December 2011 Archives

I think one of the most overlooked senses is the sense of taste. Most people kind of just take it for granted and never really appreciate the fact that a very special, complex system allows us to enjoy food and drink. The main organ in taste is obviously the tongue. The tongue has many tiny litttle taste buds that help in the process of tasting. These taste buds send information to the brain so we can identify the taste. The tongue has five to six different kinds of taste it reponds to: salty, sour, bitter, unami and maybe fat. Now fat may not exactly be a a responds from taste, but it does do something to the tongue. Fat also alters blood levels of fat when placed on the tongue. Probably the most fascinating thing about the sense of taste are the supertasters. A supertaster has more than the average amount of taste buds. Supertasters can find things to be too sugary or too bitter. They would be very good as professional food tasters. The sense of taste is a great thing. One of my favorite shows growing up, and I recently found out that it is coming back in late November or early December, was Fear Factor. I enjoyed watching people eat all the gross things on there like worms, and scorpions. Without taste we wouldn't be able to enjoy watching others suffer from eating gross food. Without taste I feel like my whole life would be bland.

Standardized tests, the two words have haunted and irritated students ever since their education began.Tests such as the SAT, ACT, and IQ can accurately show how intelligent someone is as well as predict future academic success. This is why they play such a large role in college admissions today. They continually have become a staple in the acceptance of students. Some studies have shown though, that these tests have a low correlation between score and college grades. So the question is, should colleges place so much importance on standardized test scores? Most people don't like the idea of one test showing what someone has learned in four years, but standardized tests do a great job of predicting future success. This is why colleges have put so much emphasis on these scores and will continue to do so in the future.

Many of the new concepts that we have learned in Psychology seem to show up every where in today's world. One of the most useful, though, is the concept of how we learn. The idea of chunking and how the brain picks up on new ideas is fascinating. Before I read the chapter I had no idea the complex system of how this works. The basic thought of "chunking" is that our brain groups similar items together versus learning them separately. This drastically increases our chances of remembering and fully understanding the concept. I liked this part of psychology the most because it can help me with how I study and learn new things in school. With this new idea in mind, I can more grasp future concepts better as well as understand them more efficiently.

It is commonly believed that men think about sex a lot. In fact, some people go so far as to say that men think about sex once every 7 seconds. Is this claim true? What evidence does the claim depend on? Well, according to snopes.com, the claim isn't true. Snopes.com goes further to discredit one of the sources of evidence supposedly proving the claim.

So why do people believe this claim? It, apparently, has a lot to do with genetics and common assumptions about human nature. Snopes.com notes that men are generally more motivated for sexual reasons that females, but snopes.com also mentions that this condition isn't due to some conscious motivation, choice, or social learning; this sexual motivation is due to how males are physically wired -- genetics. From this knowledge, though, the data have been misconstrued to 'show' that men think about sex constantly, or at least once every 7 seconds. Without any actual data to support the claim, though, the notion doesn't withstand its own weight.

Actual experimental data demonstrate that men think about sex 19 times per day which computes to less than once per hour (not considering hours of sleep because it's impossible to say given the subjects in the study as described on snopes.com). Women aren't immune to sexual thoughts, though, as they think about sex 10 times per day. Following this, to say that men think about sex every 7 seconds would then mean that women think about sex every 14~ seconds. However, it's clearly been demonstrated that men aren't so enthralled by sex as to think about it nearly constantly. The data do not support the claim.

The concept of developmental psychology has intrigued me the most when watching my nephew and my friend's child growing up. I first learned about developmental psychology and Piaget's Stages of Development in my senior year of high school, so two years ago. That was around the time my friend's child was about one and a half, and my sister had her child about six months after my senior year. I think it is fun to watch the children grow up and I sort of "analyze" what stage they are in. According to Piaget's theory, my nephew is in the sensorimotor stage. Like most babies, he looks at what is happening in life with curious eyes, and still loves the peek-a-boo game. He is also learning to say words, right now just at the usual "mom," "dad," "Ray," and "gamma" for me and my mom. My friend's child would currently be in the preoperational stage, and she is now talking (more than baby talk) and learning to pay attention. She also is playing with toys more than banging them around like she used to do, so she is gaining knowledge of objects as representations of ideas. It was also interesting watch her grow because she would spend a lot of time with her grandma, who is deaf. She has learned some sign language, and can sign things such as "more," "food," and a lot of other signs. It has been so delightful watching my nephew and friend's child grow and think about what stages they are in.

After learning about conditioning in psychology I realized I could use it to my advantage. There are a couple of ways you could use it.

One way is to overcome your fears easier. If you are afraid of something figure out what makes you afraid of it and face that. Lets say someone is afraid to swim because they almost drowned when they were younger. They could swim in a safe environment numerous times and lessen the fear of drowning.

Another way is to condition body movements. Such as conditioning yourself to melee in Call of Duty. After getting killed repeatedly by another players melee you would learn that you need to press melee faster. So after time and trial you would be able to melee as soon as an enemy pops out in range.

Since we were all small children (and maybe even more now that we are college students) we have been asking our parents and guardians for things. A raise in our allowance, a car on our 16th birthday, or maybe just some extra spending money, we all have our own strategies we think increases our chances to get what we want. But if we listen to social psychologists, we can use an approach that has been proven much more effective to get what we want. The most realistic approach to attain our goals is to try a direct approach, where those we are trying to persuade know what we are up to. This is used by advertisers and in political campaigns because a direct approach attempts to change others' attitudes toward an idea in hopes that their behavior will follow. If we wish to be a bit sneakier, we can try either the foot in the door or door in the face approaches. A foot in the door approach would be us asking our parents first for a five dollar increase in our allowance and once they accept asking instead for a ten dollar increase. This differs from the door in the face approach which would have us first asking for a hundred dollar allowance raise; knowing our parents will say no, we would then request that ten dollar raise knowing their much more likely to say yes to that now. Personally, I have always had a very high allowance because I tell my mother she is very beautiful as often as possible. So keep in mind I have never needed to ask for a raise when you are weighing out your options!

I have dealt with a lot of foreigners in my life. My family have had many exchange students in the past. We've had some from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Germany, Ecuador and a few more I can't think of right now. The thing that caught my attention was the section on individualism and collectivism in relation to culture. With all these students coming in and out of the house I was bound to learn things not only about them as a person but about the place they lived. They really did think of thinks differently. Most of the kids from Europe were very fond of themselves. They were great but you could definetely tell that they thought of themselves more. I played soccer with many of them and the Europeans tended to act like they wer superior and didn't need the help of others. The Zimbabwean, Ecuadorean, and the many Japanese students that lived with us were way more team oriented. When I was in Japan we had a pick up game in the park. As my host brothers started to play they were passing so fast and hardly kept the ball to themselves. An example of the individualism would be a Finnish player that came and played my soccer team in high school. The rest of my team really disliked playing with him after a while because he would not give the ball up to save his life.

