Psych 1001 Section 010 and 011 Fall 2011

Those makes life changing even after five years of this class

2011-12-07T15:25:56Z

The concept which I could remember for five years from today is the 6 scientific thinking concepts learnt in Chapter 1. I think I could remember this even more than five years because it is quite useful in daily life and in my career in the future.
By having good understand those scientific thinking theories and fallacies we could fall into, I could use them to avoid real life problems and applied them into my further study in social psychology and economics.
For me, when learning economics and business, people's thinking plays quite an important role in it because the whole business world and economics environment are shaped by people who runs and functioning in them. When analysis an macroeconomic changes in real world, I could apply scientific thinking concepts about thinking other explanation than what we have right now trying to figure out what is the main reason cause economic situation changes at that point, weather is social prospection in stock market or government new policies, or even the development of a new industry. Furthermore, by knowing the existence of confirmation bias, I could make wiser choice in the future by intentionally value a question with objective view instead following enthusiastic and initial feeling about it, which will help in both career and private life.
I will trying to combine those scientific principles with my initial value of world from my own culture, a crush of western scientific thinking and oriental mentally concepts, to shaping a sympathetic yet objective value standard to guide my life.

Conformity at its Worst

2011-12-06T02:14:52Z

Prejudice can be defined as an attitude with three components: affective or emotional, cognitive, and behavioral tendencies. The affective or emotional component deals with fear, distrust, dislike, negative evaluations, etc. The cognitive component deals with inaccurate generalizations, negative stereotypes, etc. The behavioral tendencies include avoidance, discrimination, genocide, hate crime, etc. We can see that these components occur in chronological order to create a racist person.
Today, racism is still occurring, although according to research, it is much less pervasive. Unfortunately, we can still find groups like the skinheads and the KKK who find themselves superior to those of different ethnic backgrounds. One example we can find is by looking at the presidential election of 2008. In this election, it was reported that 26% of the time, race was an issue. But prejudice and discrimination prevail less compared to in the past.
One great example of prejudice that has occurred in the past relates to World War II in which prejudice led to the murder of approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime. Adolf Hitler was the leader in this genocide. He claimed that Jews, as well as gypsies, homosexuals, and mentally and physically disabled patients were a priority danger to Germany. By constructing concentration camps, Hitler and the Nazis were able to rid Germany of such inferiority and threat. Here, Jews and other deeming dangerous prisoners were forced to do hard labor with little food and the threat of being killed by gas chambers, daily shootings, etc. But what could lead people to cause such harm to innocent people? The simple answer is conformity.
Through the suggestive speeches of Hitler, people disregarded their morals and turned to destruction to create a purposive better society. Here is a youtube link with English subtitles of one of Hitler's speeches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGhdX1SI3KY.
Through historical events and the findings of social psychological research, we are able to see just how much conformity prevails. One good experiment to back up the great significance of conformity was done by Asch, who through line tests, found that approximately 75% of the participants went along with the rest of the group at least once.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/p/conformity.htm

Psychic?

2011-12-05T20:49:13Z

There are many things from this course that stuck out to me and that I will remember. One thing I always come back to and think about is ESP. When I was younger, I could have sworn that I had ESP. I felt like I could predict everything before it happened. As I got older, I noticed it less but always thought still that I was some freak of nature. Now that I have learned about it in Psychology, it all makes sense. Though it may seem like magic a lot of the time, I have realized that a lot of what I thought was ESP was actually just coincidental. Since the class started I have been noticing the times where I would have previously thought I was psychic, like picking up my cellphone right before it started ringing or running into a friend on the street I had been thinking about. I have also tried to notice all of the times where it did not happen, for example when I am thinking about someone, but don't see them. I have realized that it truly is coincidence that these things happen. More often than not, I think about something, and sure enough it does not happen. Because of psychology class, I have recently become more aware of preconceived notions I had about many things.

