Psychology, to put it bluntly, is the scientific discipline that is centralized around the study of the human mind. Through the study of psychology, society has been able to better comprehend the enigma of the mind and with many scientific advancements, people have further understood the circumstances behind the actions that people take. Society is now able to better understand how disorders hinder the human mind, to better understand how environmental attributes are capable of affecting our mood, and that the mind functions much like a muscle and can improve certain skills through conditional training. Keeping this mind, its evident to see the impact that psychological research has delivered and how the human lifestyle has been improved through the cultivation of the mind. Mental health is recognized as a priority with professions that now exist as a means of providing counsel and asylum for those who are suffering from disorders of the mental kind. Psychology has done much in terms of improving the treatment of the human mind. Because of that, the discipline is a very important staple in improving the quality of life in society; there is still an even bigger scope that the benefits of psychological findings apply to that have yet to applied; this includes the priority of mental health in inner city and urban communities where it lacks emphasis, the mental health of marginalized groups of people that are prone to being oppressed and discriminated against, as well as the mental capacity of people with developmental disorders such as individuals with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. To be exact, the properties of the findings of psychology are universal meaning that they apply to all people should elucidate the fact that its importance is evident in our society. There are many sources, case studies, and experimental findings that point towards this truth that can help further one’s understanding in this truth which can be used to reveal the importance these studies have in our society as well as the quality of life of its inhabitants.

Source #1: “A Practical Guide to Happiness in Children and Teens on the Autism Spectrum: A Positive Psychology Approach.” ProtoView, Mar. 2018. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530752101/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=b24a0945. Accessed 19 Sept. 2018

Summary: The link cited above is a guide written by Victoria Honeybourne, a writer, trainer, and special education trainer from the UK which specializes in employing strategies and activities that can be used to improve the emotional well-being of teenagers with developmental disorders from the autism spectrum and how happiness differs from the perspective of an autistic individual. Through understanding the autism spectrum as well as the criteria for the diagnosis of the disorders belonging to the spectrum, Honeybourne creates activities based off of psychological research that relate to cultivating positive emotions such optimism, joy, inspiration, happiness and other emotions associated with positivity.

Rhetorical Situation: The author of this work is using this as a means of persuading people who read it that there is a way of improving the emotional capacities of autistic teenagers despite it being commonly known amongst people who work in the field of autism as a difficult task. Honeybourne’s employment of strategies and exercises shows this

Purpose: The essential purpose of the guide is to provide a means to allow people to be more open to help and assist autistic teenagers in improving their emotional well-being. People with developmental disorders are very difficult to connect and empathize with on an emotional level as they are incapable of being in tune with their emotions and the guide and its numerous chapters provide exercises to assist in doing so

Audience:  The target audience of this work are people who work in close contact with teenagers with autism as a means of providing them strategies for them to effectively communicate with them and assist in improving the emotional well-being and happiness in the teenagers that they work with. Considering the difficulty that people face working with autistic children, it’s very likely this work serves to help people learn fully about the disorders and through understanding them establish a sense of empathy for the autistic individuals allowing them to be better at being powerful influences of the lives of said individuals.

Genre: The genre for the cited source would be a scientific report/how-to since its employs exercises to help people who work with autistic teenagers while also providing the scientific information such as diagnosis criteria and the information of the autism spectrum in order to help those in need of it

Stance: The stance that Honeybourne is affirming in this work is supporting the emotional support and positive stimulation of autistic individuals and attempting to establish a sense of understanding of the autism spectrum amongst individuals who are currently or are planning to work with people with disorders from the spectrum itself. The very existence or purpose of the work is to help provide a means of effectively assisting and emotionally supporting autistic teenagers as well as inventing a form of education for autistic teenagers that isn’t explored very much considering its difficulty is indicative that the author supports the education and emotional well-being of autistic individuals.

