Harshith Latchupatula
Psychological Theories
Although we use our brains and minds for every action, task and thought in everyday life, most
of us do not understand what goes on inside our brains and how much psychology and psychological
theories integrate into our daily lives. To describe the impact of psychology in everyday life, this paper
will describe four psychological theories: the hierarchy of needs, false memories, classical conditioning
and cognitive dissonance theories and the situations in my own life where they were applicable.
Only two years ago, during my summer vacation in India, I found myself waiting in line with my
family to see the altar of a famous Hindu temple when Maslow’s hierarchy of needs came into play. This
temple was extremely popular, and on an average day, around 50,000 to 100,000 people would pass
through, and the average family waited about eight hours before reaching the main altar. About 6 hours
in, I found myself against a dark, stone corridor with around 100 people pressed up against us and
absolutely no room to move. Somewhere along the corridor, my mouth became parched. My stomach
was empty, and everyone else’s body heat in the hall was making me drip in sweat and slowly suffocating
me. At that moment, my first thoughts were about what the strangers in the corridor would think of me
if I fainted right then and there. But after a couple of minutes, I started to work out the fact that I would
be standing in the corridor for another two hours, and I began to frantically worry that I would not be
able to last that long without food or water. When I then slumped to the floor in exhaustion, I was so
worried about my dehydration, hunger and general health that I didn’t even care about the 50 strangers
watching me. If we analyze this situation, it is clear that my first thoughts are of my esteem and
belonging needs in that moment of crisis. I was afraid that everyone else around me would think that I
was weak, frail, and pathetic if I fainted on the spot, and thus, the higher levels of the hierarchy were
initially of great importance. However, after my dizziness started to intensify and I came to the sudden
realization that I was dehydrated and starving, my mind could no longer worry about my esteem needs
and immediately jumped to my basic physiological and health needs. This situation proves Maslow’s
point that the lower levels of the hierarchy had to be at least somewhat satisfied before one could worry
or act on the higher levels. This entire event shows that the hierarchy of needs is exceptionally applicable
to everyday life and constitutes all our thoughts, actions and general behaviour no matter where we are
or what we are doing.
Moving on from the hierarchy of needs, I experienced what could have been an instance of false
memories a couple of days ago. After a gruelling chapter test in accounting, a friend and I were going
over the answers that we wrote down to essentially predict our scores and give ourselves a sense of
relief. Although we had the same answers for the first ten or so questions, we eventually hit a question
that each of us remembered differently. I remembered that the question asked about the expanded
ledger’s uses for bankers, investors and unions. My friend, however, recalled that the question asked for
the uses of the normal ledger. At first, I was insistent that I read the question correctly and that it was
indeed the expanded ledger. However, my friend was also just as sure that he was right, and he started
to bring up a series of clues that supported his argument. Eventually, my friend brought up a point that I
could not remember correctly - whether or not the question was two lines. If the question was two lines,
then it must have been the expanded ledger, but I just could not remember how many lines the question
was. Slowly, after an enormous amount of insisting from my friend, I started to visualize the question
with only one line, and for some reason, it began to feel accurate. I started worrying that perhaps my
friend was correct and that the question had asked for the normal ledger. However, once we got our
tests back, I looked at that question and saw that it mentioned the expanded ledger and remembered
the question correctly. Somehow, while discussing the question with my friend, I falsely remembered
and visualized the question differently in the form of false memory. A false memory is any alteration or
misinformation that warps what happened through a strong suggestion from a question or another
person. In this case, I was initially sure that it was the expanded ledger that the question referred to.
However, after my friend insisted and provided more support to his argument, my memory started to
change. I visualized the question from the details he provided and slowly began to feel that he was right,
even though my initial memory was solid. Therefore, it is clear that false memories exist in many
instances of daily life. One can only imagine just how difficult it can be to discern them among all the
biased and inaccurate information fed to us.
My third experience of psychological theories in my daily life relates to the concept of cognitive
dissonance and rationalization. During the winter holidays, a couple of friends and I decided to change
our habits and work ethics. We were all succeeding in school but were often procrastinating when we
worked or some other productive activity. So, we set off to find some tutorials and resources to help us
stop procrastinating when we stumbled upon some motivational videos on Youtube. At first, they were
simply inspiring. But something interesting happened after we consistently listened for a couple of days:
our real-life actions started to embody these motivational speakers’ advice. We began to stray away from
doing meaningless things like watching television shows, waking up earlier, creating an exercise routine
that we would follow each day and ultimately, wasting less time. For the first week or so, it was clear that
this was working. But into the second week of the winter break, I started to see myself losing motivation
and slacking off, and I felt quite regretful that I did not live up to my expectations. I then became
extremely uncomfortable with the sensation of regret and shame. I began to explain to myself that I had
done well during the previous week and that this made up for my lack of motivation to improve my
habits. Looking back, it is now clear that this was cognitive dissonance at play. First, I performed an act
that went against my core beliefs, which was essentially procrastinating when I should have been
working. Then, I started to feel uncomfortable when I realized that I had gone against my core beliefs.
Instead of merely accepting this and creating measures to ensure that this would not happen again, I
began to tell myself that it was okay. I reduced the importance of the conflicting belief and told myself
that my efforts during the previous week before made up for the mistake. Thus, it is clear that this
example illustrates how cognitive dissonance can help convince a person that any wrong action is
justified and allows people to lie to themselves in the face of discomfort.
Finally, in addition to cognitive dissonance, I recently also recognized an example of fear
conditioning - which derives from classical conditioning - that had inadvertently been created in my own
life without me even noticing. See, when I was younger, like many children, I would do things behind my
parents’ backs. Most days, my eyes would be glued to the television screen when I would hear the
groaning of the front door opening. Immediately, I would feel a flush of adrenaline, fear and anxiety and
would race to turn off the television and pretend like I was doing something else. However, what’s
interesting is that this sudden flash of adrenaline that occurred when the door opened continues to
occur even when I’m doing nothing wrong. Around five days ago, my parents went grocery shopping, and
I was at home quietly working on a school project on my laptop. For about 40 minutes or so, I was
extremely focused, and when my parents returned, I heard the door opening, and for some reason, my
heart started to race as if I was doing something wrong and could have been caught. I felt fear as I heard
the creaking sound of the door and the sounds of people stepping into the house. If we analyze the
situation, it is clear that in my younger years, before any conditioning, my parents catching me doing
something wrong (unconditioned stimulus) would have triggered the adrenaline and anxiety response
(unconditioned response). Back then, the sound of the door opening (neutral stimulus) would not have
resulted in any fear or any unconditioned responses. Only after I started to use the sound of the door
opening as an indication that my parents had arrived did the conditioning start. After many instances
where I experienced this fear of being caught and heard the door opening’s sound, I now unconsciously
associate the sound of the door opening (conditioned stimulus) with my parents seeing me doing
something wrong, which results in fear and anxiety (conditioned response). Thus, the entire situation
shows how classical conditioning can impact our habits without us even recognizing it.
To conclude, after recognizing and observing so many examples of psychological theories in my
life, it’s apparent that psychology plays a massive role in ordinary life. Whether it is our desires based on
the hierarchy of needs or our memories that can be changed by insistence on the part of others through
false memories, what is clear is that recognizing and responding to these psychological mechanisms is
more important now than ever. So the next time you argue with someone else or rationalize a mistake,
remember that it’s likely that a psychological theory is at work.