what i will remember

2011-12-05T06:17:39Z

What I will remember from this class for years to come was the section on common sense in the first chapter. There is a particular section that addresses the notion that we do not notice contradictions until they are pointed out to us. They give the following examples that, when actually read side by side, seem to be contradictions:
1. Birds of a feather flock together 6. Opposites attract.
2. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. 7. Out of sight, out of mind.
3. Better safe than sorry. 8. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
4. Two heads are better than one. 9. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
5. Actions speak louder that words. 10. The pen is mightier than the sword.
Based on common sense we tend to agree with these. The authors of the text book would have you re-evaluate the phrases in comparison to the ones across from them. I disagree that they are contradictions. For example, 3 and 8, "better safe than sorry" is about being prepared for out comes that are less favorable. "nothing ventured, nothing gained" is about taking risks. Who says the two are never both true? You can be prepared and take risks at the same time. 2 and 7, these two are used for two very different feelings towards something. "out of sight out of mind" is used for unfavorable things. "absence makes the heart grow fonder" is for things you love, or care for. They are true under certain conditions.
What I will take away from this is be critical of anything we see as common sense, and look for biases in anything you read.
source: the table of proverbs is on page 5 of the textbook for the class.

Also, I wanted to pose a question based on one of the diagrams from the first chapter if anyone can recall from the confirmation bias. When it asks you to turn over two cards of four, they are trying to prove the bias that people will look for the answer they want. When I posed this same scenario to several of my friends, I asked all of them who chose E and 5 why they did so. They all said the same thing, "well it said if it has odd on the one side it has to have a vowel on the other, and vice versa. " The actual hypothesis only said vowel means odd number on other side. They were more fooled by the wording then trying to prove it right or wrong. Does this test have a confirmation bias itself? Would differently wording the question yield the same response?
page 8 of the textbook.

Milgram Experiment

2011-12-05T06:04:29Z

The effects of the Milgram experiment will reside with me for many years. The level of obedience participants had to authority figures surprised Milgram himself. If you look at the video of the original Milgram study one man was reduced to tears. He was visibly shaken and even went as far as apply a legal electrical shock, all because a man in a white coat told him to. The ramifications of this study are just scary. Ordinary people administered legal shocks after simply being told by an unknown authority figure. They followed blindly because they viewed him as an authoritative figure. The implication of this study has been viewed many times throughout history. The obvious examples are the Jewish and Darfur genocides. We must educate ourselves about this history so we can prevent such incidents in the future. It is crucial for people to remember to questioning authority. One must never followed blindly and always question authority.

Five Years Later

2011-12-05T05:46:29Z

I think I will remember quite a lot from psychology in the future. Much of what we learned applies in everyday life and I already find myself analyzing people and situations in different ways without evening trying. I have to say that I actually find much of psychology useless in enhancing society and I have already argued plenty of times with my roommate who believes highly in the importance of psychology. Because of this I think much of it will stick with me for awhile. The one thing I won't forget is "fake" memories. I don't know why this was ingrained in my head so well, but I never knew how easily the mind and memories could be altered.

This is a classic study that the textbook also mentions. I find it interesting that this type of memory creation is possible. It makes me be more hesitant in trusting others when they recall past events. Not only can memories be changed or created, but just the fact that people perceive the same situations differently, so aspects can true and false. This also has implications on eye witness accounts and testimonies of people in lawful situations.

Most of psychology deals with the mind and memories are no different. I'll remember the mind's ability to alter memories to make them true past events. This topic will be a real memory of mine in the future and will effect how I view certain situations.

Racism in Books

2011-12-05T05:44:24Z

There have been many different books that have had claims of racism. Many of these books are children's books. There could be a variety of reason on why there are hints of racism in these books. These books were written and published a long time ago. Books like Huckleberry Fin and Pippi Longstocking are all books that were written a while back, but are still enjoyed by children today.

There is an interesting dichotomy here. On one hand we have priceless classics that are primarily targeting children, and on the other hand we have these books that have some unacceptable terms or overlying ideas. The question is how do these books effect children? From an outside perspective, I think it must plant the seed of question in children. In lecture, we learned that most modern racism is ties with cognition. After reading such book children will start asking question such as what is this word? Why do these children do this and the other children do this?

In lecture, it was said the best ways to desegregate were:
· Start Early

· Employ equal status contact

So what can be done? Should we ban these books from school? There have been a few times where Huckleberry Fin has been banned from various places.

I think we should just "modernize" them. I think if we do this we can have the best of both worlds. We can keep the classic books and we can let the young future generation read them. The future generation will then get a sense of what the older books were like and avoid the maybe present racism.

