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!