Assessment 1

The major changes in psychotherapy in this century have been the expansion into the wider group of people who need treatments. During these days, one doesn’t have to be rich to get psychotherapy. Several objects such as books, cassettes, and computer assisted materials – those widely excepted by experts -- are developed in order to help people to get a therapy easier. By being able to reach the masses, lots of people will be cured from psychological disorders. Also, psychotherapists nowadays have better understandings of the multicultural backgrounds of the patients, in which, they are able to develop special treatment methods for each specific individual. With these changes, therapists are able to apply the psychological theories and create their own unique practices. Through these modern advances, psychology will surely be optimized to its highest efficiency.
In this article, twenty breakthroughs were being mentioned.

• Firstly, one of the discoveries I found most important was the one of Jean Piaget. In this finding, Piaget was able to show that children are unable to identify the conservation of quantity of objects placed in container with various shapes. From the result of this research, he was able to demonstrate that human intelligence develop in stages, in which, in the early stages, the sense of justice in children was not fully developed. By knowing this, psychotherapist will be able to give various types of treatment which suits the patients from different age groups – this will provide the treatments with optimized efficiencies.
• Secondly, Harry F. Harlow’s research had discovered the innate differences in characteristics of males and females – males play rough and female play soft and gentle, but on the other hand females play rougher with their words. Through understanding this, psychologists might give more importance to biological perception, in which, genetics shaped our personalities.
• Next, the breakthrough of Robert Epstein in “Capturing Creativity” was able to demonstrate that the creative process in an individual is predictable. By undergoing several training processes, human beings can be more creative which will lead to better performance. As a result, companies would give more concerns on giving out more training to their employee in order to increase their productivity, and indeed, creativity.
• The fourth important research in my opinion is Hans Selye’s ways of coping with stress. As most of us know, stress plays a great role in illness, mood, and performance. We believe that the way to cope stress is to find peace. We are wrong. According to Selye, each of types of human beings need specific ways to deal with stress correctly, or else bad effects might follow. For example, some people are better-off busy and hardworking life. If we let them stay in a very peaceful place where there is tranquil environment, it might be even more stressful to them.
• The last breakthrough I found important is Judith Rodin’s way to effectively control or lose or weight. I think that this discovery can save many people from getting over weight which might decrease the number of deaths caused by obesity and heart-linked diseases.