Positive psychology is an important new area of psychology. Rather than focusing on individuals with mental disabilities or those who are psychologically challenged, positive psychology is all about helping people realize how they can find happiness and fulfillment in their lives. A large part of positive psychology is the self actualized individual. A self actualized person is described as someone whose personality contains a few main characteristics: acceptance and realism, personal responsibility and strong ethics, spontaneity, autonomy and solitude, continued freshness of appreciation of the world and experiences, and has peak experiences, or moments of intense excitement and tranquility because of a profound sense of connection to the world. Some people that have been recognized as self actualized individuals are Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Helen Keller, and Mahatma Gandhi. Maslow views a self actualized individual as someone who has reached their highest potential and are doing the best that they are possible capable of doing. Seeing the list of characteristics next to the list of extremely accomplished individuals can make the journey of self actualization sound extremely unattainable. Yet it is just the opposite! One of the biggest outlooks of a self actualized individual is the understanding that the journey is just as important as achieving the goal. Although the idea of self actualization is not easily falsified, the idea behind it is to better yourself as an individual to be the best that you can possibly be. So think 'What Would Jefferson Do' and enjoy your journey!

Five years from now, I admit that I probably won't remember everything from this psychology class. However, I am almost positive that I will remember the section on the relationships we seek with others. I will remember most people will be secure, avoidant, or anxious in their relationships. I think that I will remember this because I consider this section to affect my daily living the most out of all the rest. My relationships with others affects who I am as a person and I now feel confident in my ability to understand what kind of person they are in the relationship so I can better react to what they need or want. Also, I will now know that I won't be able to get along with everyone, especially if my significant other is avoidant if I am secure or vice versa. We all want something different in a relationship but understanding these differences is crucial to maintaining them. In my opinion, it is impossible for us to live completely alone and we need to be able to maintain relationships with other people for survival. Although I won't go up to people and ask them "Are you secure, avoidant, or anxious?" and then decide if I want to be friends with them, I will keep these in mind after I begin this relationship and know how to deal with each individual person.

This semester, I've learned a lot in Psychology. This was my first Psychology class and I found it really interesting. I think I'll remember many of the topics I've learned. One topic in particular I think I'll remember is Developmental Psychology.
I come from a large family. With 5 younger siblings, you can imagine how I was able to relate the topics in Developmental Psychology to my everyday life. I could look back and say, "Oh! I remember when Matthias(my youngest brother) learned to walk and talk! This all makes sense." I even joked with my mom about using the Strange Situation on my newest sibling when she is one year old!
The addition of my newest sibling, makes developmental psychology something that I will remember easily. I find myself recalling Piaget's stages of development and the attachment types as I watch her grow. Interesting, and perhaps the best way to relate Psychology to everyday life-watching it happen!
In conclusion, I have greatly enjoyed my semester with Psych 1001. I have learned many things that I can relate to my everyday life, especially when it comes to my younger siblings! The recalls I experience now, will definitely continue in the years to come, as I continue to watch my siblings grow.

I've learned a lot of things in Psych 1001 this semester. I enjoyed learning about each area of psychology from memories to conditioning, but the thing I think I'll remember the most in 5 years are the Big Five personality traits. First of all because the acronym; OCEAN is easy to remember. Second because a person's personality can affect careers and relationships. A person's personality is something that relationships can be built around. If someone has a neurotic personality they might not get along with someone with an extroversive personality. In addition to relationships people's personalities can affect a workplace. Would your personality type dictate the type of work space you prefer? Perhaps if someone is slightly neurotic they would prefer a more minimalist, structured office while someone who is more extraverted would like a more free-spirited, unstructured work environment. People's personalities affect most aspects of daily life so it will be important later in my life to identify a person's personality. Be it in the workplace a relationship or a social environment it will be important to remember the Big Five personality traits.

Of all the concepts we have studied in introductory psychology, one small little tidbit really stuck with me. Very early on in the class we learned about thinking scientifically and different biases that are very likely to be present in just about everyone. I am especially interested in the confirmation bias. The confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and/or dismiss evidence that contradicts the solution we are seeking. Upon reading about the confirmation bias for the first time, I had to stop for a moment to really let it all sink in. The only thought that went through my head after careful consideration was, "It all makes sense now". I instantly knew that I had certainly experience the confirmation bias both in and out of science classes over the years, I just hadn't realized that it was a regular psychological concept.
The confirmation bias is shown wonderfully through Wason's Selection Task. The task is simple: there are four cards on a table. Two cards show letters: one a vowel, one a noun. The other two cards show numbers: one odd, one even. Then, you are asked to prove the statement, "If a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an odd number on the other side." You are only allowed to choose two cards to flip in order to prove the aforementioned hypothesis. The first instinctual choice tends to be flipping the vowel and the odd number. However, this actually cannot prove the hypothesis because you don't know if the even number shown has a vowel or a consonant on the other side. Upon falling for Wason's test, I realized just how prevalent the confirmation bias can be in our daily lives. Knowing what I do now, there's no way I can ever go back to blindly favoring one option because it supports my thoughts.

What is psychology? The study of the mind? Ok, I can get that, but what does things does it deal with? Well, there's Pavlov's dogs and theory, there are studies of babies, of emotion, there are things like Rorschach tests and self-report tests. There are a million different biases and a whole bunch of wacky history and odd things like Eugenics. But, if someday in the future, some random day 5 years from now, I were to sit down and try to think of what I learned in Psychology, there can be no doubt in my mind that it would be the 6 principles of psychology. These 6 things have become so drilled into my mind that they randomly jump out at me in real life scenarios. "Hey Jay, have you heard that the reason why fat people get diabetes is because they drink Mello Yello?" "Well gosh," I think to myself, that most likely isn't true, obviously someone forgot that correlation doesn't mean causation! There is no way for me to think nowadays without these 6 principles somehow coming up, and I can't see that ever going away, not even in 5 years. Is that really a bad thing? No, it's not, and I can safely say that all in all, psychology was a good class for me, because pulling out even one thing that I will remember forever tells me that I am in some way different. So, in a weird sense, in a class about how the mind changes and works, psychology changed me.

After never previously taking a Psychology course, I feel I have learned an insane amount of information over the past three months. From dreaming, to drugs, to development, I now feel that I have a better understanding of the human mind.
The one, or six to be exacts, thing I will remember from this course, are the Six Scientific Principles. Throughout each chapter, these Principles were ingrained into our minds by constantly popping up in the margins of our readings. I learned that in order to successfully think scientifically, I have to remember the six principles: ruling out rival hypothesizes, correlation isn't causation, falsifiability, replicability, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and Occam's razor.
Never before had I ever heard of the scientific principles. The reason I believe they are truly useful, is because they do not only apply only to the field of Psychology. These principles can be used in all of the scientific fields to ensure that research findings can hold their own and be considered credible.
After learning SO much information in such a small amount of time, I know I won't remember every detail I learned in Psychology 1001. Although, I do believe I will remember the Six Scientific Principles.

Of the principles we learned this year, I believe the idea behind "Occam's Razor" will stay with me the longest. It can be applied to every question in life, especially the rare but important ones. In the near future I will be presumably overwhelmed by a plethora of major questions, most of which will be life changing. I think if I can effectively use Occam's concept, I will be able to reassure myself in the decisions I make. One interesting thing about this concept is that we use it more than we know. Probably for insignificant events such as ordering food at a restaurant or choosing which shampoo to buy, but it's there. I had heard of Occam's Razor before taking this class, but I was never able to identify it in my own life, or even know when to use it. The reason why I think this is a good idea to retain from Psy 1001 is because I would not have needed to learn the concept or memorize the concept to use it, given that it has been subconsciously used my whole life. Not only will I remember this idea in 5 years, but I will in 20, 50, and hopefully many more!

