Custom «Convoy to Kuwait» Essay Paper Sample

The significant event I am going to tell about is convoying several trucks to Kuwait. It was a dangerous trip, and everyone who participated in it faced huge risks first because of making a wrong turn and then due to suddenly being hit by arms fire. This event was an extremely stressful one, and evidently it left all its participants with bright emotions. Further, the psychological perspectives and conditionings of this event will be discussed.

To understand this event more thoroughly, it is required to analyze it from different perspectives of psychological science. Behavioral psychology focuses not on the internal state of a person, but on learned observable behaviors (Cecil, 2008). It also deals with various drives that should be satisfied to survive. There exist such drives as hunger, need for security, belonging, or achievement. Some of the drives can be called learned or secondary. For instance, anxiety or fear is called a secondary drive since it can be learned from a certain experience (Cecil, 2008). In the analyzed event, fear definitely was the strongest driving force that made the participants of the convoy keep moving and hope for the positive outcome. In addition, a certain stimuli can motivate the behavior of an individual (Cecil, 2008). In the analyzed case, the biggest motivation for the convoy participants to reach Kuwait was to get into a safe place and come back home alive to our families and children. Therefore, the behavior of the convoy participants can be measured objectively by looking at the situation in which we found ourselves. Our environment made us behave in a definite way and think about only one thing, which was our survival.

On the other hand, cognitive perspective focuses on mental processes, which include thinking, memory, decision-making, problem-solving, and so on. In other words, those are the processes that are used to perceive, organize, remember, and evaluate information. It also looks into the way an individual interprets reality and solves problems (Cecil, 2008). In the analyzed event, convoy participants had serious problems since our lives were in danger. Therefore, cognitive processes were active, and we were quick in making decisions about where to go or how to act in certain situations. In addition, the cognitive theory comes from a belief that those are not things that disturb people, but their attitude to these things and views on them (Cecil, 2008). The dangers our convoy encountered on the way to Kuwait definitely disturbed us. However, we managed to keep calm and avoid panic, because our strife for reaching a safe place was stronger than the faced danger.

To analyze the event even more thoroughly, it is also necessary to determine what conditioning was involved. It is possible to assume that it was operant conditioning or learning, because the event participants’ acts were voluntary and due consequences of certain circumstances. In operant conditioning, the individual operates in the environment, and the situation presented in this environment has a direct influence on his or her behavior (Heffner, 2001). Moreover, the learner of operant conditioning is motivated and rewarded for his or her actions (Heffner, 2001). In the analyzed event, convoy participants were led by the desire to come back home alive, which evidently was a great motivation for our actions. In the meanwhile, we actively and consciously performed certain actions in order to achieve our desired reward and survive the dangers we encountered. The latter is also a characteristic of operant conditioning (Heffner, 2001).

It is a well-known fact that emotions may influence the way the memories are encoded in a person’s brain. The events that left strong emotions are usually memorized better and more distinctly (Kensinger, 2009). This happens due to the fact that such emotions affect a person. According to the studies, subtle details of these emotional events are not memorized or memorized vaguely, while the central ones are remembered with great accuracy (Kensinger, 2009). Thus, it is possible to assume that my memories about the convoy to Kuwait are rather accurate. Moreover, I can agree with the scientists’ opinion and say that I remember all the biggest events of that day very well, but cannot recall any details. For instance, I did not memorize the colors of clothes of people whom we encountered or their faces. However, I do remember very well how we were struggling out of the market place or how we were engaged in the fire fighting. Thus, I believe that my memories of that day are trustworthy.

Undoubtedly, dangerous situations people encounter have a great influence on their subsequent lives. They become a significant experience that teaches those individuals as well as other people the ways to behave in certain situations and react to definite risks. After analyzing this event from the psychological point of view using behavioral and cognitive perspectives, as well as operant conditioning, I can understand the connection between thoughts and actions of all convoy participants. We all were acting according to the dangerous situation in which we found ourselves, and our actions were determined by our motivation and desire to see our families and children again.