David ausubel quotes

In this conversation, here are the two opposing views that you will need to consider to the best of your collective ability by the end of the week:

NOTE: While it is easy to take a position and argue why you believe that position to be true, I challenge you to engage in higher order thinking: Consider the opposing viewpoints and address the following questions:

A. What does each position believe? Why--what is the evidence being used for their arguments? Evaluate the quality of the evidence from a scholarly perspective.
B. Can you identify one or more logical points or pieces of information in each perspective even though you may not agree with that perspective completely?
C. What additional information would be helpful to know to evaluate each perspective more effectively?
D. What is a potential 3rd or 4th perspective that should be considered in this controversy? There are likely many other perspectives besides these two.

The 1st two perspectives we are considering:

1. Ausubel's argument that mental illness is real.
2. Szasz's argument that mental illness is a myth.

EXAMPLE, SAMPLE OF HOW THIS SHOULD LOOK LIKE:

Abnormal Psychology

According to Getzfeld and Schwartz (2014), “psychopathology refers to the study of the causes and development of psychiatric disorders,” but researchers agree that it is difficult to come to a precise definition of abnormal behavior (ch. 1.1).

My definition of psychopathology based on my current understanding of the topic is that it is the study, diagnosis, and treatment of different disorders and mental illnesses. However, I believe that the definition of abnormal psychology is going to be different for every individual based on their upbringing, behavior, thoughts, emotions, and other factors. I think that there are many influences that help to determine what defines abnormal psychology, such as cognitive ability, behavior, genetics, family dynamics, neurobiology, emotions, thoughts, and processes such as modeling, schema development, or associative learning. I think it is also important to keep in mind that what one perceives as abnormal, another might perceive as normal.

I feel that there are a few early theories which go along with my definition. One major theoretical historical perspective that relates to my definition and ideas about what defines abnormal psychology is Cognitive-Behaviorism of the 1950s-1970s, specifically Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory. According to Bandura, we learn by observing and copying the behaviors of others, which he termed as modeling (Getzfeld & Schwartz, 2014). Another major theory that I feel influenced my thoughts is Beck’s cognitive perspective theory, which explains that our development of depression starts from the tendency to develop negative schemas about the world and the self during childhood and adolescence (Getzfeld & Schwartz, 2014). A third theoretical perspective that I feel matches part of my definition is the Diathesis-Stress Model, which explains that both biology and environmental stressors influence our behavior by turning genes on or off (Getzfeld & Schwartz, 2014). Whether or not we have a genetic predisposition to having a certain disorder is not the problem entirely; the way in which the environment affects us determines if the diathesis is turned on or off and if we become more or less likely to experience and express genetic disorders.