Five years from now, I suggest that I'll remember types of biases the most vividly. Specifically, I'll remember how people hear what they want to hear; people see what they want to see; people find evidence for what they believe. These types of biases are the most apparent in everyday life because they happen in so many varying situations and are committed by so many people. As our textbook discussed, even scientists fall to bias every once in a while. It is for this very reason that I'll remember these biases the best. Every time, which is sure to be many, I see examples of these biases, I'll be reminded of psychology.
It's also likely true that I will remember them outside of seeing them first hand because I'm sure that I'll fall victim to at least one of them eventually. Being human, it seems impossible to avoid all cases of biased behavior. This is especially true considering one doesn't even realize they are occurring most of the time. Even so, however, the knowledge that bias exists is enough to bring the ideas to mind. Simply realizing that these biases exist may be enough to prevent some instances of biased behavior from ever happening.

There is such a vast variety of things that will influence me from psychology for years to come. One of these influences is to the way I think. Thinking critically is a very useful tool to develop. To be unbiased and keep an open mind to every part of psychology is important. Even so, one must make sure they apply critical thinking to different parts of life to keep logic in every situation. When evaluating advertisements, listening to stories and reading articles, critical thinking can be used to address a sources' validity. As a student at a post-secondary institution, I expect that I will develop the ability to think critically and that will be a part of developing intellectually in college. Through use of the 6 critical thinking tools; falsifiability, replicability, causation vs. correlation, alternate hypothesis consideration and occam's razor and extraordinary claims, people will be less susceptible to believe false things and they can think more logically. Applying these 6 tools will be key to future success in our college careers and eventually, in our jobs and for the rest of our life. These tools have already proved useful to me when doing research in other classes and I am glad this course has highlighted them for us.

Many people believe that shaving hair causes it to grow backer thicker and fuller than it was prior to shaving. This belief rose from the observation that short hairs feel tougher than longer hair, but this is do not to the fact that it is thicker but simply because it is shorter and as with other objects, like a stick, the longer it is the more flexible but as it gets shorter it becomes harder to bend. Shaving hair does not make it grow back fuller or thicker because the part that is shaven is actually the dead part of the hair and the living part that dictates growth lies underneath the surface of the scalp. This rumor does not adhere to the scientific thinking principle of extraordinary claims because although hair appears to be thicker after shaving, upon closer scientific scrutiny it is revealed to be false. It is an extraordinary claim that does not have evidence to support it and is therefore scientifically unsound reasoning.

In psychology I actually learned a lot more than I had thought I would. I don't plan to major in psychology or even take any more psychology classes but I still think I will use what I learned throughout life. My favorite and most memorable subject in psychology had to be the topic of Social Psychology. I think social psychology will definitely be huge as I progress through life, mainly because it's already such a huge part of my life. People use social psychology without even realizing. Whenever we interpret someone's actions or try to "figure someone out" we use social psychology. I look forward to interacting with people whether they're close friends or strangers. Someday I'd like to have a career in an area that allows me to hone and utilize my people skills. Learning more about social psychology will help me to improve my relations with others and ultimately be more successful intrapersonally. I rely on my ability to understand people in certain situations to get ahead. I know how to interpret emotions and get to the bottom of the situation. Social psychology already helps me so much and it should continue to help me throughout my lifetime.

If there's one thing I learned in psychology, though there have been many, it is that people often see or hear what they want to believe. Whether that be through confirmation bias, experimentor bias, or really any sort of bias, or even just subconsciously. Though we try to be as open as we can, we really just end up leaning towards the outcome we want anyway. Some people think that this phenomena is jsut because we want to think of ourselves as being right, which may not be far off in some cases. After all, who can truly say that they enjoy being wrong? But personally, I think that people see or hear what they want to believe because it's safer. It's a comfort thing. People may be biased toward their own beliefs or ways of life simply because that's all they've known, that's what they're comfortable with, and that's the way they want things to stay. I have the nagging feeling that this concept is what will remain the longest in my brain, because undoubtedly, I will come across it many times in real life. It's one thing to learn something from a book, but when that concept can be operatively crossed over into real life, that's when you know you have something. Not only will I remember this and hopefully be able to recognize it in others, but I will be able to recognize it in myself. I want to be as open as I possibly can to the world, even if that means seeing what I don't want to believe.

Out of all the various and broad topics discussed during this introductory course to psychology, the concept that I am sure to remember five years from now is the fundamental attribution error. I even remember it from a brief psychology course that I had in high school. The fundamental attribution error is a major part of social psychology. It occurs when we perceive people to be the way they are based on a certain action instead of considering any situational factors. This happens all the time to everyone and often they are not even aware that it is happening. It can be problematic for college students or anyone who is in a stage in his or her life where they are trying to make connections. If you poorly judge someone, you may miss out of building a strong friendship or meeting someone who could find you your next job. When a student first comes to college, there are so many new people to meet that we cannot judge their character on the first time that we meet them. The fundamental attribution error is so important to learn so we can avoid from committing it.

If I were to pick something from Psychology 1001 that would have a substantial effect on my life five years from now, I would pick the principles of scientific thinking and the idea of confirmation bias. Though the scientific principles are generally applied to areas of research, the principles can be applied in countless ways in our everyday lives. Scientific thinking in general is a concept that is foreign to most individuals. As we buy countless of products from companies that benefit from our collective ignorance, it does not occur to us to simply think twice before swiping one of our various plastic cards. The principles of scientific thinking have truly influenced the way I perceive my surroundings. As an individual who would get excited over almost every seemingly miraculous product on television, the principles of scientific thinking have added a healthy dose of skepticism in the way I live my life. Instead of being a nation that does not question the claims (whether it be the claims of advertisers or politicians) of others, and becomes a victim of ignorance, the scientific principles can allow us to think at a higher level.
The use of the principles of scientific thinking also allows us to overcome our innate tendency to search for information that supports our standing beliefs and distort or disregard information that clashes with those beliefs. This can be seen in issues that impact the world profoundly, including issues such as global warming. As evidence floods in regarding the effects of global warming, a handful of individuals cling dearly to weak evidence that claims to disprove the existence of a rising global climate. The same can be said for issues regarding politics, economics, and other pressing concerns. If individuals could attempt to fight instinct, and truly reflect on information that clashes with their beliefs in an attempt to come to an educated and supported conclusion by means of the scientific principles, it would be for the benefit of themselves and for the nation as a whole.

As simple as it may sound the most important information from psychology 1001 that I will remember for the rest of my life are the different scientific thinking principles. In my future I plan on being an investment banker and much of the information I will be looking at will be much like looking at evidence for a particular study. I must be able to determine whether one outcome causes another, or whether an extraordinary claim by a company has extraordinary evidence to back it up, and even if there is simpler reasoning as to why a company is so profitable and successful. All of these principles will come into my daily routine of analyzing investments with a vast array of businesses and opportunities. The stocks will show general trends and companies will ride the rollercoaster of the world economy, but by considering these thinking principles I can reassure any business colleague and myself that we are making a wise decision. There will not be one single investment that will be the same so, in addition to reassuring confidence in the decision; I can reduce the number of errors committed by following these principles of scientific thinking. I can look back in my future and think to myself, "I learned all this information back in my freshman year of college," and be satisfied knowing that this information is helping me just as it helps many psychologists. We will can all decide with perfect judgement when following these principles.

