Blog Post #13

1.My thoughts on these studies are that some of them were pretty interesting. What I found interesting about Milgram's Obedience was that 2/3 of the participants shocked people to the worst degree possible. They at first estimated that only 1 in 1,000 people, the sadists, would go to that extreme of the most intense shock, so that was interesting. What I found interesting about the Stanford Prison Experiment was how the students got totally into their roles. Some of the prison students were were perfectly healthy before the experiment but became sick while doing the experiment and also became passive and zombie-like. Also, nice student boys became brutal prison guards. Milgram's Obedience shows that our Human Nature shows a lot of carelessness and conformity. The Stanford Prison Experiment shows that our Human Nature tries to adapt us to the role that we think we should play and that we can easily get carried away.
2. Social influences are everyday factors that make us act a certain way. One example of this is when a group full of people are voting on something, and almost every one's hand goes up, I am way more likely to vote for that thing, just because I don't want to look like the oddball.
Another example is when you are assigned a group for a project, and the group has to collectively make a decision what color to make the project. If everyone in my group wants to go with a certain color that I don't particularly like, I'd rather just agree with them than argue my case and lose time on getting the project done.
3.The most interesting thing I learned in this class was about how different cultures view things acceptable compared to other cultures that do not view it that way. I found it so interesting how in different cultures, men can greet one another by kissing each other on the cheek, but in America, most people would be appalled by that gesture. It is so interesting to me how everyone thinks that their culture is so normal, but then most people pick apart other people's culture, labeling things as "weird" or "not normal." I guess I just find it entertaining!

Blog Post #12

1. Our textbook states that psychological disorders are ongoing patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions that are deviant, distressful, and/or dysfunctional. You can decide if a person has a psychological disorder if their behavior is causing distress to them. Deviant and distressful behaviors are more likely to be considered disorders when they are a harmful dysfunction. So if a person acts abnormally, no, it definitely does not mean they have psychological disorder. Some people are just oddballs, and as long as their behavior is not deviant, distressful, or harmful, they most likely do not have a psychological disorder.
2. The psychological disorder I am going to tell you about is Major Depressive Disorder, more commonly known as Depression. When people experience depression, they feel very down. Major Depressive Disorder occurs when at least five signs of depression (including lethargy, feelings of worthlessness, or loss of interest in family, friends, and activities) lasts two or more weeks and are not caused by drugs or a medical condition. They may feel discouraged about the future, dissatisfied with life, and/or socially isolated. Lack of energy is common symptom, they may feel that it's very hard to get things done, and they may even have to force themselves of bed. They may not be able to concentrate, eat, or sleep normally. It may feel as if a huge dark cloud is parked over them at all times, and they feel as if it won't move anytime soon. Depression is extremely common for many people, and can be fairly simple to treat. A depressed mood is often a response to past or current loss, which includes: a loved one's death, a serious break-up, or job loss.
I think my life would be terrible if I had depression. I would absolutely hate feeling worthless, and not having energy to accomplish everyday tasks. I would probably just sit on the couch, watching TV all day in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I would hate to wonder if I would just be better off dead, because I know how great life is. I am the type of person who tries to completely embrace life as much as possible, so I know that having depression would totally hinder that quality.
3. The most interesting thing I learned in this section was Dissociative Identity Disorder. I found this interesting because it's so crazy how two or more distinct identities alternately control the person's behavior. I found it interesting how each personality has its own voice and mannerisms. Learning this also makes things come full circle for me because many TV shows have poked fun at this disorder, and I never truly understood before how one of the personalities could be extremely different from one another. United States of Tara is an awesome and funny TV show that demonstrates multiple personalities, so I'm glad that I can now better understand dissociative identity disorder.