Power of Authority

2011-12-05T05:35:07Z

After all I've learned throughout the Psychology 1001 course, what I will definitely remember 5 years down the road is the Milgram Experiment and its results. I thought it was absolutely shocking how many people went along with the experiment and administered higher and higher voltages of shocks to the learner even when he stopped responding and they knew how dangerous the shocks could be. I think learning about this experiment will help me make decisions in the future. It will help me remember that I should never blindly follow or listen to a figure of authority without asking questions first. Just because someone looks and dresses like a scientist does not mean that they have an infallible concept of morals. I think everyone should learn about this experiment because it is very eye-opening as to how authority can affect humanity. I think it is especially important because it is still relevant. Even though the original experiment took place in the 60s, the recent reenactment of the experiment by the British television show proved that the results obtained today are very similar to those obtained back then, so people are not any less obedient to authority figures today. Blind obedience is something that can lead this world down the wrong path, and everyone should be aware of its effects.

Scientific Principle: A lesson to live by

2011-12-05T05:28:21Z

Psychology has been an excellent source of insight into the realm of the human brain. Above all, the information I found most useful and will always take with me was the first unit we covered. The section that stood out and that I put to use almost daily are the principles of scientific reasoning.

As I evaluate situations in my daily life I put these principles to work to ensure I see the issue as it truly is and don't let the symptoms and claims cloud my reasoning.

Extraordinary claims is the first rule I live by and that will stay with me. The reason that this sticks out in my mind is because too often I'm told stories and facts that seem rather far fetched. I no longer take these claims as fact with the scientific principles in use. Occam's razor also goes along with extraordinary claims because I now look for the most simple explanation over all the hype, unless there is the extraordinary evidence to support the claim.

I am a now more rationally thinking person because I took this course. After I learned these principles to think scientifically, I make better decisions and give better advice as well.

Following Your Peers

2011-12-05T05:17:27Z

As we have all seen in class, conformity is a very real part of social psychology. The Solomon Asch study is a prime example of this. In the study it provides evidence that people will go along with authority no matter how dire the consequences. Specifically in this study, people were told to shock other human and when they resisted they were told to continue by a doctor. Many of the participants continued based solely on the fact that it was a doctor that was instructing them.

Following authority blindly can be seen all over real life. A large scale example of this would be the Nazi regime in Germany. The people in the Nazi regime followed the orders of Hitler and the results were devastating. On a smaller scale conformity is seen in everyday life with the concept of popular culture. Many kids these days do things to fit in with the crowd. This example of conformity is a very simple and an everyday event that also shows that conformity is huge in today's society.

So when you are doing something that you think is truly original, take a look at the people around you, and you may be sadly surpised.

What I Will Remember

2011-12-05T05:10:13Z

This class definitely gave me a different look on how our brains actually process things, and when I look back on it five years from now I am sure that I'll think all of this information is a lot more useful than I do now. One of the things that I think will stick with me the most is the segment we had on how the human brain learns. This section of study was incredibly interesting to me and I feel will be most applicable in coming years as the thought of a family becomes more prominent and having to teach a child how to walk and talk and all of those things will quickly become reality. The particular study pertaining to the Bobo doll is one that I believe will never fully leave my mind, as a child seeing something done by an adult seemed to immediately make it okay to replicate. This will make me infinitely more mindful of my actions around children and make sure any behavior I display is one that I would also be content with them displaying. This knowledge will help me every day, allowing me to both improve the way a child is learning by understanding how the brain learns and making sure they are learning the right things. It's a great thing to know, and I sure won't forget.

Things I Will Remember...

2011-12-05T05:09:27Z

Out of the 16 chapters in this one psychology book, how am I ever going to be able to choose just one topic to pick? It was very hard to narrow down what I would remember, because during this course, I am sure to take on to the future, a lot of handy material.

In 5 years, I will definitely remember the one and only Sigmund Freud. I don't know about any of you guys, but this dude is crazy! I find him to be an old perverted man. His findings about the stages of child development were a little creepy to me. Sex sex sex. That is all that this guy ever talked about. Psycho Psychologist? We'll never know. Ok. So I had to rant about that for 5 seconds.

An actual topic that had me really interested was classical conditioning, punishment and reinforcement. As a teenager, I was a nanny for a couple summers. This had me thinking about how to keep kids in line. With punishments and reinforcers, this actually pertains to real life situations in dealing with children, and having good parenting skills. In 5 years, many of us will probably be in this situation of having to raise kids. If you still understand these concepts in 5 years, I'm sure you'll make a great parent.