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Conditioning is probably one of the most important ideas in psychology. In five years form now, if I remember anything from psychology it would defiantly be classical conditioning. Classical conditioning has the most practical uses, and is used everyday. Its used to train dogs and is used in advertising. I find classical conditioning very interesting and would like to try and train an animal through it. I think its really cool how Pavlov accidently discovered conditioning by pairing various noises with the food for a dog. I think that its really cool that you could take pretty much any neutral stimulus and turn it into a conditioned stimulus by pairing it with an unconditional stimulus. I believe that because of Pavlov's discovery many other things were discovered in psychology and classical conditioning is part of the base of modern psychology. I like the fact that after a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus it can go through extinction and then spontaneous recovery. Out of everything I have learned in psychology 1001 the one thing I will remember is classical conditioning.

Throughout my first semester of college I have learned a lot of things, many of them being from my psychology 1001 course. Things that I have learned from this class, one example being conformation bias, have stuck with me and I have even been able to apply them to other classes that I am taking this semester such as my cultural studies class. Psychology 1001 has provided me with a lot of new information that has changed the way I view the world and how I assess everyday situations. While recently reading chapter 13 of the psychology textbook, I came across a new concept that I believe will stick with me for a long time. This concept was the enlightenment effect. The enlightenment effect means that being exposed to psychological research can change how people would behave in real-world situations for the better. The context that the enlightenment effect was introduced in was explaining situations in which bystanders can either help someone who is in distress or not. While reading this section of the textbook, I was debating in my mind if I would honestly help a complete stranger who was in distress or not. As much as I would want to say that I would absolutely help someone who needed it, myself, and others I'm sure, wouldn't necessarily act as we think we would in those kinds of situations. After reading the studies and the information from the textbook though, I believe that the enlightenment effect has indeed played an effect on me. I think now that I am more aware of studies and research that I would be more willing to help a stranger in distress than I would have before I read chapter 13.

I've learned a lot throughout the Psychology 1001 course, but the one thing that I will remember five years from now is the concept of shaping. I'm fascinated that B.F. Skinner was able to train any animal by shaping, but was also amazes me is the fact that no one had figured out shaping sooner. I remember in lecture when we watched the video on how Skinner trained the dog to jump above the top line that was painted on the wall. I think that we could accomplish a lot more through shaping. Right now instead of training animals to do cool tricks just for our entertainment we could train them to do something useful. We could train animals to do daily chores so that our lives are less stressful. I was also disappointed when I heard that the government shot down Skinner's idea for the guided rockets. It would have been pretty cool if pigeons were controlling the trajectories. Also growing up in Minneapolis I find it particularly interesting that Skinner did all his research in the Mill. I've toured there before but always thought of it as a really boring place.

Here is a link that goes into further detail about shaping and B.F. Skinner
http://www.localgraphichelp.com/animals/animals_worlds_first.cfm

Let's perform some symbolism; what are some real life examples of things that come in fives? The number of players on a basketball court at a time? The number of cards in a poker hand? The number of starting classes you're given in a game of Call of Duty? How about something everyone can relate to; a hand. You have five fingers on your hand, and each has it's own purpose and own distinct qualities of size and shape. More importantly, they can all work together to perform tasks, and are all better when each functions to it's optimal ability. When you understand what each finger does, it because second nature to be able to do use your hands; that is, to pick up objects or grasp onto things. It's the same with the Big Five; when you understand how they function and how they apply to you, you are able to grasp concepts and life occurrences far more easily. Not only can you grasp them better, you can also gain more understanding through the sense of feel; that is, the impression it leaves on you afterwards. The Big Five grant greater insight into your life and others, and allow you to become a better learner, and teacher, for it. This is why I will always remember the Big Five will remain intact in my mind for years to come, if not for the rest of my life.

One concept that I found particularly interesting was the methods that brain uses for perceiving the world. While our perceptions can often seem like an exact depiction of our surroundings, the brain uses a variety of techniques and shortcuts to reconstruct our environment in ways that are largely beneficial. However, these methods can be potentially misleading at times, leading to the observation of nonexistent differences, shapes, or patterns, as well as a variety of other potential consequences. The brain can also perceive information subliminally. While it seems unlikely that subliminal messages can have lasting significant effects on a person's actions and behaviors, I found it interesting that a stimulus can be observed without conscious perception of it. Additionally, I was especially fascinated with the studies concerning individuals who underwent operations in which they had their corpus callosum severed. These individuals were unable to consciously recognize an image when shown to their left field of vision, yet were still able to draw the image with their left hand without being able to identify why they had drawn that image. In five years, I believe that I will likely remember what I learned about perception in this course.

How do we change our behavior and how does behavior persist throughout our lives, is one question psychologist have answered. In my life behavior often continues if there has been something, whether it's an object or a sort of incentive, given to me. We often study hard because we know we will be rewarded with a good grade. Children do chores because they will be rewarded with money or praise from their parents. People work to get money (a reward) to provide for their families. Children eat their vegetables so they can have dessert. These are some of the many instances in which people behave a certain way so they can get some sort of reward. Psychologists call this the Law of Effect. Reward from a stimulus will often make the behavior more likely to appear in the future. People learn to adapt to these things and it becomes a way of life. We continue to study, work, and eat our vegetables because we know we are rewarded for our actions. This is an important part of psychology that I will remember for the rest of my life.
I can use my knowledge of this to help me raise my children. If I reward my kids with candy or something they will most likely continue to act the same way, even if I eventually stop enforcing the reward. I can use this to help shape my children to be the best they can be. This is also an important concept because it allows people to realize why they act a certain way. I know I work hard and do things mostly for a reward. I am in school to learn, but most importantly get a degree that I can use towards a career for the rest of my life. By doing certain things to be rewarded it can help me be successful. Overall, this is an important concept because it will continue to be true for the rest of my life.

I feel like this subject has been talked about a lot in response to this assignment however, I have to jump on the band wagon and agree that I will remember the six principles of Scientific thinking five years from now. Not only are these principles necessary for the research purposes of scientists, they are relevant and should be present in the back of our minds whenever we perceive information about the world around us which, coincidentally, is all the time. Knowledge of these principles will be useful while making many decisions in life and as an example I will talk about how they can be applied while watching advertisements and making purchases. Let's say you are watching an advertisement on television that claims that a pill can make you lose 20 pounds in 24 hours with no other changes to your diet and you hear participants in a study swear this to be true. Before picking up the phone to order this product, one should consider a few of the scientific principles.
Ruling out Rival hypotheses: perhaps the people who took the pill also changed their diet and exercise routines.
Replicability: Have these findings been replicated with the same results?
Extraordinary claims: Is there a sufficient amount of evidence to support the claim?
This scenario is obviously a no brainer, but other situations in life may not be so obvious. Remembering the six principles of scientific thinking from Psychology 1001 will always be useful and relevant to my future daily life so I plan to keep them with me.

One of the most important things I will take away from this class is the fact that everyday things that we do were not easy to come by. I have never taken the time to think about the human mind and how it all interacts with our body/brain. The things we do from birth aren't simply placed in my memory, rather worked on and practiced so that complicated parts of our brain can hold on to that and repeat it without a second thought. It's amazing what our mind does when it correlates with emotion and language. The connections we have are so complicated it hurts to even think about them.

The human brain, and the thoughts and morals that come from it will continue to amaze me. There is a reason for everything we do and the thought that told you what to do came from some tiny little space in your brain. That is the type of information that amazes me and I was excited to learn.