Blog Post #11

1. If I were to describe my personality, I would say that I am happy, fun-loving, open-minded, unique, and caring. I also think that I am moody, a perfectionist, and I get jealous easily. Being a happy person is positive because it's very healthy to be happy and laughing. Being fun-loving is positive because I am enjoying life to the fullest. Being open-minded is positive because I accept people's differences and I don't discriminate against people. Being unique is positive because I have my own personal identity that is special, that no one else has. Being caring is positive because I can deeply care for the people that I love and show them how I feel. Being moody is negative because my mood is always hopping from happy, to annoyed, to anxious, and back to happy. Sometimes people don't know how to deal with my changing mood. Being a perfectionist can be positive, but it is negative for me because it's so annoying and time consuming. Getting jealous easily is so negative because I should really focus on me and my life instead of caring about what other people have.



2. I am very optimistic and I definitely always try to look on the bright sides of situations. This impacts my life by making it better. When I don't dwell on the negative, I ultimately feel better about the situation. An example of my optimism is when I don't do well on a test or an assignment. Instead of dwelling on the fact that this bad grade will bring down my whole grade, I tell myself that I will do better on assignments and tests in the future to bring my grade back up. Another example of my optimism is when I get my paycheck at work, and it's not as high as I thought it'd be, I don't dwell on the fact that I won't have extra money, I just think about how I have a good amount of money saved, and if I really need money, there is some in the bank.



3. One part of my personality is that I am outspoken and I will usually speak against things that I don't agree with. If a person I didn't know very well was saying things that I completely didn't agree with, I probably wouldn't speak against them out of respect, and the fact that I don't even know them. This change would be beneficial because I could come off rude and disrespectful, which I would not want people associating with me.
Another part of my personality is that I am very loud and silly with my friends. This trait changes a little bit when we are out in public or around teachers. We tone down our loudness and silliness. That is beneficial because I wouldn't want to be categorized as a loud, immature girl. I want people to respect me and my actions.

4. One defense mechanism I have used is Denial. When one of my friends was making plans without me and then completely started ditching me, I just made up excuses for why it was happening. I was completely denying the truth and I didn't want to accept the fact that she just didn't want to hang out with me anymore.
Another defense mechanism I have used is Displacement. After having a really argument with my boyfriend at the time, I started punching my pillow and my bed.
Another defense mechanism that I have used is Reaction Formation. When I first started high school, I had very low self-esteem. So I would try to dress really nice and trendy, and I would spend so much money on new clothes to cover up the fact that I disliked how I looked.

Blog Post #10

1.One thing I learned from Chapter 9 on thinking was Problem Solving. I learned that there are two different tactics to solve a problem: algorithm which is time consuming, yet thorough, and heuristic which is faster, but more error-prone. Personally, the tactic I use to solve problems is the heuristic approach because it is more efficient and simple. I would probably use the algorithm approach to work out a complicated math problem. I found that learning about these two approaches of problem solving was interesting because I didn't know there were actual proper names for them, I just thought they were known as the "hard way" and the "easy way". I am definitely more educated on the proper terminology now.

2.I do believe I am emotionally intelligent. The book states emotional intelligence as the ability to percieve, understand, manage, and use emotions. I believe I am emotionally intelligent because I always pick up on other people's emotions very easily. When I see a friend who has their head down and being very quiet when they are usually upbeat and chatty, I know that they are upset or annoyed. I use my emotions by showing love to my friends and family with hugs and words of encouragement. I try understanding my emotions by asking myself "Why do I feel like this?" I manage my emotions by either crying or talking about them with someone.
This impacts my personal relationships because I can better understand people and pick up on how they are feeling. I am much more relatable and understanding in tough situations. I think it is extremely important to be emotionally intelligent, because it helps you so much in life. You end up becoming closer with friends, family, and co-workers because you can connect with them so much easier.

3. The most interesting thing I learned from Chapter 10 was how similar identical twin's brains are. When identical twins take an intelligence test, it's virtually as similar as one person taking the test twice. Fraternal twins are much less similar in their intelligence levels. The variations in the test scores are simply from genetic variation. I just found it super interesting how alike identical twins are when it comes to their intelligence, which does make sense ... similar appearance, similar intelligence. Fraternal twins are just the opposite.

