Chapter one

General Psychology

Assignment # 1

Anas Lakhani

Chapter One

The media is an instrument to inform, sell and to grab the attention of the audience. Yes they are out there to report news and other issues but just like any business they need to have an audience that watches them over their competition. Therefore sometimes the information in media might not always be factual. This brings me to the topic of psychology in the media. Because the media is there to grab the attention of the audience it will sometime use subjective ways to do this. Here is something to watch out for when dealing with psychology in the media. Consider the source, Anecdotes (which is a person's subjective experience told from his or her perspective), Look at who funded the research, Dramatic hooks from the media, Read the actual summary of the study, Evaluate the design of the study, Distinguish between correlation and causality, and Embrace an attitude of healthy scientific skepticism. With these guidelines you will be able look out for false information of psychology in the media.

An example for one of these guidelines is the dramatic hook from the media. The media is there to sell the paper, magazine, or whatever it is. They do this by trying to grab the attention by the hook like for example when the Alia Crum and Ellen Langers finding came out regarding the hotel experiment, there were reported headlines in the media like " You Don't Have to Exercise, Just Think You Do" and "Can you mind control your weight and blood pressure". Because of these headlines seem so appealing, people would want to read the paper but even when they read the article it might leave out information that in important to this research. Because of this you must always go back to the actual study and read it yourself. At the end of the day we have to think objectively and take out all the subjective material to make the research valuable to ourselves. Headlines may not always be the truth, you must dig deeper into the matter and always find the truth. This will help insure that the findings are not anecdotes.

Chapter Two

Have you ever gone on that mile long run? And at some point at that run your body seems to be injected with a lot more energy when you are getting tired or in pain? Well the process is the product of runners high. Runners High is the rush of euphoria that many people experience after sustained aerobics exercise, especially when running or cycling. It is known to be cause by endorphins which are neurotransmitters found in the brain that have pain-relieving properties similar to morphine. They are associated with positive moods and reduce feelings of pain. There are couple of type of endorphin, one of this is called the