Psychology

Psychology is defined as the  study of the human soul or mind  (Zimmer, 1999, para. 2).  On this note, psychology deals with the cognitive and emotional responses of the person because these are also the components of the mental processes of the human mind.  In psychology, people view the world in different perspectives, hence their responses are also different.  For example,  a painting has a beautiful appeal for someone whereas another person sees it as nothing but a chaotic array of lines and colors.  Cliff-diving may be viewed by someone as scary and rejects the activity whereas another person may view this as recreational and exciting.  When a childs parents die, he or she becomes totally depressed in comparison to a child who  easily accepts the loss because he or she thinks his or her parents are already peaceful in heaven.  In various instances, people can change their view of the world in accordance with how their mind perceives things.

Peoples thought processes impact their perceptions and reactions to the external stimuli in the environment.  This means that the stimulus itself does not determine a persons resulting reaction or perception.  Instead, a persons cognitive process influences how the stimulus is to be viewed by the person.  In a nutshell, the stimuli-response process occurs when a person perceives the external stimuli, then puts meaning to the stimuli received, after-which an emotional or behavioral response is evoked.  Knowing this process, it can be seen that the critical element is how the person thinks about the stimuli and puts meaning to it (Mulhauser, 2010, para. 1-3).

In line with this, psychologists claim that cognitive therapy is a better way of treating depression in clients rather than behavioral therapy.  This model stems from the view that depression is brought about by a persons pessimistic view in life.  This type of persons thinking is dominated by a negative evaluation of his own self and the people around him, hence his view of the future becomes negative, too (Stuart  Laraia, 2005, p. 338).  For example, a student was not accepted in the college he wanted to enrol in.  If a client has a pessimistic view of life, he would think that he is not intelligent that is why he was not accepted and therefore he would think that no college or univeristy would ever accept him.  In cases like this, cognitive therapy helps the person to realize the presence of extremely negative thoughts and perceptions which cause him to be depressed and hopeless.  An awareness of ones negative thoughts helps the individual, through the assistance of the therapist, to remove this negative thinking and imbibe a more positive view in life (Mulhauser, 2010, para. 4).  True enough, the psychology of the human mind changes how a person views the world.

For instance, a teenager has been in a relationship with a guy for more than a year.  However, the guy eventually dated other girls without telling her.  When the girl discovered this, she was devastated and hurt.  She confronts the guy and the guy tells her that she has become boring for him so he went out with other girls.  Because of this, the girl blamed herself and thought that if she were prettier and outgoing, her boyfriend would not have left her for other girls.  Since then, she blames herself when something turns badly in every relationship she forms.  She grew more unhappy and looks down on herself.  If you were the girl, how would you interpret the situation and react to this  People can change their view in life by simply changing the way how they think.  In this case, the girl can change the way she thinks about herself.  She should recognize that she did not put importance to her own feelings and instead, she simply accepted what the guy said about her.  The girl needs to think of herself in a positive regard and respect herself more.  In addition, she should keep in mind that her relationships are not based solely on how she is as a girlfriend, rather it should be an interplay of the attitudes and feelings from both parties.  With this in mind, the girl would be able to build her self-confidence and see that she cannot please everybody but she can at least make herself feel good by thinking positively about herself.

Another instance is when a straight-A student who always tops his class experienced being second for the first time.  If you were him, would you be mad and think that the teacher was wrong Or would you think of this situation as a learning opportunity for you  Situations like this should be viewed on a postive light.  Yes, it is disappointing for someone to come short of his expectations from his self.  But people should view every opportunity as part of the learning process from which one can gain more wisdom.  As the saying goes, people should learn from their mistakes and failures.  With this positive mindset, a person can accept this failure in his life and realize that he still has more to learn.  I think that one of the best lessons a person can learn in this experience is that a single failure should not keep someone from reaching his goal.

Psychology deals with how the human mind works.  Through this, people can change their view of the world, which can either be good or bad.  If a person chooses a correct mindset, I think everyone can achieve happiness and contentment in his or her own little ways.  With this concept in mind, people can see the brighter side of the picture and help themselves pursue happiness.