Source: Pérez-Álvarez, M. Integr. psych. behav. (2018) 52: 25. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1007/s12124-017-9408-4 Accessed 20 September 2018

Rhetorical Situation: The creation of this journal was used as a means of persuading people to be less susceptible to the notion that psychology is a metaphysical study rather than a scientific discipline and to refrain from thinking of it as an ideology rather than an actual discipline of science

Purpose: The essential purpose of this journal is the topic of psychology as a scientific discipline and how ascends past just being the study of the mind and behavior. Marino Perez-Alvarez does this by stating “The problem with the standard conception of psychology as a science of behavior and mental processes is that it has ended up by establishing dualistic ontology and reasoning in the psychological science with feedback from the positivist natural scientific method.” From this, it is indicative that Perez-Alvarez sees that psychology is seen as more of a metaphysical discipline rather than the actual scientific discipline that it really is. What he means by this is that at sometimes, psychology ends up losing its credibility because of it being seen in a metaphysical view which doesn’t correlate with scientific evidence as the metaphysical is more based on philosophy rather than science. The author hopes to establish to the readers that the discipline should be seen more in a scientific perspective than a metaphysical one

Genre: Academic journal. The author utilizes research and excerpts in order to come to a conclusion and does so by scouting out bibliography that helps in coming to that conclusion as well as properly citing his resources in a consistent format.

Audience: Based off of the author’s stance on the issue which is against the metaphysical view of psychology, the targeted audience may very well be theorists of the mind who create and formulate theories without empirical evidence. Based off of the authors mentioning of the Greek origin of psychology in which scientific and experimental information wasn’t the basis of the

Stance: The author stance points toward him being against the metaphysical aspects of psychology and against the idea of psychology being merely a field that focuses on the studies. Perez-Alvarez states “Following this argument, certain implicit metaphysics consisting of a dualistic ontology with feedback from the natural scientific method would be at the basis of the persistent dualism in psychology. It is understood that the identification of psychology as a natural science was probably due more to its prestige than to its own complexity as implied by its study. It is time to reconceive psychology as a human science (social, cultural, behavioral), without a “complex”. From this it’s indicative that the author believes that the common perception of what psychology is flawed and inaccurate and wishes to change it to a more appropriate perception.

Source: “Performance & Stage Psychology Coach: LUTHER MALLORY.” Canadian Musician, Mar.-Apr. 2018, p. 18. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536243450/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=432d8b27. Accessed 20 Sept. 2018.

Purpose: This magazine article converses about stage presence in the music industry and how the energy that bands exert in a concert environment can be seen and analyzed through a psychological lens. In the article, Luther Mallory, a music performance coach and stage psychology specialist, describes how exactly the energy you exert as a performer determines the quality of the performance

Genre: Scientific report. Based off of the initial tone of the article, the author or the interviewer in this case, makes an inquiry about the ability of performing and what truly gives those who perform the talent to “drop jaws” as it is said or the ability to excite and captivate the audience members

Audience: The targeted group or audience of the magazine article would be performers or aspiring performers in the music industry. Considering the interviewee of the article is a music performance coach as well as a stage psychologist, it isn’t hyperbolic to say that this article was a means of helping those who are in the music industry to improve their performing skills

Stance: The author’s stance on the issue at hand is supportive of adequate musical performance and does so by acknowledging the problems those with inadequate performance deal with such as not having a clear objective when going on stage or lack of a vision of what they wish to accomplish while they are performing

Source: Clark, Cheryl, et al. “Witnessing Community Violence in Residential Neighborhoods: A Mental Health Hazard for Urban Women.” Journal of Urban Health, vol. 85, no. 1, 2008, p. 22+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A173600417/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=6c55be47. Accessed 20 Sept. 2018.

Purpose: The essential purpose of the cited source above is fixated on the assessment of the mental health of urban women who are witnesses to violence in their residential communities. The article provides correlations and data based off of surveys made to collect information from the target population of the study. The data utilized was analyzed and from the analysis, the researchers have identified a link between the witnessing of community violence and the emergence of depressive and anxiety symptoms amongst urban women in said communities

Genre: Scientific report. The report consists of correlational data and statistical information which points towards the conclusion that witnesses of community violence have a higher risk of being susceptible to mental health deficiencies.

Audience:  The targeted audience of the article is the general public to inform them of the mental health epidemic that occurs in urban communities in which violence is a recurrent event. Through this, the researchers provide a means of helping people understand the problem at hand in these communities and provide a reference to those who may need to research or analyze the problem in these communities

Stance: The stance of the article points toward supporting the improvement of mental health within the targeted communities as the research completed points towards the presence of a blatant problem within the people of the targeted populace