientation that is constant with other people, people need to maintain a steady manner based on the inner disposition of one's characteristics. As a result, the majority of psychologists conduct research based on the role of characteristics in the determination of certain human behaviour. Based on such traits, the personality theory has been proposed by "Lewis R. Goldberg" that first included five factors of personality (McAvoy, 2020). The five factors include agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, intellect and emotional stability. “Paul Costa and Robert McCrae” took this theory forward.

In present days, the personality theory has been developed by focusing on the measurement of the work of Sigmund Freud. This phenomenon has given birth to a new genre that is recognised as psychoanalysis that observes the very human thinking and behaviour are influenced by unconscious processes. In the present-day study of psychology has further changed its manner and includes the study of authoritarianism as well (McAvoy, 2020). In recent times, psychoanalysts focus on interviews and questionnaires for the identification of the relation between the personality and the behaviour of a person.

Influence of historical changes on the understanding of psychological phenomena

It has been stated previously that the study of psychology has been conducted with the basic intention of understanding human behaviour. In order to understand such a complex phenomenon of human reaction in different circumstances, the historical study of human behavioural change is required. As the Freudian theory of psychology has included two main factors that are unconscious and conscious, the theory of authoritarianism has been possibly developed. For a better representation of that theory, an instance can be derived from the history of the time of World War II. Nazis following their extreme brutal mannerisms (Toates, 2020) have murdered millions of people. Observing such phenomenon, some psychoanalysts have developed a theory that states the extreme ideologies that influence one to commit such aggressive acts including murder in the name of political ideology. According to psychologists, these kinds of characteristics are measured by the term authoritarian personality.

Some scholars on Anti-Semitism have conducted a study, in order to understand the hostility and prejudices that were carried by Jews. The research has raised the fascism that refers to the particular political ideology that is marked by extreme nationalism in order to suppress the political opposition. The research further disclosed that not only Nazis, but Americans can accept fascism if a strong social movement would be influenced by this (McAvoy, 2020). In simple words, it has been encountered throughout that research of the scholars that the people who already possess an extreme political ideology can be ready to accept violence towards anyone who has different thoughts. For conducting these specific changes, "Theodor Adorno" has been acknowledged in the history of psychological studies for introducing a new perspective on authoritarianism.

The above discussion of the study conducted by "Theodor Adorno" and other scientists has helped to understand how a particular ideology can influence a person's personality to build such aggressive emotion. As a consequence of such personal ideological development, one person may be able to build up a mind for such brutal activities as the murder of people who possess different ideologies (Toates, 2020). This specific discussion has set the example of how the historical changes can create an influence on understanding the psychological phenomena.

Influence of social changes on the understanding of psychological phenomena

It has been seen that in modern times, for the evaluation of identification of the characteristics of someone's personality, psychoanalysts no longer believe in rough standardisation of the personality traits. On the contrary, the main focus of psychoanalysis is placed on the impression that one person is creating on the society or on the thought of the people of one's surroundings rather than focusing on the objective measurement (McAvoy, 2020). In the research of Adrono, the measurement was considered the main issue in examining one's personality. Based on the assumptions of the researchers, the attitudes have been taken as the reflection of the underlying characteristics of personality. Following these assumptions, the researchers had begun their research by trying to measure the attitude in order to have a specific graph of a human's underlying personality.

Adorno has used a specific scale in order to measure attitudes. The scale has been referred to the specified items on the basis of which the participants could be asked to promote a particular response (McAvoy, 2020). For example, the statements recorded in the research that is provided by the ethnic group who were minor have been represented in a contradictory manner to the statements given by people of the dominant white Christian group of America in 1940 and 1950. The individual statements of the participants had helped in the representation of a bigger characteristic that is ethnocentrism. In order to draw that specific conclusion, the participants were asked to indicate their own level of agreement on the given scale (McAvoy, 2020). The offered scale in the questionnaires included items like "slight, moderate and strong support" along with "slight, moderate and strong opposition".

Based on the above discussion, it can be proposed that the influence of social changes can be seen in the understanding of different psychological aspects. The main reason behind the utterance of such a statement is that the items of the F-Scale that is used in order to identify and measure the core personality traits of a person have changed on a minor scale.

Influence of technological advancement on the understanding of psychological phenomena

The techniques of studying the functions of the brain have evolved and improved after World War II. During WWII, the technique that is used to study a human brain the determination human psychological behaviour is called the "Wada Technique" (Toates, 2020). This technique was named after the person named "Juhn A. Wada", who was a Canadian neurologist, who invented this very technique. In order to follow this specific technique of human brain study, an anaesthetic needed to be injected into a specific artery that supplies blood to a particular and single hemisphere of the brain.

During the time of action of active anaesthetic, the action of the non-injected hemisphere of the brain can be observed. The very technique was considered a beneficial one as it helped to reveal that the left hemisphere is dominant and responsible for languages. However, this technique is not in practice in recent times, though this has been used in times of brain surgery so the sergeant would be able to identify the disruptive parts of the brain (Toates, 2020). This technique has further helped in order to reveal the basic structure of the brain that had contributed to the recognition of the particular parts that determine a relationship with the language. It helped in demonstrating the plasticity that is referred to as the ability of a human brain for adopting and altering its very structure based on the experiences it gathers.

Conclusion

In order to sum up all that has been stated in this study, it can be proposed that understanding attitudes hold the core importance in order to identifying the character traits of humans. Iterating different items that are referred to as the F-scale has been developed by the past scientists of the psychological study for the determination of the characteristic changes that can be seen in one's behaviour under specific circumstances. Furthermore, the influence of social and historical changes along with technological advancement in the understanding of psychological phenomena has been discussed in this study as well. The demonstration of the information has been properly exemplified in each section of the study.

As the study denotes, past psychoanalysts used the Wada technique for locating the very part of the brain where any issue has been sensed. This helped in the identification of different hemispheres and their functions as well. This phenomenon has shaped the modern study of psychology that has the core intention of studying the changed behaviour of people under the influence of the human mind.

References

McAvoy. J,. 2020. Chapter 1, Exposing the authoritarian personality. The Open University: Glasgow

Toates. F,. 2020. Chapter 4, Changing behaviour. The Open University: Glasgow

Toates. F,. 2020. Chapter 7, Language and the brain. The Open University: Glasgow