Psychology Case Study
Location: Home
Since the beginning of this year, my little sister who is in elementary school fifth grade has been avoiding her duty of making her room tidy before going to school. She will just wake up and leave her bed unmade and her clothes scattered on the floor. My mother had assigned me the responsibility of ensuring my sister’s room is tidy before we leave in the morning for school or any other day’s activity. This has bothered me for sometime as I had previously tried to teach my sister how to make her bed and arrange her clothes in the wardrobe. To motivate her on being independent in cleaning her room, I promised to give her two cookies every morning so that she can carry them to school if she will be cleaning her room. This date I hurried to my sister’s room to carry out my routine duties, I met her seated on the already neatly made bed as she smiled broadly and asked, “Can I have my cookies now? The school bus will be arriving soon!”
Psychological Application:
In this situation, the child learned to make her bed through a reinforcement of being rewarded with two cookies. This is a description of the incentive motivational theory in psychology which describes how people learn and adapt a habit of performing particular tasks through a reward and punishment system (Schacter, Daniel and Wagner, 2011). Through the previous experience that I had taught my sister on how to make the bed, she was able to do it successfully only when I came up with an idea of rewarding her with the cookies which are her favorite snacks. The behavioral learning concept of using reinforcement which in this case is the reward of cookies played a positive role in motivating the kid carry out her respective duty of cleaning her room before leaving for school. The theory is applicable in motivating people particularly children to carry out particular tasks and duties as they know that performing by the task, they are entitled to a reward and if they are not rewarded, they are likely to lose their morale as they are dissatisfied and discouraged to carry out the task in the future (Schaffer, 2010).
Observation 2
Location: School
My two close friends and I have been fans of the college cricket team and most of the time we even go to the pitch to cheer one of our friends who is a member of the team. I have observed keenly how the theory of this complicated game is played, from how a player should position himself so as to bat the ball to the opposition team to how the player should run to touch the crease without any possible dismissal by the opposition and they should bowl so as to dismiss the scoring points of the batting team. We were in the cricket pitch as usual and as the game intensified, the coach, who is used to seeing us cheer our friend dared me to try to bat the ball as it was fun. I was reluctant but I dared to try as I had watched the players play for some time now. I batted the ball and it went very far that the coach himself could not believe how a first time amateur like me could do such a wonderful bat.
Psychological Application:
This case shows how a person is able to learn to perform a particular task by learning through observation, a concept commonly known as social learning/ Observation theory in psychology. The concept states that a person is able to learn the process used to perform a simple or complex task and such a person is able to retrieve this learned idea or concept in case there is an urge to carry out such task (Hughes, 2011). The technique that I used to throw the ball in a cricket game was learnt through a mere observation with a desire to know how the bating process is carried out as I had never attended any actual training but rather, I was keen and observant in wanting to know how a person can hit the ball without missing it as well as how the batman should swing the bat so as to throw the ball as far as possible.
The learning process in this case can also be associated with the behavioral theory of subjective norms that states that an individual’s perception into making a decision is influenced by the altitude of other people. This is applicable whereby my motivation to bat the ball was influenced by the coach who dared me to do the task and also my friends who thought that I should bat the ball to show the coach that I had a potential. Hence the motive of successfully batting the ball was to please my friends and at the same time show the coach that I can bat well just like any player.
References
Hughes, C. (2011). Social Understanding and Social Lives. New York, Psychology Press.
Schacter, L., Daniel, T., and Wagner, M. (2011). Learning Psychology. Second Ed. N.Y.: Worth, Incorporated, 2011. 284-85.
Schaffer, D. Et al (2010). Developmental Psychology, Childhood and Adolescence. New York: Psychology Press.