Many times while learning about psychology I was also learning and realizing a lot about myself. The attachment theory really grabbed my attention. I am so thankful to have read and learned about it because I never understood why it was so hard for me to have relationships with people, whether it was with my siblings, friends, or a person of interest. Finding out which attachment style I had, anxious-ambivalent, helped me find ways to create better future relationships with people.

I don't think it was the earlier experiences I had with my parents but the ones I had with my childhood friends that influenced the way I now relate to people I meet. While growing up I went through many (good at the moment) friends, and for some reason they were never there when I needed them the most. So now, whenever I meet new people I expect them to never be there for me when I am at my worst and when I have that expectation I am not able to give them all my trust. I am not able to depend on them. I create a trauma in my head before it actually happens, which will most likely not happen. I scare myself when I do not need to. That put a big gap into the relationships I had. So to be able to have better relationships in the future I need to not always think too far ahead into the future and sometimes just live in the moment. I will definitely remember this the five years from now because I plan on having better and healthier relationships with new people I meet.

There are several concepts that the field of psychology has uncovered, and out of this plethora of different theories many have remained relevant until now. In 5 years many of these theories may be nullified and some may stay with us. I personally feel that in 5 years the psychological concept that I will remember most is the concept of false memories. As Psych 1001 students we learned about this concept a few weeks ago. This concept stipulates that the human memory is volatile and that some of our memories are true, some are a mixture of fact and fantasy, and some are actually false.

At this point in time we have no way of actually knowing whether our memories are true or not. Some cues may distinguish them, but that's all we have, cues. This concept I think I will still be thinking about in 5 years because, it is so abstract, and because there is no total solution. A syndrome such as this, questions the true capacity and potential of our human brains. This phenomenon means that people may have falsified events in history simply because they believed that it had happened. That is why this concept will follow us five years into the future. Because present evidence is insufficient to permit the conclusions on false memories and memory repression, we will still need to dig deep into the issue, as it is largely inconclusive. Several psychological issues will be remembered in years to come, this will be one that is worked on due to it's abstract nature.

In the next five years I would probably be looking like a stressed out person after all the studying that would be done in college. I feel like when my body gets stressed and can't do nothing, I would look for professional people that deals with stress such as a chiropractic, psychiatrist, or a Yogi. The question here is that which one of these would come out with a good outcome that can relieve my stress? In chapter 1 we learned about using the six scientific method and as in this case a way to determine the best treatment for my stress. In chapter 12, The National Health Interview Survey 2007 took statistics on what the most used therapy was for stress. The highest at 17.7% was natural products and the lowest was Biofeedback at .2% which is a feedback by a device that provides an immediate output of a biological function, such as heart rate or skin temperature. Its a fact that biofeedback and relaxation training are equally effective in reducing stress and treating anxiety, headaches, insomnia. The chapter talks about how even though herbal and natural treatments are the highest used, many viewed it generally as no more effective than a placebo effect. In the end my decision would be to probably choose a doctor that deals with alternative medicine such as biofeedback instead of complementary medicine such as natural products that are not safe to use and not effective.

There are many things we have learned in psychology to this day. Hopefully I will remember most of it five years from now. The concept I think that will stick with me the most is Pavlov's classical conditioning. When he showed that you can have an unconditioned stimulus and response to something and then produce a conditioned stimulus and response due to repeated exposure of both the unconditioned and conditioned stimulus. I think I will remember the experiment Pavlov performed with the dog and I would be able to apply it to other situations. I think I will remember it because classical conditioning can be applied to many different situations. Classical conditioning is used in everyday life. Examples include beer ads that use attractive women in them to try and help sell their beer. Classical conditioning is already used in everyday life so I think I will remember it 5 years from now.

A concept that has, and hopefully will, stick with me is the idea of confirmation bias. When first studying the six principles of scientific thinking and attempting to apply them to real-life situations, I was amazed at how easy it is for people (myself included) to blatantly favor information that supports their hypothesis. My realizations on this concept have led me to believe that many sociological and philosophical concepts are the result of confirmation bias. This is especially evident when people hold onto ideas or concepts that have been proven to be false, or at least improbable, and only focus on ideas that support their original viewpoint.

I am currently pursuing a degree in journalism, and my ability to avoid confirmation bias will be crucial to maintain integrity in my work. If I am ever in the position to write a piece that requires research and investigation, it will be of utmost importance that I do not stay entrenched in my original thoughts. I will need to consciously seek out reliable sources that prove my hypothesis wrong, rather than staying within what I already know. Application of this psychological and scientific concept will be very important to me for the rest of my life and career.

Over the past three months, I have learned many different aspects of psychology that I will probably remember for the rest of my life. But of the lessons that I will remember the most is the six principals of critical thinking. These principals have presented themselves again and again in quizzes and exams always making you think back to that first lecture in psych 1001 trying to get all of the definitions down. Remember these six principals will help me later in life as I try to apply them in other classes or in real life situations. I can now look at certain situations and try and answer them using the six principals. Another reason that this the biggest thing I will take out of this class is that they are the building blocks of psychology. Every one of the lessons we learned circled back to these six principals. So the next time I'm doing an experiment or hear a statistic on tv, I'll run through all the principals in my head to make sure that it's true.

One of the most important things I learned in psychology this year was the principles of bias. I had know what bias was before obviously, but it had always seemed like something that only pertained to other people. However, learning about confirmation bias and belief perserverence helped me realize that I too could be victim to bias. With confirmation bias it easy to see why some we as humans can persue false ideas just because we aren't looking at good data. With belief perserverence, we as humans can continue to believe false ideas because we refuse to see another side of the issue. I know that I will always remember these ideas and will try to use them to be more fair in my ideas.

There are so many concepts from psychology that I actually think I will remember five years from now simply because I find it fascinating. Despite this, there is one topic I recently read about that I think I will remember more because of how I am sure it will apply in my future as well as present--social loafing.
Social loafing is a concept that basically says, when you are working with a group of people, the end result is less productive than it would have been if each member had done their contribution individually. This is because when in groups, people feel that their part is less important. They feel comfortable doing less because someone else is there to pick up the slack. This is a very important concept for my future business career. It amazed me that I had not heard of this before. There have been many times where I have been working in a group and I realize that everyone is not pulling their weight. The simplicity of the explanation for this astounded me. Now knowing this information, I can use this knowledge in my future career to get the best out of each worker. Instead of constantly working in a group, giving people individual tasks to contribute to the group would allow for better results. I always thought simple teamwork was the best way to get things done. This has made me realize that by specifying tasks to people, I can achieve a better outcome.

Ever since I was a little girl, my father has been an avid baseball fan. He has attended many Major League Baseball games, read many books on the history of America's favorite pastime, and spent much of his time talking about his love of the sport. With this love, however; he has come to believe a lot of the superstitions that come with the game of baseball. "Look Hannah," he'll say, "that player stepped on the foul line in the third inning, that's why they lost the game," or he'll point out, "That player hasn't cleaned his helmet and he's been having a great season. He better not clean it if he wants it to continue that way."

Through psychology, I have learned to think scientifically about my father's statements. The first possibility is that he is correct: stepping on the foul line during a game will cause your team to lose and cleaning your helmet will lead to a bad season. Occam's razor has led me to believe the more simple explanation; my dad only notices players stepping on the white lines when they're losing a game and he doesn't seem to notice when players have good seasons clean their helmets and still continue to have good seasons.

