Essay Sample on Susan: Adjusting Career Goals

Susan is a psychology student with ambitions of becoming a significant psychologist in the market in the future, upon finishing her studies. She is a parent to two young children and therefore considers taking her studies in an online university for the time for taking care of her children. This includes a dead-end job with completely no room for career advancement and salary increment. The job is among the reasons that Susan hops to complete her studies, to achieve more with her life as well as her children. At some point, Susan's friend introduced her to a professional psychologist named Paul at a restaurant. As a result, this inspired Susan towards becoming just like Dr. Paul and therefore made the decision to go back to a physical college to finish her studies and get the relevant qualification towards being a professional psychologist. However, at some point, she gets the thought of slowing things down and balance her educational and professional goals.

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A suitable psychology concept that I saw fit for this particular case study is conformity bias. It refers to our tendency to behave in similar ways to other individuals in a group, regardless of if so goes against one's judgment. Many individuals may seem more comfortable mimicking other people despite the ethical matters involved. As a concept, conformity bias is applicable in this case study, to explain Susan's desire to imitate Dr. Paul. The idea will be referenced from Van Leeuwen et al. (2015), about conformity and its look alike.

Research Summary

The secondary research method will be used in this research to source the relevant information about the psychological concept of study.

A review by Padalia (2014) explores the concept of conformity bias along with what it entails and how it has been understood or misunderstood. The findings of the study are that conformity is not a unitary thought with various facets. It further provides that failure to identify and move beyond conformity bias leads to failure towards the recognition of real social issues.

The article by Van Leeuwan (2015) incorporates secondary data from several other sources to describe conformity bias as human nature. It shows how the influence of majorities among various groups on learning and decision making processes has attracted much attention in the scientific community. The article's significant finding is that, in multiple contexts, close to a third of human adults have an adaptation to a majority stance that is erroneous against their knowledge. Besides, despite the subtle variations in interpretations and approaches, most of the practicing psychologists, as well as evolutionists, adhere to conformity bias and the definitional aspect of adopting the preferred strategy of the majority of individuals in certain groups.

Research Interpretation

Each of the above research findings recognizes the social psychology conformity concept. Van Leeuwan (2015) concluded that there is a particular reason for the adherence to conformity bias, which includes the wisdom of the crowd. On the other hand, Padalia (2014) establishes that conformity bias appears as a result of influence from the secondary parties.

Application of Conformity Bias

The concept applies to Susan's case study based on the description of what transpires after the meeting with Dr. Paul. This is evident by the fact that Susan got inspired by Dr. Paul, which influenced her to become exactly just like her. She desires to be successful in her career as well as her personal life. Notably, the decision to be like Paul is certainly not her judgment but rather a mimic to him, hence showing the conformity bias.

Ethical Reasoning Application

Susan's case study considers rational decision making as a moral issue. This is in accordance with the behavioral ethics that establishes the understanding of how people behave upon facing ethical dilemmas.

Ethical Concept

The case study applies rational decision making as moral reasoning. Susan had to make a sensible decision to finish her studies towards becoming what she anticipates in her career. Rational decision is an ethical concern because an individual must first realize the existing problem before making a decision to solve the same (Schwartz, 2016). This decision was strongly influenced by the reference to Dr. Paul, whose life appeared perfect, according to Susan's perspective.

Supportive Evidence

Susan faced rational decision making as an ethical dilemma that required her to decide on whether to continue with the studies or work to support her young children. Moreover, she had to make the rational decision of not following Paul's attributes and instead follow her ambitions one step at a time.

Critical Thinking Application

Precision, as a standard of ethical concern, applies to Susan's case study. It involves working towards getting an issue under consideration before making decisions in any particular way.

Critical Thinking Issue

From the case study, Susan was faced with a critical thinking issue when she is required to decide to change the priority of her goals, which she knows that her family and friends would be disappointed with the decision. According to Cottrell (2017), critical thinking means having a reasoned out judgment, which in the case study, Susan had to think about the issue before making the decision.

Supportive Evidence

The issue of precision in critical thinking is evident in the case study with the fact that Susan had an exact idea of how she would benefit upon making the decision study and achieve her ambition one day at a time.

References

Van Leeuwen, E. J., Kendal, R. L., Tennie, C., & Haun, D. (2015). Conformity and its look-a-likes. Animal Behaviour. Padalia, D. (2014). Conformity Bias: A Fact or an Experimental Artifact? Psychological Studies, 59(3), 223-230.

Cottrell, S. (2017). Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Schwartz, M. S. (2016). Ethical decision-making theory: An integrated approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(4), 755-776.