Research is important regardless of the subject matter. When speaking of psychology, research is specifically important because the human race is constantly making new breakthoughs in order to further understand the human mind. Keeping current with one's research allows us to be as knowledgable as possible when studying the information.
An example of research I discovered on Psyblog was entitled "How Long to Form a Habit?". This piece of research is extremely relevent to my life right now, and I am actually happy I stumbled upon it. The researchers recruited participants that wanted to form a new, healthy habit. The goal was to discover, on average, how long it took for the participants to engage in these simple daily activities (such as eating a piece of fruit at lunch or going on a 15 minute run) before the formed the habit. I'm sure this relates to many lives but I really feel a correlation with mine. I put myself on a very strict diet last winter/spring. At first it was difficult, but it then became a habit. I trained myself to eat minimum amounts of healthy food, and anything more physically made me sick. Over the summer, I slowly started eating larger quantities and worse qualites. I am now struggling to make eating healthy a habit again, and although I know I can do it, the habit is hard to sink into again..and I cannot help to wonder how long it will take me this time!
One thing I have learned is that when one claims they knew the answer to a specific question "all the long", there is a specific, scientific explanation for it. After learning about hindsight bias, it seems obvious.
Another thing I was suprised by was how much science is involved with psychology. I have always understood psychology to be a course of social studies or humanities. After reading the few chapters, I can definitely comprehend why science and psychology complement eachother so greatly. I have learned about the scientific method in countless classes, and I was suprised to see it explained, yet again, in my psychology book.
Another thing that I learned was how drastic the difference was between correlation and causation. I understand the difference, but after reading the chapter and reviewing the video, I now understand how important it is to understand how they differ.
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Old habits are hard to break. It is hard to form new habits also (depending on what it is). I have the same issues with my diet. A few months ago I was eating healthy. I got bored, and quit. Now I realize that eating healthy is very important. I am trying to get back into my habit, but it isnt easy. I also agree that the scientific method is a huge part of everything we do.
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