Psychology 1001 has taught me to think scientifically about superstitions as well as other aspects of my day to day life. I know it may be a relatively simple concept in the scheme of this course to be thinking about in five years (I mean I could write this blog about the effects of Sleep Paralysis or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; wouldn't that be more exciting?), but I believe that it is probably the most important. Think about how wonderful the world could be if everyone stopped to think like a scientist.

To learn more about baseball superstition read this article.

During my time spent in Psychology 1001, I have learned about a great deal of things. The on that I believe will last the longest in my memory is the six principles of critical thinking. These six principles were constantly reinforced through multiple examples over the entire semester.
By knowing these six principles so well, I will be able to apply them in many real world situations. They will open my mind and will constantly remind me not to shut out other options that are available. Before taking psychology, I was guilty of only believing what I thought was true. Using the six principles, I can use everything in my ability to be as accurate in my beliefs as possible.
Another reason the six principles will last in my memory, is because I believe they are truly the foundations for all of psychology. Nearly everything that takes place in the field of psychology relies on the six principles. Because of this, I paid the most attention to the six principles and feel that they will stick with me for many years to come.

I have learned a lot in psych 1001 this year, and I hope that a lot of the information I have learned stays with me and I can carry that information on with me into other classes and aspects of my life. One thing that will hopefully always stand out in my mind is the process of learning and how your brain plays a very important factor in remembering information. I have a very hard time taking tests because I always get nervous and afraid before them, but after learning about how the brain works and retains information, it has helped me improve my studying habits before tests. For example, we learned that information gradually decays once you don't review it for a certain amount of time, so I now review a little bit each day many days before an exam, so my brain is constantly being reminded of the information it needs to retain. I also have learned the importance of focusing on one subject at a time while studying, because other information can interfere with the information you are trying to learn, also causing you to forget it and not retain it as well. I think these are very important concepts that I will always remember, because the brain is such an amazing complex organ that we don't always understand. I hope that learning these studying tips will help me not be as afraid before I take future tests. Or many now after taking this course I should refer to my amygdala when I talk about fear J

When I was in 2nd grade, a classmate of mine purposely wore his backpack facing the front of his body opposed to the back. Everyone thought the boy was weird. When I asked him why he chose to do that he stated, "I want to be different. I don't have anything special about myself. I have the same skin, the same hair, and the same eyes as all the other kids in the class. This will make me different." Americans tend to have a superiority complex, in which they feel the need to stand out. Psychologically we can trace this back to Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, specifically esteem and self-actualization. In these top two layers of the hierarchy, we find our confidence and creativity to be different.

In other cultures, especially Asian cultures that tend to be collectivist, people are encouraged to think alike and follow the crowd. In the United States, however, our country was raised on the doctrine of retaliation against our leader (Great Britain) and many movements, such as the progressive movement, women's rights, and civil rights. This enables Americans to find "being different" empowering and respectable.

Regardless of the fact that Americans want to be different, we all want to be accepted in society. Asch's study proves that people tend to follow along with the crowd even if they know that the group may be wrong. However, in comparison to collective societies, Americans are more likely

Attached is a picture of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=hierarchy+of+needs&hl=en&biw=1199&bih=597&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=K5toRCKOO_dbpM:&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs&docid=KIpM-2Cgq3WupM&imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Maslow%2527s_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg/450px-Maslow%2527s_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg.png&w=450&h=338&ei=D_rbTq32G4b50gGho4TmDQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=286&sig=115246323342808673345&page=1&tbnh=106&tbnw=141&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=100&ty=62

Over the past few months we have learned about a lot of different things in psychology. Although most of it may not be retained, i believe there is something that i will remember and hopefully use in my everyday life. The thing I will remember is the six principles of critical thinking. They are as follows: Occam's Razor, ruling out rival's hypothesis, replicability, correlation vs. causation, extraordinary claims, and falsifiability.

I am often a pretty gullible guy. When i get an email, or notification i tend to want to believe it. Same goes for seeing something really interesting or intriguing on TV. I often run into the trouble of not knowing what to believe and what to disregard. Using the six principles of critical thinking i will be able to better understand the world and to be able to interpret it as an educated college student. I'll also feel a lot more confident while making decision and interpreting anything that happens to come my way.

I thought that one of the interesting things we read about recently was stress, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder. As we all know, stress affects most of us at least sometimes. In certain situations, the stress can be severe enough to be life altering. However, it has now been found that PTSD is not only diagnosed in humans anymore. I recently read an article about how military dogs are being diagnosed with the disorder. It states that about five percent of deployed military dogs are developing PTSD. Some dogs are being prescribed anti-anxiety drugs to help them deal with the symptoms. The canine PTSD is very similar to the human PTSD, because certain dogs are not affected at all, while some refuse to work because of the effect. This canine disorder is especially dangerous because dogs can't express that they are having problems, so they could stop working without warning, putting both themselves and humans in danger. In some cases, a dog's diagnosis can be reversed, through walks with friendly people and a gradual reintroduction to military noises. Similar to how there is no set treatment for humans diagnosed with PTSD, there is not yet a surefire way to treat dogs.
I thought this article was very interesting because it shows just how wide spread this disorder is. While it is fairly well known that humans, especially war veterans, it never occurred to me that it could affect animals as well. I think that the scariest part of this article is the fact, which may seem obvious, that dogs can't express their feelings. The symptoms of PTSD include vivid memories, feelings, and images of a traumatic experience. To not be able to tell someone what you are feeling, especially when it is something so serious, would be terrible, and dangerous. As previously stated, this can put both humans and dogs into danger, because the dogs can just stop working, for seemingly no reason. I hope that veterinarians, doctors, and psychologists continue to work to find a cure for PTSD, because not only is it a sad, psychologically draining disease, but also because of the recent discovery that dogs can also suffer, more and more people (and animals) are being put into danger every day.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/ptsd-on-the-rise-for-mili_n_1125925.html?ref=green&ir=Green

In this article, two Psychology professors from Stanford University discuss recent findings about the connection between willpower and glucose levels. They describe a recent book, "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength" in which the authors, after analyzing volumes research on the issue, concluded that willpower is a limited resource and depends on our bodies having a constant supply of glucose. The authors refute this conclusion with their own findings that it is attitude about how limited our capacity of willpower is that most influences our actual capacity of willpower.

The authors describe a study they conducted where they followed 153 college students over five weeks. They found that students who reported that they believed willpower is not limited ate less junk food and procrastinated less than students who did not believe in limitless willpower. When the students were taught that willpower was not so limited, they had similar willpower to those who believed in limitless willpower. The authors concluded from these findings that attitude that is the most important determinate for actual willpower.

These findings provide a good example to apply the Occam's razor scientific thinking principle. Rather than increasing the brain's capacity of willpower, perhaps the students who were taught that willpower is less limited than they originally thought simply felt better about themselves than they did before. This would also explain the theory of the requirement for a constant supply of blood glucose for willpower. Perhaps getting some sugar into our system just puts us in a better mood, where we seemingly have more energy for willpower. The behaviors the authors use to describe a lack of willpower, eating junk food and procrastination are classic symptoms of depression. The authors fail to sufficiently account for a simpler explanation for their research findings than specific increases in willpower.

Walton, Greg and Carol Dweck. "Willpower: It's in Your Head". (2011, November 26). The New York Times.