Blog Post #9

Memory is one of the largest, most important things that defines who we are as human beings. Our memory makes us complex, intelligent, and able to progress. Without memory, we would never be able to remember any schooling, how to drive, or how to work at job. Our lives would almost be in a pointless standstill without memory.
Clive Wearing is a man who has no memory at all. He was a talented musician, but then one day he had a headache, which progressed into having no memory longer than 20 seconds. He is also a husband. Clive's wife handles his memory damage very well. Sometimes she seems frustrated and annoyed a little bit, but most of the time she is patient and completely understanding. I know that I would have a completely hard time of dealing with a husband who had trouble with remembering basic things. I think I would be completely furstrated with him all the time. That sitaution makes me feel very thankful for the good memory that I have. Even though my memory isn't perfect, it functions pretty well for everyday life, which I am totally greatful for.
Memory is much more complicated than I could have ever guessed. I had no idea that there were different processes of memory and different types of memory either. I now see memory as a complex job that my mind performs all the time.
I do in some ways now see my memories differently because the book talked about storage decay and forgetting memories. Our brains have so many things to remember, we are bound to forget some memories. I do trust many of my memories, but now I kind of have to wonder because the book even states that sometimes when we do things, our mind doesn't even remember it at all because it is labled as "not important". I did the excercise "Short Term Memory Encoding and Rehearsing" and I did pretty well, I think my short term memory is much better than my long term memory.
One significant concept that I learned in this section was the relationship between stress hormones and memory. Stronger emotional experiences cause stronger, more reliable memories due to the stress hormones that are produced. This is important because it answers the question of why we usually remember really bad events that have happened to us. Some people can remember a car crash or a robbery super vividly. I can apply this to my life by sharing with people why they remember a really bad memory very vividly, and I can keep it in mind for myself too.

Blog Post #8

Classical Conditioning is a type of learning in which a person learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. An example would be that you learn that fire is hot, and that it can hurt and burn you. So when you're sitting around a campfire and someone is about to squirt lighter fluid on the fire, you may be scared of the big flames that will soar up and you may scoot your chair back away from the fire to anticpate the heat and flames.

Operant Conditioning is when a person learns to associate a response and its consequence and thus to repeat acts followed by good results and avoid acts followed by bad results. An example is when potty training a child, when you reward them with candy or stickers after they completed going to the bathroom, they are more likely to keep repeating that act. The consequence they recieved was positve and enjoyable so in turn, their positive potty behavior is strengthened.

The difference between Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning is that classical conditioning is linking stimuli and anticipating events, while operant condtioning is learning to associate a response and its consequence. This is interesting because it's very true and relevant. I use classical conditioning all the time when I'm cooking or dealing with something that could harm me. Operant conditoning was used on me when I was a child and getting potty trained.
A postive reinforcement is increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli. An example would be when my mom started paying my cell phone bill when I started getting really good grades, her paying it encouraged me even more to keep my grades up.

Negative reinforcement is increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. An example is that I get migraines all the time, so I'm always taking medicine to get rid of my migraines. It has now become a habit because if I'm able to get rid of something negative, then of course I want to do it.

Punishment is an event that decreases the behavior that it follows. An example is when I was younger, I would always talk very sassy to my mom when I was mad, so as a result she would send me to my room or take away objects that I could use such as the TV or computer.

The most interesting thing I learned in this section was about the mirror neurons. This was interesting to me because it explained so much about children, how they completely imitate what they see and hear because of the mirror neurons. I found it very interesting how when children often experience physical punishment, they tend to display more agression. It's so interesting how everything is linked together. This changes the way I think about children who curse and hit others because in a way, it's not really their fault, they're just mimicking what the see/hear. I can apply this to my everyday life by trying to be more understanding of why people act a certain way, even if I believe that their actions are negative.

