Online Research About Psychology + IT = ?

This time, I'll share the result of my online research about Information Technology students who have learnt Psychology. This research is only for the University of North Sumatra. In this research, they are being asked some questions about the impact of Psychology in their studies, especially IT.

According to my research that I've done, all of them feel that IT students need to learn Psychology and more than 70% of them said that Psychology is really important for them. Almost all of them said that they have got the benefit from learning Psychology. Most of them can understand more about themselves and some of them know more about people's behavior. 80% of the respondents are interested in learning Psychology and want to know more about it.

Here's the chart below showing their responses according to the research:

The importance of Psychology in IT

Their interest in learning Psychology

The best method in leaning
(click to zoom image)

Interest in learning more

From the researched that I've done, I can conclude that Information Technology students are very enthusiastic in learning Psychology.

My Testimony:
This is my very first time in doing a research and this is my first time too in doing an online research. In my opinion, it is very effective to do an online research compared to manual research (paper-based). So for those who want to do a research, I suggest you to do online research because I think that nowadays, people tend to ignore the paper-based research that can't be filled only by clicking.

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Sensation And Perception

This time, I'm going to explain about sensation and perception and my own experiences involving those two.

Sensation is the process of receiving information in the form of stimulation received by the human senses. Sensation is receiving information without interpreting the information. The sensation can be either internal or external stimulation. External sensations from outside through our senses: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Eyes receives sensations such as vision, ears receive sensations such as hearing, skin receives sensations of touch, heat, pressure, and so on. Internal sensation is a sensation from ourselves. Such as hunger.

If a person receives the same sensation or stimulation repeatedly, the brain's response to that sensation will be reduced. It's called sensory adaptation. The example in daily life is when we first enter the swimming pool, we will feel very cold but eventually, the cold will be reduced until we don't feel cold anymore.
Perception is the process of interpreting the sensation. In other words, it is the process of translating the information which we received. The perception of each person to a stimulation is different. This is due to the experience, the history of life, psychophysics and perceptual distortions. Perceptual distortions can be physical appearance, stereotypes, first impressions (halo effect), and the "tendency to judge others immediately". Example: A person tends to see the physical shape of a person and directly judge that person, before knowing more about him/her. This will form different perceptions compared to people who really know that person well.

Different perceptions that emerged among people are mostly associated with the vision. According to Gestalt, there are 5 things which influence people's perceptions:
1. Figure-Ground
People tend to see the object that appears as figure, and other objects as ground.
2. Proximity
Objects that are close with other objects tend to be a group.
3. Continuity
Objects that are connected with other objects tend to be a group.
4. Similarity
Objects that are similar tend to be a group.
5. Closure
Objects that closed tend to be a group.

Misperceptions are very common. This misperception is called illusion. The illusion can occur naturally or accidentally. Intentional illusion is an illusion deliberately made on an object. An example of this is an optical illusion. That is an illusion caused by an error catching stimulus by the human eye. One of illusion examples is Zollner Illusion.

Now, I'm going to tell you a bit about my experience involving sensation and perception.
I'll start with the sensation that I received using my eyes. That time, when I was playing badminton, I saw one of my classmates was playing badminton too with a girl at the court beside mine. He looked so happy and the girl was enjoying the game too. That is the sensation I got. At that time, my perception is the girl must be his girlfriend! So I came to him and after we greeted each other, I directly made fun of them, saying that they looked so suitable for a couple, like husband and wife. But I was definitely wrong! They are not a couple! The girl is his cousin +.+
That was a huge misperception. Then I quickly said goodbye after I apologized.
So, the sensation I got is "I saw my friend played badminton with a girl" and the perception is "I thought the girl is his girlfriend."

I'll continue with the second experience of mine. This time, I'll tell you guys about the sensation I received using my ears.
I had a promise with my classmates to go hang out together on that day. But suddenly, I got into a fight with my little sister and then quarreled with my mom too. (Such a bad day!) I had a feeling that my mom won't let me go out as a punishment. But I tried not to think about that possibility. I got into my room, took a bath, changed clothes and got prepared. After I had finished everything, I crept outside my room and passed through the living room where my mom was sitting on sofa. I took a deep breath as I hold the door handle and suddenly my mom yelled at me. (Oh, crap! She won't let me go anywhere today!) But then she told me that there was a dead cockroach near the door. She was just warning me about dead cockroach! Not about anything else. She scared me to death. Another misperception.
So this time, the sensation I got is I was being yelled and my perception is I was going to stay at home whole day.
That's all.. I hope you guys can understand more about sensation and perception..