When the body is under stress there are some serious processes that being to take place in the brain. These reactions show how feelings such as depression can be caused by chronic stress. When a stressor is present, the hippocampus becomes inhibited, this allows the hypothalamus to become activated. The activation of the hypothalamus releases CRF, which then stimulates the pituitary gland, causing it to release ACTH. ACTH then activates the adrenal gland and causes it to secrete cortisol into the body. Coritsol has many effects on the body, including: increased heart rate, conversion of fat and muscle into glucose, increased breathing and increase blood pressure. The effects of cortisol were originally meant to help a person escape from a potential threat, but now when we experience stressors that are not a life threat, the body still responds in the same way. The body always has some level of cortisol present. The body has a rhythm that it regulates, with cortisol levels being the lowest right before bed and the highest when you wake up in the morning. This rhythm is crucial for remaining healthy. For people with a lot of stress in their lives, the amount of cortisol in their body is abnormally high. This high level of cortisol can hinder sleeping and upsets the whole rhythm of the body. In depressed people, it is found that they have higher levels of cortisol in their bodies throughout the day. Some scientist believe that this unbalanced amount of cortisol is one of the main causes of depression. From this information, one can conclude that chronic stress has the ability to cause depression in people, so it is important to prioritize and try and maintain a stress free life as much as possible.

Five years from now, one concept I will remember will be peer pressure. We have all known about and been subjected to peer pressure since we were kids, and as we get older it only gets worse. The college years are probably the years where we are influenced most by our peers. Sometimes it can turn out good, but a lot of times it can go horribly wrong.

As one could guess, a majority of peer pressure in college has to do with drugs, alcohol and sex. It seems as if everyone is doing it, which may or may not be true. Although I have come across some pressure having to do with these things, I am good about not letting it get to me. Personally, I would rather keep a good reputation and be respected than throw my reputation away and be liked for someone I am not.

Not giving in to peer pressure is a hard task to accomplish, especially for one of my close friends. It is hard to see someone you love change into somebody else right in front of your eyes. Whether she is getting into the wrong crowd or making decisions for others instead of herself, none of it makes her a better person. Sometimes I do not know whether I should say something to her or let her suffer the consequences so she can learn. If she is not careful it could really affect her life in a negative way.

Peer pressure is all around us. If we do not stop and look at the big picture, it could really mess up our lives in the long run. Before making decisions, one needs to look at all the consequences. We have to live our life for ourselves and not others.

After reading the British Psychology Society's article on personal experiences with psychology as useful information in the real world, I really attached to Emily Holmes' section on "My Inner CBT Therapist," linked HERE. The article talks about how Holmes talked herself through an anxiety-provoking event and how her thoughts were able to change her behavior.

I deal with a tremendous amount of anxiety every day, mainly because I am also recovering from anorexia and bulimia. Holmes' strategy for overcoming anxiety and changing behaviors has been a crucial part of my recovery experience.

In the past, an upcoming paper would instigate thoughts about needing to distract myself from the anxiety of actually finishing the paper; but, then my anxiety would increase even more because I'd be procrastinating more. Instead of dealing with these thoughts in a healthy way, my thoughts told me that I'd have time to finish my paper if I only ate less, giving myself "more space" and time to work on my homework.

Over many therapy sessions and intensive programming for overcoming my eating disorder, I finally realized that thoughts really do change behaviors. Once I started telling myself that I could starve myself, rather than giving myself no other option, I was able to fight the urge to starve; the need to compensate was avoided for the time being. This process wasn't perfect, and I still had moments of "weaknesses" where I gave in to my eating disorder. However, the more that I practiced changing my thoughts--telling myself that I could overcome the urge--the thoughts became more real. It was much easier to believe the thoughts if I kept repeating them to myself (see Chapter 6 on Learning--via repetition--in the Lilienfield textbook).

For those of you who are interested in more information, feel free to contact me or visit the Emily Program's website for Eating Disorders HERE

HERE is a simple diagram of what CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) focuses on with thoughts and behaviors. This may help clear up any confusion for those of you who have not been exposed to this effective--in my experience--technique.

After reading the British Psychology Society's article on personal experiences with psychology as useful information in the real world, I really attached to Emily Holmes' section on "My Inner CBT Therapist," linked HERE. The article talks about how Holmes talked herself through an anxiety-provoking event and how her thoughts were able to change her behavior.

I deal with a tremendous amount of anxiety every day, mainly because I am also recovering from anorexia and bulimia. Holmes' strategy for overcoming anxiety and changing behaviors has been a crucial part of my recovery experience.

In the past, an upcoming paper would instigate thoughts about needing to distract myself from the anxiety of actually finishing the paper; but, then my anxiety would increase even more because I'd be procrastinating more. Instead of dealing with these thoughts in a healthy way, my thoughts told me that I'd have time to finish my paper if I only ate less, giving myself "more space" and time to work on my homework.

Over many therapy sessions and intensive programming for overcoming my eating disorder, I finally realized that thoughts really do change behaviors. Once I started telling myself that I could starve myself, rather than giving myself no other option, I was able to fight the urge to starve; the need to compensate was avoided for the time being. This process wasn't perfect, and I still had moments of "weaknesses" where I gave in to my eating disorder. However, the more that I practiced changing my thoughts--telling myself that I could overcome the urge--the thoughts became more real. It was much easier to believe the thoughts if I kept repeating them to myself (see Chapter 6 on Learning--via repetition--in the Lilienfield textbook).

For those of you who are interested in more information, feel free to contact me or visit the Emily Program's website for Eating Disorders HERE

HERE is a simple diagram of what CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) focuses on with thoughts and behaviors. This may help clear up any confusion for those of you who have not been exposed to this effective--in my experience--technique.

The Milgram study was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. In the original study, all participants administered at least some shock. Most went up to at least 150 volts and 62% displayed complete compliance, going all the way up 450 volts (Linienfeld).
I was shocked (no pun intended) after reading the results and seeing another example in discussion. It is common knowledge that any amount of shock could potentially stop the heart and kill someone. It is also common knowledge that it isn't safe to pump any amount of electricity into someone. With that said, why would anyone even agree to do the study after they find out what the experiment is doing?
Not only should they know the experiment was dangerous, they "teachers" were also subjected to the shock. In the video in the discussion, most of the people showed a lot of discomfort when subjected to the least amount of shock. Most of them even asked how many volts they were shocked with and were surprised when they were told that it wasn't many volts. What I am trying to get at is the teacher knew that they would be in pain if they were the learner, so why would they continue? I apologize if this sounds mean but I think that the people who were given this information and still continued with the study were stupid. By stupid I mean uneducated. Use some common sense and know that this experiment is very dangerous and also use some emotional intelligence and realize how much discomfort the learner would be in.
If I was in this study, I believe 100% that I would have discontinued the study right away. Just because there is an authority figure telling me what to do, doesn't mean I am going to do it. If it was a situation where there was a serious consequences if I didn't comply with the study then I would do it. But that wasn't the case, there was no consequence if the study was discontinued. I just don't get that.

