Psychology For Kids: The Science of the Mind and Behavior
Dr Kathleen Kremer worked with toy designers taking research results and using them to make toys kids would love You need to know their wants needs abilities constraints and behaviors You then use this information to figure out what to make and how to make it Dr Susan Clayton studied how people connect with animals and nature and how those connections might lead them to conserve our natural resources In my research at zoos I found that almost nine out of ten visitors will share their observations of an animal by pointing it out to their companions or simply by saying look Social interactions like these are opportunities to create and communicate shared values 10 Exploring Psychology
WHAT DO PSYCHOLOGISTS STUDY The Brain Learning Memory Development Thinking Emotions Relationships Behavior Workplaces Senses Environment Health HOW DO PSYCHOLOGISTS ANSWER QUESTIONS Say you want to encourage people to change their behavior in ways that help the environment You can probably think of some ideas such as these Send an email to all the families in my school about the importance of recycling Give each family in my neighborhood a cloth bag for groceries so they don’t use plastic Set up a booth at a local fair to provide information about setting the thermostat in homes to use less energy 12 Exploring Psychology
These all sound like good ideas but how can you find out which ones actually work A research psychologist uses science to gather evidence to see if what people think will work actually does We all have ideas about why things are the way they are You might have a very strong opinion that you study better with music playing in the background But a psychologist would actually gather data about how kids did after studying with music compared to those who studied in quiet They would probably even check whether it makes a difference if the music has words or not The difference between opinion and science is evidence Check Out the Research Let’s look at one question that psychologists tried to answer How can we get hotel guests to reuse their towels Why is this important Well hotels use a lot of water and energy washing guests towels every day It would help the environment if guests would agree to hang up and reuse their towels Maybe putting a sign in the bathroom asking them to do just that would be a good idea But psychologists didn’t just guess what might work they tested to see whether it did Help save the environment Most guests reuse towels Join your fellow guests in helping to save the environment Three out of four guests reuse their towels during their stay So did a sign work Research in 2008 by psychologists Noah Goldstein Robert Cialdini and Vladas Griskevicius showed that it did but the words on the sign mattered too The psychologists found that if people were told that reusing their towels would help the environment some people did reuse them But if they told people that most visitors to the hotel chose to reuse towels a lot more people decided to do so That suggested that people are encouraged to do what they believe other people are doing 13 What Is Psychology