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Operant Conditioning (Group 1)

Operant Conditioning

Learning From The Consequences Of Your Behavior

Group members:

1. Adlin Ichsan - [101402030]

2. Fitria Ningsih Sipahutar - [111402015]

3. M. Ryan Faisal - [111402017]

4. Nathan Polindo - [111402079]
5. Anthonius Kosasih - [111402089]

If you were to move into a new town and you came to a park then an attractive and pretty girl spoke to you, you would probably keep going to that park again. 

The changing frequency of people’s behavior caused by the consequences of their actions is called operant conditioning. People learn from the consequences of their actions and their behavior changes.

Operant Conditioning was first described by American psychologist, Edward Thorndike (1991). At first, Thorndike was interested in the question of animal intelligence, which he investigated using an apparatus he called a "puzzle box." A hungry cat was placed inside the box, food was placed outside, and the cat's efforts to escape were observed. With each trial, the cat becomes more efficient at opening the door of the box. Based on these observations, Thorndike formulated the "Law Of Effect", which states that the behavior that yields good consequences will be strengthen, and the behavior that yields bad consequences will be weakened.

Thorndike's law of effect formed the basis for subsequent study of what is now referred to as operant conditioning in contemporary psychology.

There are three ways in which the desirable and undesirable consequences of our behavior influence our future behavior:

1. Positive Reinforcement

2. Negative Reinforcement

3. Punishment

Positive Reinforcement

In positive reinforcement, the consequences of a behavior are positive. This causes the increasing frequency of that behavior. People tend to repeat the behavior that gives them good result. In positive reinforcement, the good result is called positive reinforcer or reward.  Positive reinforcement is used to increase the frequency of wanted behavior.

For example, a lazy child was told by his parents that he would get a bar of chocolate if he can finish his homework before dinner time. Because he liked chocolate so much, he started to do his homework right after he had finished his lunch. As he finished the homework before dinner time, he got the chocolate his parents promised. This keeps repeating for the next days.

From this case, the reward is the chocolate and the behavior increased is finishing homework as soon as possible.

There  are  two important issues in the use of positive reinforcement:

1.Timing.
Reward must be given directly after the behavior wanted. The more delay or time interval between the behavior and the reward, the slower the learning occur. This delay has been referred to as the principle of delay of reinforcement.

For an example, if we were to train our dog to give a “handshake”, we should give our dog a piece of biscuit right after it took its paw and gave us a “handshake”.  Mostly, the optimal time is only one or two seconds. 

2. Consistency in the delivery of reinforcement.

In the beginning of the learning process, the reinforcement must be given consistently after every response. But after the  learning occur, it’s not always important to reinforce every response.

So, if we were to train our dog to give a “handshake”, we should give our dog a piece of biscuit everytime after it succeed shake your hand. But after the dog is well-trained, the biscuit is not always important anymore.

Negative Reinforcement

Sometimes, the increasing frequency of a behavior is to avoid aversive event. If a behavior is able to take away something we don’t like, then we tend to repeat that behavior again and again.

For example, when a naughty child is given punishment by his parents, he cried. To stop his crying, his parents then cancelled the punishment given. The next time he got punishment, he will cry again to make his parents cancel the punishment.

From this example, the increasing behavior is crying. The aversive event being taken away is the punishment.

Negative reinforcement is a very powerful method of reinforcement, so we learn patterns of behavior quickly and easily.

Punishment

Punishment is a negative consequence that leads to a decreasing in the frequency of the behavior that produced it. For example, if you keep talking in class while teacher is teaching infront, a negative consequence will surely occur. The teacher will scold you or give you another type of punishment. And you will probably not try to talk while teacher is teaching again. Punishment can be a valuable way for discouraging inappropriate behavior only if the punisment is appropriately used.


Testimony:
I think positive reinforcement is the best method compared with the other two. So, before we try to give others punishment or negative reinforcement, it's better to give the positive one first. 

I think that's all for this operant conditioning topic. I hope you guys  can understand more about this principle of learning.

References:
1. Lahey, Benjamin B. (2005). Psychology: An Introduction(Ninth Edition). Avenue of the Americans, New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies,Inc.
2. King, Laura A. (2010). Psikologi Umum: Sebuah Pandangan Apresiatif. Jakarta: Salemba Humanika.
3. candraardian2.wordpress.com/artikel-psikologi/teori-belajar

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