Use of english

Read the passage below and fill in the gaps with a suitable word. There is an example at the beginning.

PSYCHOLOGISTS STUDY AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Anywhere people work, and anything they (0) do while at work, is of interest to psychologists. Psychologists study (1) ______ makes people effective, satisfied, and motivated in (2) ______ jobs; what distinguishes good workers (3) ______ poor ones; and what conditions of work promote high (4) ____low productivity, morale, and safety.

Some psychologists design programs (5) ______ recruiting, selecting, placing, and training employees. They evaluate, monitor, (6) _____ improve performance. They help make changes in the way the organization (7) ____ set up.

Others help design the actual tasks, tools, and environments (8) _____ which people must deal when doing their jobs. These specialists can also help design the products (9) _____ organizations turn out and conduct research related to product design. For (10) _____, they play a big role in making computer hardware and software (11) ______ user-friendly, which in turn contributes both to operator performance in the workplace and product acceptability in the marketplace.

SPEAKING

· Which subdivision are you interested in and why? Share your ideas with the group.

· Careers in Psychology

Some people may be studying psychology out of general interest; others may be considering careers in psychology. What kinds of careers are open to psychology graduates in Russia?

READING

WHAT HOLDS PSYCHOLOGY TOGETHER?

Pre-reading

Given this wide range of interests, what holds psychology together? What do psychologists specializing in different fields have in common? What distinguishes psychologists from other scientists who try to understand human beings?

While reading

A. You are going to read a text on a number of fundamental questions about behaviour that cut across the different areas of specialization in psychology. Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-F of the text. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning.

Mind-Body - A Diversity - Uniformity B Person-Situation - C Stability-Change - D Heredity-Environment - E The young-The Elderly - F

0 ---CTo what extent is behaviour caused by processes that occur inside theperson (such as thoughts, emotions, motives, values, and genes)? In contrast, to what extent is behaviour controlled or caused by factors outside the person? These questions are important in our consideration of behaviour genetics, learning, emotion and motivation, personality, and social psychology.

1 ___For decades, psychologists have been debating the degree of influence that heredity (genetics) and environment or experience have on behaviour. This is the famous “nature vs. nurture” debate. This issue appears in discussions of behaviour genetics, intelligence, development, personality, and abnormal psychology.

2_______To what extent do people stay relatively unchanged throughout their lives? How much do we change? Can you “teach old dogs new tricks”? Is the child “father to the man”? Or is each day a new beginning with the possibility for significant change? Developmental psychologists are especially interested in these questions although their interest is shared by psychologists who specialize in personality, adjustment, abnormal psychology, and therapy as well as other areas.

3_____To what extent is every person in certain respects (a) like all other people, (b) like some other people, (c) like no other person? Does our understanding apply equally well to every human being? Do we perhaps need “different psychologies” to explain the wide diversity of human behaviours?

4____Finally, many psychologists are fascinated by the relationship between what we experience (such as thoughts and feelings) and biological processes (such as activity in the nervous system).

So despite their apparent differences, psychologists are drawn together in part because of their common interest in enduring questions such as these.