MATTHEW CHOWWWWW

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology.html

The TED talk video I chose to write about was by Martin Seligman during TED2004. In his presentation, Seligman presents a field of study created by him called Positive Psychology. The video introduces the field and what it is which intrigued me most. When introduced to psychology, I found out that it was about trying to treat people back to into a state of “normal-ness” and not necessarily into happiness. Seligman decided early on to begin this new field because of all the emphasis psychology already has on treating people who are sad and depressed. His presentation has a comedic lead-in which quickly turns into a serious discussion about positive psychology. The lead-in is about how psychology today isn’t good enough right now. He essentially narrows the types of happy lives in to three categories: the Pleasant life, where one has as many pleasures as possible and learning the skills to amplify them, the Good life, where one’s work life flows and simply put, one loves what they do and then the Meaningful life, where one knows their signature strengths and use them in service of something larger than themselves. He goes on to describe how technology, entertainment and design is increasingly becoming more developed and will soon help psychology be good enough. I was interested by this TED talk because I want to become a psychologist and his new field of study is essentially the main reason why I was interested in this major and job. Seligman’s explanation was hardly boring at all and brought new interest to a field I was already considering. It also gave me a new view as to how psychiatric methods have only brought people back to “normal” and not truly up to happiness. The reason that pushed me towards psychology is a bit on the sensitive and personal side and I don’t really feel confortable sharing that bit of information on a public forum. It does have a long background and history, occupying a large part of my life and it shows who I am once people really get to know me well.

Martin Seligman today contributes to the field of positive psychology and strives to make his vision of a happier world a reality. However, his dream for a happier world wasn’t always there. After graduating from high school, he attended Princeton for a B.A. and then continued onto University of Pennsylvania to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. He worked his way up to the Director of the Clinical Training Program of the Psychology Department at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980 through a series of education related jobs. He first started out as an associate professor and then a professor, both of psychology. All the meanwhile, he researched psychology and began a theory about learned helplessness. His research led him through important breakthroughs for depression, pushing him towards his ideas for optimism.

After high school, right now I’m thinking about going for a business major so I have a solid footing once I get out of college and a decent job. Once that is established I hope to return for graduate school and get a Ph.D. in psychology like Seligman did. Before I started my college application process, I talked to my older sister’s friend who majored in psychology. She said that internships were essential to getting a job in a field like psychology and because there’s really only one job with two types for such a major, it could be hard to find a location with many internship opportunities. So wherever I end up for college and professional schooling, I intend to jump at any internship I can get my hands on for experience. I hope to end up as a clinical psychologist or possibly a professor teaching psychology.

http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html

Evan Sterk: On Tom Chatfield

The TED Talk that I chose was given by Tom Chatfield, a British freelance author, consultant, and theorist. The subject of his talk is the ways in which video games reward and thus intrigue the participants of the games. The topic of his presentation was interesting to me because I not only enjoy playing video games, as do many people of my age, but because I am also deeply interested in the field of psychology as an academic pursuit of interest. The role of rewards in motivating behavior in an individual has been extensively covered in the behavior department of psychology. In psychology, rewards or positive consequences for previous actions help to reinforce such behaviors and allow for the learning of newer responses or actions that are primarily helpful to one's self and others. In the case of video games, Chatfield has found that people are most drawn to and motivated to play video games based on aspects of gaming such as a wide variety of both long and short-term goals to be achieved, rewards for nearly every bit of effort given, and the motivation brought by interaction with other gamers in the virtual worlds of games. The evidence of such modes of motivation being effective in intriguing gamers opens the possibility of using similar methods of behavior reinforcement in environments such as the educational field, the work place, governments, and others. What really fascinated my about this video was its expert analysis of the effects of a modern experience, video gaming, that happens in such a casual context that such beneficial possibilities, such as using the technology for education, are not obvious upon initial examination.

Chatfield's educational time beyond high school was spent at St. John's College in Oxford University, where he received a doctorate in English literature and philosophy. He has taught at this school temporarily, but most of his work now is spent in writing. His most famous book is “Fun Inc.,” in which he writes more extensively on the subject of video games and their positive effects and capabilities in modern culture. He has also written several contributions for the national press, including for the Observer, Independent, Sunday Times, Wired, New Statesman, Evening Standard, and Times Literary Supplement. His writings are not all necessarily about video games, but focus on the more general topic of technology interacting with culture. This, he says, encompasses both sides of his interests: in the arts, and in “geekiness.” His messages about technology, and especially about video games, are popular for considering what used to be seen as mere entertainment as being potentially practical for modern application in other fields. This view becomes popular, then, for being both optimistic, and for also being very new and creative. His speech is given with a matter of intelligence, as one well acquainted with the use of language through higher education, yet also easy to understand.

In my college and graduate education, I plan to study psychology. As to the career paths that I will choose, I am undecided at the moment, although, similar to Chatfield, who looked for careers that incorporated his abilities and his interests, I would like a job in the psychology field, but that is also interesting to me as an individual. For example, I enjoy spending time with children, as well as with music and philosophy. Some examples of jobs include being a developmental psychologist who specializes in children, or perhaps studying the effects of music on the human brain. This talk, if anything, has taught me how many creative and insightful ways of thinking can be achieved by questioning the long-held and traditional views of the past. In Chatfield's case, he was skeptical of people who dismissed the technology of video games as simply being entertainment for mass consumption, without giving credibility to the creative design of the makers of the technology. With my interests, abilities, open-mindedness, eagerness to learn, and aspiration for societal progress, I believe that I, like Chatfield, can find a practical application of myself for the well-being and mutual success of myself and the people around me.