Blog Post #7

If I were to explain to someone what sensation was, I would say that it is when our sensory receptors and nervous system recieve and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Sensations are what we smell, taste, see, and physically feel.
I would explain perception as when we organize and interpret sensory information, which enables us to recognize meaningful objects and events. We organize and interpret the smells, tastes, sights, and feeling of objects. Perception helps us to make decisions such as when we pick up a fruit that feels soggy, smells bad, and has a brown tinge to it, we know not to eat it. You can percieve all the different sensations of that nasty fruit.
The most interesting thing I learned in this chapter was about Prosopagnosia, which is face blindness. Heather Sellers suffers from prosopagnosia, which makes her sensation go out of whack when coming in contact with acquaintances. She does not recognize acquaintance's faces because of her disorder, yet she can recognize people sometimes by their hair, voice, or physique, just not by their faces. Her perception is almost normal because she can reconize most features besides faces. Also, when she would look at a friend, her sensation is normal and her sensory receptors detect the same information that yours would because she is so used to the features of that friend.
Learning about this disorder makes me appreciate that I am able to always recognize faces. I would apply this to everyday life by just appreciating my fully functioning sensations and perceptions.
The article I read was "A Slow Smile Attracts". In this article, psychology researchers did an experiment to find out at what speed a smile is most attractive to people, and also if tilting your head while smiling was even more attractive. The results that were when you give a person a long on-set smile, over about 0.5 of a second is more attractive than a smile over 0.2 of a second. Tilting your head to the right is also found very attractive by the opposite sex. Long on-set smiles that are seen as more flirtacious and authentic. This article was really interesting because it's very true. When someone takes the time to give you a nice, long smile, you know that they are being sincere and giving you attention. These findings change the way I think about things by making me realize how I represent myself. If I don't want to appear flirty to a guy, then I won't give him a nice, long smile. With applying this to my everyday life, I can smile accordingly to how I want to be perceived.

Blog Post #6

1. What I learned from this interview assignment was that things are so different now than they were 70 years ago. Life was safer and less hectic in general. One thing that suprised me was that my grandpa Neil started smokings cigarettes at age 12, and apparently everyone smoked. I knew that smoking wasn't a big deal back then but 12 years old seems very young! My grandpa's teenage life compared to mine is completely different. He worked about 40 hours a week and contributed to his family income. I work on average about 12 hours a week and I never give my family money unless it's their birthday or Christmas. I don't think I would have enjoyed being a teenager at that time because I can't imagine working so much and having bascially no technology.

2. The Parenting and Adolesence video won't play for me, but as I head toward adulthood, I would describe my adolesence as very good. I attended a great school, made some wonderful friends that I plan to have for life, and I also had a very good home life. My adolesence is going to impact who I am as an adult by making me hardworking in college and at my place of work because my parents have always encouraged me to do my best. My adolescent years also showed me how to save money which is key because soon enough I will have to pay bills and taxes.

3.One thing I learned from Chapter 4 was that our peers completely influence us more than I thought. Trying to fit in with a certain group will most likely happen when we are children or in our adolesence. Parents can really influence the culture that shapes the groups. If a parent picks a nice, safe neighborhood with a great school, that would shape a child in a good way.

4.One thing I learned from Chapter 5 was about attatchment. Attatchment is when an infant forms a powerful bond with their caregivers. Infants get attatched to who they feel is firmiliar and who they are comfortable with, which is usually their parents. Some of the reasons attatchment occurs is because the comfort that the child gets from the caregiver such as rocking, warmth, feeding, and consolement.