One other topic that I will most likely remember is that Nature vs. Nurture debate. This is such a huge topic in psychology. This was visited almost every single chapter. And actually I looked up a bunch of different studies just because I found this topic very entertaining to hear all the different sides of the argument. What a great debate. But this can relate to every day situations. Why does that person act that way? Is their aggression gene related, or does that come from other outside sources? What about alcohol abuse? Did they grow up with seeing their own parents abuse alcohol, or is it gene related? The possibilities are endless! And the curiosity will forever remain for me.

5 years from now

2011-12-05T04:52:07Z

5 years from now, the psychology concept I will most likely remember is the Dutton & Aron bridge study, maybe not the names of the psychologists who performed the study, but definitely the concept behind the study. The concept behind the Dutton and Aron bridge study is a useful one. It comes from the two-factor theory which is a "theory proposing that emotions are produced by an undifferentiated state of arousal along with an attribution (explanation) of that arousal (Lilienfeld 412). It says that situations that cause high states of arousal produce certain emotions. Dutton and Aron's bridge study helped prove this theory. They had a male-female encounter on either a stable bridge or a swaying bridge. The female asked the males a survey and then provided the males with her phone number in case they had any questions. 30% of males in the stable bridge condition called the female, and 60% of males in the swaying bridge study called her. This finding can be useful in everyday life. If trying to meet a lady or gentlemen, you may be so inclined to participate in arousing situations such as rock climbing, or snow boarding, or any activities which cause a large amount of arousal. If your current relationship is fizzling, it may help to do something exciting with your partner to reignite those flames.

Principles of Scientific Thinking, Principle of Life

2011-12-05T04:51:48Z

The principles of scientific thinking will be the Psychology 1001 lesson that will remain with me the longest. These principles are important because they are applicable to psychology, other sciences, and the world. Ruling out rival hypotheses will help me to determine whether something is the real result or if another hypothesis could explain the idea presented to me. Correlation vs. causation is perhaps the most important as it is the most commonly disregarded. Correlation vs. causation will come in handy when someone simply presents statistics and claims that one of the variables proves the other. Falsifiability is rather simple, but still essential when reviewing claims. Replicability is important for any sort of research across academia. Extraordinary claims is a great rule of thumb for anything in life. Occam's razor is a good principle to follow when trying to explain things. These principle go far beyond psychology and I will apply them to all aspects of my life, in conversations, in school, and in decision making.

Marketing Manipulation

2011-12-05T04:31:27Z

While reading Chapter 13 from the textbook, on social psych, I noticed that many of the ideas being addressed are quite noticeable in real life; especially, conformity. Any person that went through a public school system can tell you that conformity most definitely exists. During my time, especially in Junior High, such things such as a certain brand of sneakers, music, clothes etc, were very popular. So popular in fact, that if you did not wear those specific brands, you stuck out. For example, sketchers were very popular, and continue to be:

In essence, if you didn't conform, you weren't apart of the acceptable group. Within this same chapter they discuss celebrity endorsements, and this ties in hugely with conformity: when celebrities endorse something, honed to a certain gender or age, that specific group is very likely to buy that product. The more they purchase said product, the more popular it becomes, and the more likely that everyone within that age group will want to conform and fit in. It made me realize, that of course, marketers and companies will take advantage of this psychological state of mind as well as the insecurities that drive people to fit in, so that their product sells.

The most interesting part is that conformity and endorsement does not just stop at tangible products: it works with words as well. A couple years ago the phrase 'finna' popped up in a Black Eyed Peas song. They rap and sing, and would mostly fit in the R&B genre of music. 'Finna' means 'gonna' which of course means 'going to'. Because of one word in one song, slowly but surely 'finna' started spreading: first among those who listen to the Black Eyed Peas and similar music (because other artists were using it as well) and slowly it trickled down until almost any teenager you ask will know what it means. I believe even I've used it once or twice, even if it has been in a joking manner. But from all this, I've definitely learned one thing: psychology is, without a doubt, seen everywhere in the real world.

Now that video of conformity we saw of the people facing the wrong way in the elevator may not seem so silly, because we follow equally odd trends all the time. 'Finna' is just one trend that seems unfamiliar to many age groups, but that is what conformity is: often times it makes absolutely no sense, but we want to feel like we know what we're doing and we are apart of "the group". Still interested? Google searching 'conformity and hipsters' will bring up many hits of what is and isn't mainstream, what's cool and what's not. However, being outside of high school and the silly trends that come along with it, it's much easier to see now that cool is what you make of it.