QUESTION 1
RESPOND IN 175 WORDS
In the course so far, you have learned about how quantitative reasoning can help you think about different situations in your life. You learned about the history of numbers, different labels for measuring, how numbers help us understand space, and basic algebraic techniques. After reflecting on the content, identify three examples of concepts you have learned from this course and how they can be used in your everyday life. Consider some of your very basic everyday activities can be better understood by applying some concepts from this course and reasoning quantitatively.
QUESTION 2
Reflect on the 1896 timelines of the social sciences below. What event or perspective presented in these timelines is most interesting to you and why? How does this event or perspective change how we study individuals, groups, or cultures?
Functionalism
Functionalism, an early school of psychology, focuses on the acts and functions of the mind rather than its internal contents. Its most prominent American advocates are William James and John Dewey, whose 1896 article “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology” promotes functionalism.
Psychoanalysis
The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, introduces the term in a scholarly paper. Freud’s psychoanalytic approach asserts that people are motivated by powerful, unconscious drives and conflicts. He develops an influential therapy based on this assertion, using free association and dream analysis.
Structuralism
Edward B. Titchener, a leading proponent of structuralism, publishes his Outline of Psychology. Structuralism is the view that all mental experience can be understood as a combination of simple elements or events. This approach focuses on the contents of the mind, contrasting with functionalism.
QUESTION 3
When looking at psychological research, it is generally thought that experimental research methods provide the best tool for conducting research. However, some research illustrates that correlational studies and other descriptive methods provide an equally important opportunity for conducting research. Discuss the benefits and disadvantages of using an experimental design. In your discussion, be sure to examine how the different research procedures might help to convey results to different audiences. For example, would observational data be easier for individuals outside of research to understand? Or would experimental data provide more easy-to-understand information because it examines a direct cause–effect relationship? Given what you have presented, do you think that experimental research is the gold standard? Why or why not?
QUESTION 4
Do you feel that marriage will always exist as an institution? Be sure to bring in different cultures and to give specific examples in your answer.