Blog Post #5

In this chapter, I learned many new things about twins. Ashley and Mark-Kate Olsen aren't idenical twins! Wow! More importantly, I learned that even though identical twins have the same genes, they don't always have the same number of copies of those genes. Identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins when referring to mannerisms and emotions. I find this interesting because my step-dad is a fraternal twin.
I also learned more about gender differences. Men are more likely to desire sex and think about sex. This is all because of gender differences in sexuality. In everyday life, people lable guys as more sexually out there, but now I see the statistics that prove it. This is interesting because just having a certain gender makes you more or less sexual.
Another thing I learned was about mating preferences. Women prefer men who seem mature, dominant, bold, and affluent. Men prefer youthful women who are healthy and fertile with smooth skin and who could be a homemaker. This is interesting because some men do just focus on looks and being taken care of when finding a mate. Yet, some women dig a little deeper to see who is going to be a good father, stick around, and be a good man to them in general.
The Evolutionary Psycholology and Sexual Attitudes video would not play when I tried to watch it.
The Natural Selection and Evolutionary Psychology video was all about genes. Some genes will get passed on, and some genes vanish in all different kinds of species. Every species is good at something because of their genes: birds are good at flying, fish are good at swimming, humans are good at thinking. Humans are survival machines for our genes!

Blog Post #4

The video I chose to watch was "The Mind: Awake and Asleep". This video talked all about the consciousness of our brains and our brain processes, whether they are conscious or not. I learned that the conscious part of our brains organizes our thoughts, much like an interior designer would do for a bedroom. Our consciousness also pieces together story lines so things make sense to us. This is relevent to me because I'm always trying to organize my thoughts and make sense of things, especially while being a student. What is interesting is that we do so many things unconsciously without even thinking about it, such as walking and breathing.
Another thing I learned was once you learn a skill, there's only a minimized awareness needed to carry out that skill. This effects me because that's exactly how I feel when I'm doing my job, most of the time I feel like I'm just going through the motions and my mind is completely somewhere else.
What suprised me most in this section was all about the dream aspect. Why we dream... to file away memories, to satisfy our own wishes. It's nice to have a little insight on why I dream what I dream.
I didn't really find anything that I dissagree with. But I do agree with many things such as when you experience some sort of trauma in your life, you are more likely to have negative dreams. A person in my life was in a car accident a few years ago, and she still has bad dreams about the car accident.

Blog Post #3

The first activity I did was "Ambigous Figures". In that activity, it shows you numerous photos that could be perceived as one picture or another, for example you either see a skull or a woman looking into a mirror. What I learned from this acvtivity was that everyone sees things differently because we are all unique so our brains will see different things. What suprised me about this activity was that ambiguity is very present in our every day life, and now that I think of it, that is very true. I can apply this to my everyday life by trying to look at things differently. I am stubborn, so sometimes I only think of things one way, but I should try to be more open which makes me want to interact with the world differently.
The second activity I did was "Seeing More Than Your Eye Does". In this activity you are supposed to close your left eye and focus on the cross figure, without looking at the dot. At a certain point, the dot dissapears. What i learned from this activity was that you have blindspots with your eyesight, and sometimes your brain will make up something that you aren't actually seeing. I was very suprised to learn that the brain would make up a dot that I wasn't actually seeing. I can apply this to my everyday life by paying closer attention to my blindspots and consider them more thoroughly. This activity changed the way i perceive my brain... I'm suprised it would make up that dot!
One thing I learned from this unit was when you take an opiate drug such as heroine or morphine, your brain may stop producing it's own natural opiates. Then when the drug is withdrawn, the brain may be deprived from any opiates which causes intense discomfort. This could effect how a person processes and percieves information because this person would very depressed and physically hurting, so their bain processes would be very negative. This makes me think about the brain differently now because you can basically mutilate your brain.
Another thing I learned was that if you see two pictures on a screen, the image on the right side will be processed in the left side of your brain. The image on the left will be processed in right side of your brain. We percieve and process information so in depth, I had no clue it was so complex. With the brain, I never would have thought things get processed in different parts of the brain at the same exact time when you are looking at images right next to each other.
"The Man With Two Brains" was very interesting to me. I never would have thought that a person could live with their brain split and function almost completely as a normal person. He can draw two different shapes simultaneously because of his split brain surgery, which is very cool. I think that it's a very positive aspect that he no longer has to deal with having seizures everyday, even if he is a little bit different than us with one brain.

