Psychology and Old School Students free essay sample

Psychology of Sport and Exercise †¢ What levels of psychological arousal are most effective for players in team sports? †¢ What methods are available to combat crippling anxiety in competitive sport? †¢ Why exercise hurts: an exploration of the processes and functions of fatigue and pain †¢ How effective can exercise be in combating clinical depression? †¢ How does participation in team sports influence the development of social skills in 12-16 year old school students? * †¢ To what extent does personality affect an elite sportsman’s performance? Psychology and Education †¢ How far is intelligence determined by heredity or how far is it malleable? †¢ What are the pros and cons of ‘hothousing ‘ of young children, as a way to develop precocious talent? †¢ What is the relationship between precocious talent and adult achievement? ( e.g. in Music) †¢ How far can children be taught to excel in the visual Arts? * †¢ Do children who have attended some form of pre-schooling when under the age of 5 yrs have an educational advantage when they start school? †¢ Is the UK government new national curriculum for the under-5’s ‘a threat to all toddlers?’ What is the right age to start (formal) school ? †¢ Which method of teaching reading works best? †¢ Why is dyslexia almost unknown in Italy? †¢ What is the source of the advantage that Chinese children appear to have in Mathematics? * †¢ Is it true that the stages of cognitive development are universal in all cultures? †¢ ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’. We will write a custom essay sample on Psychology and Old School Students or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page What effects do different disciplinary styles and policies in schools have on the behaviour and development of children? †¢ To what extent does violence in the televised media have the potential to increase the level of aggression within children? †¢ A cross-cultural comparison ( e.g. China/UK ) of the effects of schooling on motivation to learn and educational achievement †¢ A study of the effectiveness of an unusual form of schoong ( e.g. ‘Montessori’ nurseries; Rudolph Steiner schools , ‘Summerhill’. ) †¢ Should boys and girls be educated differently? †¢ What are the causes of gender and subcultural differences in educational achievement in the UK (or elsewhere) and what can or should be done? †¢ How do ‘smart drugs’ affect the brain? What are the ethical issues in the increasing use of ‘cognitive enhancers’ to boost academic performance? Dysfunctional behaviour and effectiveness of treatments and therapies †¢ Where children have been taken into care because of family problems, is it always better in principle to aim to return children to the biological mother? †¢ How important is fathering to children? †¢ Are single-parent families inevitably dysfunctional? †¢ Is depression an illness or a dysfunctional way of thinking? †¢ What are the benefits and risks of SSRI drugs? †¢ Is autism ‘an extreme form of the male brain’? – How far is it true that autism has a biological basis? †¢ How well does the lack of a ‘theory of mind’ account for the characteristic problems of individuals with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)? †¢ A comparison of different therapeutic interventions in ASD †¢ ‘Oppositional Defiant Disorder’ – a label for children adults can’t control? -Exploration of the arguments and ethical issues around prescribing drugs to children with ADHD and related problems †¢ How do individuals respond to traumatic life experiences? Is it necessary to face past horrors or is it better to deny and suppress in terms of leading a reasonably happy or successful future life? ( NB exemplars need to be restricted to a specific context ) Social and Organizational Psychology and applications †¢ How far can psychology help us overcome prejudices? †¢ Do we all have the potential within us to do evil? †¢ How far can the committing of war atrocities be explained by Milgram’s obedience account? †¢ Can psychology help us to understand how to resolve conflict ( exemplars could be from industrial relations or conflicts between nations ) and negotiate peace ? †¢ What is the best way to be happy at work? Is happiness compatible with productivity? Is there any evidence that companies which treat their workers well are more commercially successful? †¢ What functions does work fulfil for the individual? What are the psychological consequences of current increases in job-insecurity and unemployment arising from the ‘credit-crunch’ ? †¢ How do the main sources of stress or job satisfaction differ between employees in two different employment sectors ( e.g. finance vs teaching ) ? †¢ Are there any common characteristics of ‘good leaders’ or do leaders n eed to exercise different personal qualities or styles of behaviour in different spheres? ( e.g. factory manager, vs army commander ) †¢ Are leaders born or made? †¢ Are leaders really necessary? Criminal Psychology †¢ Pathways to crime: an analysis of the interaction of biological factors and early life experience in ‘turning to crime’ †¢ Can prison work? : an evaluation of the effectiveness of the UK ‘thinking skills programme ‘ †¢ Can empathy be taught? : an evaluation of the ‘Restorative Justice’ initiative in the UK †¢ Nurseries or prisons? : An cost-benefit analysis of the effectiveness of an early intervention programme ( e.g. UK ‘Sure-Start ‘ or ‘YIP’s) †¢ How far can eye (or ear) witness testimony be trusted and what are the implications for the conduct of court proceedings? †¢ Can children be trustworthy witnesses? †¢ To what extent is it possible to make a correct profile of a criminal? †¢ How far can psychological theories and research be applied to help juries make fair decisions? †¢ Creating safe communities: an analysis of the psychology of ‘environmental crime prevention’. †¢ What advice can psychologists give to the police force on how to treat ethnic minorities fairly and avoid ‘institutional racism’? Cognitive and Neuro-Psychology †¢ How can stroke victims be helped to recover their cognitive functions or compensate for missing functions ? ( e.g memory loss) †¢ How far does  current research using fMRI and PET scanning techniques support a modular theory of the organisation of the brain? (This essay might need to be limited in scope by drawing exemplars from one cognitive function, e.g. memory OR language †¢ Is the brain organised differently in bilingual people? †¢How far can the brain recover and reorganise itself after stroke or brain-damage in early life? †¢ Is the capacity for language really unique to humans? †¢ Is it true that dolphins are as intelligent as humans? How could this be tested? †¢ How much can we learn about brain organisation from clinical case –studies ? ( again , might need to restrict exemplars to one cognitive domain) Comments on Aggression mirror neurons – to what extent can parents prevent aggressive behavior in children. No nature v. nurture! Nature v. nurture is overly reductionist and usually do not earn high marks. More topics suggested in the past: What do we know about the relationship between stress and physiological illness and can we use that knowledge to cope with stress? To what extent does psychology provide valid explanations for altruistic behaviour? What effect do autistic siblings have on their non-autistic siblings * Is it possible to determine what causes autism? Which interventions are most efficient in helping autistic children towards a better daily functioning? The difficulties of finding specific genetic factors that can predict a risk for Autism A comparison of the effectiveness of individualized counseling and family counseling in the treatment of anorexia What are the effects of the disruption of the circadian cycle by jetlag and how can the effects be avoided? The extent to which biological (or socio-cultural) factors explain the origin of homosexuality. To what extent do parents discipline style influence the temperament of the children? Montessori schools: based on a humanistic approach to education are they also in line with cognitive theory? To what extent has Criminal Profiling improved investigation methods in cases of homicide? To what extent are the causes of anorexia the result of cultural factors? To what extent is Schizophrenia no longer a viable Psychological construct? Is hypnosis an effective treatment for pain  relief? An evaluation of the effectiveness of subliminal advertising on buying habits