Research
The scientific method reflects an attempt to find evidence to support or refute our beliefs about the world and its nature. This involves a skeptical attitude and an open mind to allow for the possibility that our cherished beliefs are false. Two reliable phenomena – hindsight bias and judgmental overconfidence – illustrate the limits of everyday intuition and our need for scientific inquiry and critical thinking.
Psychological science usually starts with someone observing something interesting and trying to construct a theory about why it happens. Theories are organized sets of ideas and observations that explain and/or predict behavior or events. From those theories, psychologists derive logical and testable statements called hypotheses that can be supported or disputed by research. When enough support is gathered, a theory is accepted. If not, either the theory is revised, or a new one takes its place. Even accepted theories may be revised as more evidence accumulates over time.
In their research, psychologists use case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation to gather information and describe behavior; correlation to assess the relationship between variables; and experimentation to uncover cause and effect relationships. Researchers use statistics to describe their data, to assess relationships between variables, and to determine whether differences are significant.
There are many questions about psychological research. These include concern over the simplification of reality in laboratory experiments, the generalizabilityof research in terms of culture and gender, the purpose of animal studies, the adequacy of research ethics, and the potential misuse of psychology’s knowledge.
Intelligence
Today, intelligence is generally considered to be the ability to learn from experience, solve problems and adapt to new situations. Psychologists debate whether intelligence is one general ability or several specific abilities. While a certain level of intelligence is necessary for creativity, beyond that level, the correlation is weak. Some theorists have expanded the definition of intelligence to include social intelligence, especially emotional intelligence. Psychologists have linked people’s intelligence to brain anatomy and functioning as well as to cognitive processing speed.
Modern intelligence testing began more than a century ago in France when Alfred Binet developed questions that helped predict children’s future progress in the Paris school system. Lewis Terman of Stanford University used Binet’s ideas to develop the Stanford-Binet intelligence test. German psychologist William Stern derived the formula for the famousintelligence quotient, or IQ.
Modern aptitude and achievement tests are widely accepted only if they are standardized, reliable and valid. Aptitude tests tend to be highly reliable, but they are weak predictors of success in life. One way to test the validity of a test is to compare people who score at the two extremes of the normal curve: the challenged and the gifted.
Studies of twins, family members and adopted children point to significant genetic determinants of intelligence test scores. These and other studies also indicate that environment significantly influences intelligence test scores. Psychologists debate evolutionary and cultural explanations of gender differences in aptitudes and abilities. Environmental differences are perhaps entirely responsible for racial gaps in intelligence.
Aptitude tests, which predict performance in a given situation, are necessarily “biased” in the sense that they are sensitive to performance differences caused by cultural experiences. However, the major tests are not biased in that they predict as accurately for one group as for another. Stereotype threat can adversely affect performance and sometimes appears in intelligence testing among African Americans and women.
By the end of this reading, you will be able to:

• Understand the nature of intelligence and intelligence testing and the methods of psychological research.

Be sure to read the material thoroughly before attempting to complete related assignments. Please ask any questions that you may have about the reading in the General Question and Answer discussion forum.
Now that you have completed this activity, please proceed to the Discussion Activities.
Question:
Although we commonly associate prejudice with minority groups in our own country, almost anyone can be a victim of it. Describe a case of prejudice that you are aware of. It could be prejudice toward you or that you harbor toward others, or an example from the media or your own experience. If this involves others, please disguise their identities.
Using what you have learned in this module and other appropriate sources, explain how you think that the prejudice originated. Was there a stereotype involved? Did the prejudice ultimately lead to discrimination? Be sure to describe each of the concepts and explain how it relates to the others. What might you do to turn this situation around and prevent it from happening in the future? After you have posted your case and answered the questions, take a look at this video: Cultural Competence: Managing Your Prejudices (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Disaster Planning for Public Health Nursing Assignment

• Select a potential natural or man-made disaster that could happen in your community. Then, write a 3- to 4-page paper about the disaster from the community nurse’s perspective.

Section 1: The Disaster, Man-Made or Natural

• What disasters may strike your community and why? For example, do you live in “Tornado Alley,” or has climate change resulted in unusual cold weather snaps or blizzards in your community? Are you located in a flood plain? Include possible diseases that may result from a natural disaster, such as tetanus or cholera.

ORDER YOUR PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER NOW
Section 2: The Nursing Response

• Formulate responses to the disaster, considering systems and community levels of intervention.
• Review websites where a disaster plan may be available for the public, or if one is not currently available, call public health department to see if a disaster plan exists for your community and what the plan contains.
• In addition to reviewing websites for information about your local disaster plan, you will need to locate best practice/evidence-based practice guidelines in professional literature to determine whether your community’s disaster plan is as sound as it might be or if there is room for improvement.

Section 3: Is My Community Prepared for a Disaster?

• What conclusions can you draw about your community’s preparedness plan from having completed this evaluation?

Evidence-Based Practice in Disaster Planning: Nurses as Leaders

• Public health surveillance is one way that public health officials target intervention strategies (Turlock, 2016). Often, it is through prompt recognition of and reporting of incidents of communicable disease that a disaster can be averted (Turlock, 2016). Surveillance activities often prompt questions such as, What is causing the disease? How is it spreading? And who is at risk (Turlock, 2016)? While it is true that preparedness planning cannot eliminate all traces of threat to a community, planning assures that medical services and treatment are deployed in an effective, efficient, and rapid manner (Turlock, 2016). Public health plays a vital role in coordination of providers, assurance of supplies particularly when the Strategic National Stockpile pharmaceuticals and supplies are required, and mobilization of state and national response systems. Public health officials may also provide health care services when required (Turlock, 2016).
• Stanhope (2016) noted that evidence-based practice (EBP) has become more important in health care for many reasons: increased expectations of consumers, increased availability of information through the Internet, increased accountability for results, health care economic changes, and growing numbers of lawsuits, among other reasons. EBP is a lifelong problem-solving approach that regularly produces excellent results and often provides the theoretical underpinnings for programs to mitigate problems in the community. Once programs are in place, evaluation of their effectiveness should be conducted to determine whether they are worth the continued expenditure of resources. Use of EBP is vital to assure safe outcomes for populations during disasters, such as massive communicable disease outbreaks, and should be the foundation of disaster-planning strategies.

Disaster Planning for Public Health Nursing assignment -Required Readings
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2016). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (9th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

• Chapter 15, “Evidence-Based Practice” (pp. 342–354)
• Chapter 23, “Public Health Nursing Practice and the Disaster Management Cycle” (pp. 503–528)
• Chapter 24, “Public Health Surveillance and Outbreak Investigation” (pp. 529–544)
• Chapter 25, “Program Management” (pp. 545–567)

Disaster Planning for Public Health Nursing Assignment – Required Media

• Laureate Education (Producer). (2009a). Family, community and population-based care: Emergency preparedness and disaster response in community health nursing [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
• TED. (2012). How to step up in the face of disaster [Video file]. Retrieved from                   https://www.ted.com/talks/caitria_and_morgan_o_neill_how_to_step_up_in_the_face_of_disaster
• This Ted Talk describes the actions of two sisters who step up as leaders during a tornado disaster in their community.