Blog Post #2, Thinking Critically

The importance of research is plentiful. Research allows us to learn new things, to prove that certain things are true, and to disprove things that are wrong. Research helps us to learn more about our minds, bodies, health, and everything in the world. Without research, we would be ignorant to many things that are important to know today.
On PsyBlog, i read the article "Sit Up Straight! Be Confident!". As a highschool student, I see lots of slouchers on a daily basis, but hey I'm a sloucher too! I think it's funny how the article said that the people who were sitting straight and erect were more confident and thought more positive things about themselves. Yes, I am a person who slouches, but I am very confident, and I truly believe that I have a wonderful future ahead of me. Even though the research in this article reported that straight-backed students thought more positively of themselves, many teenagers slouch. I'm not saying every single teenager has bad posture, but many do. Does that mean that many teenagers think negatively of themselves? According to the reseach in this article, it does. I thought that this research was relevant because it goes against how I feel. I'm sure that this research is not accurate for some other teenagers as well.
One thing I learned from this chapter was hindsight bias. Hindisight bias is important because it shows us that we can't always rely on common sense, sometimes we need to dig deeper and actually use facts to make descions. Common sense does not easily describe what will happen, so in that case, we need research.Another thing I learned more about was critical thinking. Critical thinking is so important because we use it everyday, and it's very important to use when making important decisions. Critical thinking is also known as smart thinking. It may take more energy and time to use critical thinking, but it will probably be worth it. Another thing I learned about were wording effects. Wording effects are interesting and important because they enlighten us on how other people view things. Some people would rather "censor" ads than "not allow" them. People are less likely to approve of "welfare" rather than "aiding the needy". I find this amusing, but I'm sure that I'm also guilty of wording effects.

Section 1- First Formal Blog

Before starting Psychology class, i basically just considered psychology "the study of the mind".
Now I found out that it goes so much deeper than that. The idea of psychology has been around forever, because people have had emotions and feelings forever. Psychology is a never-ending topic, because everyday scientists are finding out more and more about our brains and how we act. Way back in the first times of studying psychology, scientists were limited to their findings, but now with all the amazing technology, we can find out so much more.

Chapter 1 enlightened me that we, as humans, are "overconfident". I loved reading about that because I know almost all of us have had a test the next day, but instead of studying that night, we go out with our friends, or relax on the computer. We are so confident that during school the next day we'll be able to study for 10 minutes and pass the test with flying colors. Most of the time, your score on the test will show that you really should have studied.
Psychology affects every single persons life. It affects my life because I think, I feel, I cry, I laugh. I show emotions, I show love. If psycology wasn't apart of our lives, we would all just be walking around like weird robots.

One thing I found interesting was the study that Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark reported, in 1947, when African-American children were given a choice between Black and White dolls, most African-American children chose the white doll. I found this so interesting, because I would think that the African-American children would prefer to identify with themselves rather than with white people, because of comfort and firmiliarity.

Another thing i found interesting was when Angelo and Maria Gallina won two California lottery games on the same day! I was just wowed when i read that because that's so random, but bound to happen at least one time. Random events cause weird things to happen!

Introductory Blog Post

My name is Taylre and I attend Stratford High School. I am seventeen and I'm a senior this year at Stratford. I believe that my mom has shaped me to be the person I am. She instilled me with good morals, respect, and manners because she has those qualities in herself.
The study of Psychology is so important because doctors and physiatrists need to understand the mind to help people and expand our knowledge of the human mind.
Psychology is the study of the mind, understanding the mind. Understanding why we do what we do...