The psychologist William James once said, "the greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." James, a prominent figure in the functionalism branch of psychology, believed that psychology could alter a person’s view of life. Phillip Zimbardo argues in his essay “Does Psychology Make a Significant Difference in Our Lives” that psychology does in fact make a significant difference in our lives. He writes about how psychology has an effect on our lives by virtue of how it has made substantial and creative efforts towards the fight against various diseases and ailments, changed the way we view politics through political polling, helped put an end to segregation, gave rise to
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On the contrary, Kline argues that psychology is not concerned about what it means to be human. Nowadays in our society, dreams, defense mechanisms, and motivations...." might convey important messages" and Zimbardo argues that it was psychology that brought attention to the idea "...that what we think and do is not always based on conscious decisions"(5). This changed the way we look at human behavior, dream analysis, and thought processing. While politics played the major role, psychology also had an important part in the desegregation of our schools. Studies done by Kenneth and Mamie Clark "...effectively demonstrated for the Court that the segregated educational conditions of that era had a negative impact on the sense of self-worth of Negro school children" (5). The Court and the people eventually bought into the idea that making one body of the school system feel inferior was not the appropriate way to handle the public school system. Had this study not been done, we might still have had segregation in our schools. Psychology was also credited with self-directed change. Zimbardo argues that the "self help books" that we see in stores "...empower people to engage in self-directed change", as these books give..." wise advice" (4). All these reasons are substantial evidence that psychology has a significant impact on our lives as it has created public polling, expanded the medical field, helped change the racial attitudes, made the world safer, and changed how we view human
On the contrary, Kline argues that psychology is not concerned about what it means to be human. Nowadays in our society, dreams, defense mechanisms, and motivations...." might convey important messages" and Zimbardo argues that it was psychology that brought attention to the idea "...that what we think and do is not always based on conscious decisions"(5). This changed the way we look at human behavior, dream analysis, and thought processing. While politics played the major role, psychology also had an important part in the desegregation of our schools. Studies done by Kenneth and Mamie Clark "...effectively demonstrated for the Court that the segregated educational conditions of that era had a negative impact on the sense of self-worth of Negro school children" (5). The Court and the people eventually bought into the idea that making one body of the school system feel inferior was not the appropriate way to handle the public school system. Had this study not been done, we might still have had segregation in our schools. Psychology was also credited with self-directed change. Zimbardo argues that the "self help books" that we see in stores "...empower people to engage in self-directed change", as these books give..." wise advice" (4). All these reasons are substantial evidence that psychology has a significant impact on our lives as it has created public polling, expanded the medical field, helped change the racial attitudes, made the world safer, and changed how we view human