Applying Psychology: Attending a University

The choices a person makes in life depend entirely on how they perceive the world and the people around them. When it comes to making a decision that could affect the rest of my life, I take much consideration into all the possible outcomes of my decision by observing those who have made each of the choices possible. When it came to choosing whether or not to attend a university, several psychological factors played an important role in helping me to reach a decision.

Towards the beginning of high school, the thought of studying, homework and class-work was rather unpleasant. I remember seeing 9th grade as such an unreasonable obligation. It wasn’t until my junior year that I suddenly realized that the work I did every day, even the smallest of assignments, actually mattered. Why did everything matter? College! If I could study, complete all assignments, and get good grades, the end result would be my acceptance into a good university. Looking towards psychology to classify this revelation, I found the answer in a theory dealing with Operant Conditioning. In my case, the Premack Principle could describe accurately my reasoning for attending a university. This principle sta

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A college education surpasses both, showing an average income around $35,000 (Phelps County Community Partnership, 2001, Received October 24, 2001 from the World Wide Web @ http://www. This yields a very interesting argument. Make sure that they know that in most cases, there is a potential market for their passions, and that it is important that they obtain some sort of academic backing to officially show their talent…this is what a college education will do. tes: “a more preferred activity can be used to reinforce a less preferred activity” (Baron, 2001, p.

For many students, the choice of whether to go to college or not depends on many outside factors. However, the consequences of 4 years of intense studying and work pay off. In order for observational learning to begin, one must focus his/her attention towards certain individuals. And what of the extremely wealthy rappers who own several Mercedes, but never got past the 10th grade? These stories (however shallow they may be) seem to hint towards those who idolize these people that a college education isn’t a necessary step towards good fortune (4 years, or simply overnight? The choice is simple for some people!). What most of these kids fail to acknowledge is that even though anything is possible, nothing is definite…and without a college education, the word nothing receives much emphasis. Psychologically speaking, my passion for creating music could be an example of Intrinsic Motivation. It is amazing to think that once you are on a college campus, you can basically study to become the profession of your choice! I made the decision last week that I would attempt to transfer back to Los Angeles to USC in order to pursue a major in recording.

In high school, getting good grades means going to a good university, in college, good grades can mean a good job and a direction in life. A college education provides a much more concrete future rather than a fragile dream. Baron describes these individuals as “people who are attractive to you; on people who posses signs that they know what they are doing, such as status or success…who’s behavior seems relevant to your own needs and goals” (Baron, 2001, p.

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Approximate Word count = 968
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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