Munsterberg: Applied Psychology

            Applied Psychology is an interesting study.  To bring psychology into our everyday life and watch it influence us is a study I am sure many people would want to take part it.  Whether we are aware of it or not we think, breathe and talk psychology everyday anyways.  Even if you did not go to school for psychology or know anything about it you still use psychological concepts when talking to friends and family about their problems.  Having psychology actually brought out into the open though and made aware to people who do not even think about it seems to be a great idea.

            Applied Psychology is the use of psychological principles and theories to overcome problems in other areas, such as mental health, business management, education, health, product design, ergonomics, and law.  In his first chapter Munsterberg explains what Applied Psychology is and how it can affect our society.  Munsterberg explains what Psychology should be doing now that all of the past psychologists had gained a lot of data, “the psychological experiment is systematically to be placed at the service of commerce and industry.”  He believes that we should stop collecting data and start applying (Applied Psychology) to the world around us and within our jobs so we can put our theories and data to work instead of just sitting on it.

            I decided to read “Chapter 20: Experiments on the Effects of Advertisements” because I know that advertisements are starting to become quite questionable is some of the messages that they are sending.  This can be quite a concern especially since children are watching the commercials when they are waiting for a movie or a show to start.  Just as well Billboards and websites can be just as damaging or helpful.  In a sense this article could very well tie into Binet’s Mental Test of Suggestibility.  Since this is the case we definitely should be more careful because our memory will remember these images and apply to them to everyday life and if a Child sees some pretty graphic material or questionable statements it will cause them to ask questions that their parents feel they are not ready to hear or that are just never going to be answered.

            Applied Psychology affects in Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Occupational Health Psychology, Human Factors, Forensic Psychology, Engineering Psychology, School Psychology, Sports Psychology, and Community Psychology.  One branch I am pleased that Applied Psychology has affected is the Forensic and Legal Psychology.  My plan is to go into Criminal Justice and victim/survivor counseling and Social Work so the fact that applied has helped in this field makes me very pleased and comforted to go out and work in this field.

            So as you can see Applied Psychology is very important to us, even if at first we did not think it would be it has helped us and I am sure it will continue to help as long as people are willing to study it.  The fact that so many of our Psychologies have been affected by this theory already is just phenomenal in my opinion.  It will be very interesting to see what Applied Psychology will do for us more in the future.