MATTHEW MUNDY: Hi, everyone.
Welcome to your feedback video for the history and science
of psychology.
I'm here today with one of your mentors, Phuong.
And we're going to have a quick chat about some
of the discussions that you guys have been having
within the course up until now.
So Phuong, what have been some of the themes
that our learners have been interested in this week?
PHUONG HUA: So we began with the topic of what is psychology.
And there were a range of comments, mainly
suggesting that it can be applied
pretty much across the board.
So both at the individual, and also at the wider community.
At that level.
The micro and macro levels.
I do want to address one comment that particularly stood out,
which discussed how psychology is
applied in an educational setting
with a specific example.
And that was mindfulness.
I think we've seen mindfulness apply not just
in the classroom, but also in workplaces.
In many practices.
Like in medicine, for instance, mindfulness
can also be included.
So I really did like that example Did
you notice anything else, Matt?
MATTHEW MUNDY: Well, just to pick up a mindfulness.
Yeah, I think it's one of those areas that's
definitely growing.
And like you said, we're finding it more and more places.
More and more people are finding a use
for that sort of introspective, personal, almost
self-care kind of psychology.
We're using it here in Monash.
Our students are undertaking mindfulness exercises
before and after some of their assessments, for example.
So when a student is about to do an exam,
they'll engage in a bit of mindfulness
to help get them ready for that process.
It can be stressful.
And these sorts of things can help.
But thinking around where psychology is in everyday life.
I guess that's an example that would suggest
it's basically everywhere.
I mean, you walk into a supermarket.
There's psychology behind where the products are on the shelf.
You go to a real estate agent to sell your house.
There's the psychology behind how they take the photographs.
How they describe the house.
How the auctioneer walks around and make eye
contact with people.
I mean, there's psychology in virtually every interaction
we have with each other.
So I guess at a personal level, there's
all those micro examples.
And you then talk about macro examples,
and psychology at a very broad, cultural, almost social level.
And that's where we think more around politics,
and education, and that kind of thing.
PHUONG HUA: Yeah, someone did mention political psychology.
That's a field that's probably more niche,
and you might want to look up.
MATTHEW MUNDY: It's definitely an interesting one,
political psychology.
And there's certainly a lot of that going on
with Australian politics.
World politics, generally speaking.
I'm British.
There's a lot going on in Brexit.
of social level psychology.
Definitely interesting stuff to be to be found there.
PHUONG HUA: So moving on to the next topic.
Psychology as a science.
So we had comments discussing the difference
between psychology which gives you
a systematic process of gathering evidence,
and pseudoscience, which is kind of the opposite of that.
Sort of known as a fake science.
So you were given a chance to come up with a research
question, form a hypothesis, and talk about how
you would test that hypothesis.
So what kind of experiment you would conduct.
And I liked that many comments did think
about confounding variables.
So how they would control for variables
that might impact on the results.
As well as control groups in your experiments.
So having comparatives.
And that's really good.
Because when you're testing something,
you want to be able to see how it works
compared to something else.
MATTHEW MUNDY: So I think, in terms
of going back to psychology as a science versus pseudo science.
I think one of the other interesting things
that you picked up was the concept of placebo.
And the idea that sometimes we give a placebo as one
of those controlling variables in a study.
So rather than giving someone the experimental variable,
we give them what they might believe should change
their behaviour but actually doesn't, as an alternative
controller.
PHUONG HUA: Yeah.
There was an interesting question
about whether placebos are acceptable if the recipient
actually experiences an effect.
MATTHEW MUNDY: Right.
PHUONG HUA: So I think Natalie, our other mentor,
did talk about how science is truth thinking.
So placebos, therefore, are not really acceptable.
MATTHEW MUNDY: It's a fair point.
And I think that acceptability almost
switches when you're coming out of a scientific study.
So sometimes-- particularly within psychology,
but across science in clinical studies
generally speaking-- sometimes we
have to deceive, for want of a better word, our participants,
so that they are unaware of which treatment
or control group they're in.
Because that will bias our data.
So we use placebo sometimes in that context.
So that someone believes they're taking something,
but they're actually not.
So any change in behaviour can be down to the placebo effect.
But outside of that, when we're getting into products
that people take in the real world, absolutely not.
We shouldn't be selling things that we're claiming work,
but of course, don't.
There's plenty of better things to be doing than taking
something that does nothing.
PHUONG HUA: And we're also encouraging
you to think about examples of pseudoscience
in contexts other than advertising,
because that comes up quite a bit.
But also think about examples like astrology, or alternative
medicine.
The example of astrology was pretty interesting,
because I think there are some people who really demonstrate
belief perseverance when they look
at their astrology readings.
But there is pseudoscience involved in that.
And that might explain why it's very tempting
to keep believing what you read, even though there might not
be any scientific process of gathering any evidence there.
MATTHEW MUNDY: Right.
That's true.
And I guess, as with many confirmation biases,
we tend to seek information that confirms our own beliefs.
And when presented with a pattern of information,
we will pay more attention, I suppose,
to the things that confirm what we already know.
And we pay less attention to the things
that go against what we know.
That's part of a reasonably natural progression
of psychology.
Take your Facebook feed, for example.
I mean, that tailors itself, almost, through algorithms
to give you things that conform to your set of understanding,
your interests.
Which then can also move into your beliefs.
And when the confirmation bias is confirmed
by external events, like through Facebook feeds,
you can see how it becomes so prevalent.
And I think that's something we should all be aware of.
PHUONG HUA: So that's really the main points we
want to discuss from this week.
Please keep up the great comments.
And also let us know if you have any feedback for us,
and other expectations you have of the course.
We're happy to receive your feedback.
MATTHEW MUNDY: So thank you, everyone.
Thank you, Phuong.
As you probably know, this course
is one of a set of courses from Monash University,
an introduction to psychology.
We'll be running all of these courses again next year--
a couple of times next year.
So if there's another topic within psychology
that interests you, take a look for--
or keep an eye out, rather-- for our other courses that we'll be
running soon on future learn.
See you next time.
PHUONG HUA: Bye.
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