After five years from now, I am sure I will still remember the knowledge of social and moral development. Also, I will use some other knowledge from our textbook about children. As i want to be a teacher in the future, this information can help me to understand my students' behavior. For example, I can define them from easy infants, difficult infants and slow-to-warm infants. I will also know what they will do in different stages. I will know what to expect them. I won't let students blow 7 to do some abstract job because they are too young to understand that. Also, I may be a mother after 5 years, so I think will try my best to be a authoritative parent in the future, because children with this kind of parents exhibit the best social and emotional adjustment. I learnt that the positive emotions can be afforded by touch. I know how important the environment and peer to my children, so I will pick the best environment and help them to make friends with children who are friendly. I may let my child learn two languages before he or she can speak because I know that is the best age to learn langrage without so much difficulties. I don't think I forgot other information from our book because this book taught me a lot thing that I did not know and interesting.

The parental investment theory is a concept discussed in psychology that I will remember in five years. A lot of what will keep the theory interesting through the upcoming years is the idea that it may change as gender roles begin to shift in society. The evolutionary discussions associated with the parental investment theory with the typical roles of women and men will be interesting to observe over the next years. It's interesting to think about how dimorphism occurs, as well as how choosy women typically are. The connections between genetics, evolution, and the theory are all very interesting. There have not been very many theories that connect to so many other aspects of life in my opinion as much as the parental investment theory.

It will be interesting to see if the theory will still hold true within 5-10 years because of all of the social changes that have been occurring throughout time. With homosexual couples and divorces becoming more acceptable in society compared to many years ago, gender roles are also changing within partnerships and families. Keeping this in mind, will the parental investment theory still hold true? Will another sort of evolution begin? The parental investment theory was one of the most memorable concepts because it provided very interesting and applicable explanations that pertain to everyday life and topics discussed in society today.

Modern Family's Cam and Mitchell! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aSzTVrP5FQ

Five years from now, one aspect of psychology I know I will remember is hindsight bias. Hindsight bias has already made a lasting impression in my mind this semester. I remember it was during the first few weeks of psychology that I learned about this bias. I was skeptical at first, because I had never really had that idea presented to me before. As I thought about it more and more, I realized many examples of hindsight bias can be seen on a daily basis. For example, in a book I was required to read for another class, I found examples of hindsight bias everywhere. If only the authors of that book would have remembered their psychology class! Hindsight bias can act as a barrier in making valid arguments. For example, after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, many politicians began demanding answers from the government about why they could not "connect the dots" prior to the attacks. Much of their arguments were filled with hindsight bias. As I continue from college into my career, I always will keep hindsight bias in mind. True professionals do not allow hindsight bias to enter their arguments. As the classic saying goes, hindsight is always 20/20.

Ever since learning about Classical and Operant conditioning, I have been noticing and applying these findings to many different aspects of my life. When I first read about conditioned taste aversions, I was immediately reminded of my unfortunate experience, during 6th grade, with my school's chicken fajitas. After a few bites into the dull-colored, lumpy fajita, my stomach was not too pleased. Although it has been seven years, I still cringe at the mere thought of it. Taste aversions tend to display little stimulus generalization; and interestingly, I've realized that I do not feel the same disgust when seeing or thinking about other chicken fajitas--only the ones made by my school. I've also noticed that I have been conditioned to feel different emotions when hearing different songs. There are many songs that remind me of happy memories with family and friends, making me particularly happy when listening to them. But there are also songs I have used as my alarm, and since I'm not exactly a "morning person," I rarely ever listen to those songs anymore. There are many more examples of Classical and Operant conditioning that I have noticed in my life, and I have found myself frequently thinking, "I've been conditioned to do that." Because these types of conditioning are so relevant to my everyday life, I can't imagine ever forgetting about these concepts in Psychology.

In five years, I will be 24 years old. I will be a new college graduate looking for a job that I had spent four years of my life preparing for. At this stage in my life, I will remember the concept in psychology about attraction. During the course of Psychology 1001, I learned that people are attracted to others by proximity, similarity, reciprocity, and physical attraction. Proximity is when physical nearness is a predictor of attractiveness. In another words, if someone sees another person many times during the week, people are more likely to be attracted to them because of the familiarity of their face. Similarity is the extent to which we have things in common with others. This attracts people because if one is similar to another person they are more likely to find them more attractive because they have many aspects in common allowing them to have stimulating conversations. Reciprocity is the third item that attracts people together. This is the rule of give and take. If someone is willing to give and take with their partner, they are more likely to be attracted. The final theory is physical attraction. People are usually attracted to people if they find them physically attractive. This concept of attraction will stick with me for the next five years because after newly graduating from college I will be looking for a partner that I can rely on and possibly spend the rest of my life with. These concepts will help me understand why people are attracted to each other and maybe use this to my advantage to find a guy that is suitable for me. After completing psychology 1001, I will remember the concept of attraction in the next five years.

At the beginning of the semester I struggled to understand why business majors needed to learn about neurotransmitters and the amygdale but the other day I figured it all out. I was reading an article about ethics for my management class and out of nowhere it started discussing Kohlberg's Principles of Morality. This was an exciting moment because I had finally made a direct connection from Psych class to one of my other classes. That same day, in lecture, Ms. Gonzalez discussed stereotypes and pre-disposed attitudes we had.
Then it all clicked.
Understanding how behavior develops in different groups of people is essential in order to manage them and market to them. Connecting psychology and business will help me later in life when I encounter people who see the world differently than I do. A prime example of this is ethics because it has everything to do with people's perspectives. Based on what level of Kohlberg's Morality people are at, they will make ethical decisions differently. Recognizing that difference is imperative to understand other people's decision making processes. I know I only scratched the surface and as I advance in my learning I will connect more topics back to psychology.

It is hard to say what exactly I will remember and forget in five years from now. This is especially true of the information I learned in Psychology 1001 because there were so many topics, theories, definitions, controversial things, and etc. It seems that things that are easy to understand are easy to remember. Therefore, the simplest things are often not forgotten throughout time. That leads me to believe I will remember Occam's razor five years from now and beyond.

It seems fitting for me to remember Occam's razor because I have always been one to analyze a situation and look beneath the surface using critical thinking. However, there is also such a thing as overanalyzing and that is something I have been told I do a lot. There are some instances where I figure something out, but I do not stick with it because I say "that was too easy (or simple), that can't be right." However, according to Occam's razor sometimes it is just that simple and perhaps the simplest explanation is the best fit. In the future, I'll continue to use critical thinking, but I will not dismiss the simplest explanations without first looking to see if they make the most sense. Thank You Psychology 1001!

No Outside Source

Image:http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AIIJNzdmnCg/SRt2csyAHUI/AAAAAAAAAAM/1X4NUU2DcBc/s320/findX.gif

One topic from Psy 1001 that I will never forget is discrimination. Granted, we hear a lot about discrimination almost anywhere we go, but experiments such as Jane Elliot's A Class Divided or the Stanford Prison Study really put into perspective how little of a difference between people there needs to be before one side feels like they are superior over the other. Not only does the superior side tend to bask in their power, they abuse the inferior group. As we saw in the Stanford Prison study, normal everyday people were labeled "Guards" and from that title, began to make the "prisoners" clean toilets, strip, sing, and do various other gruesome activities. In the A Class Divided study, we saw how labeling the brown-eyed children "better" than the blue-eyed children made them condescending in nature and arrogant towards the newly insecure and submissive blue-eyed children. Being a firm believer of equality in all aspects--regardless of race, religion, gender, orientation, etc, it truly disgusts me how one human being can think they are superior solely based on factors no one is in control over.

I've held on to a kindergarten memory that has had me confused until Psychology 1001 came into my life. I'm ashamed to admit I still have this memory, but the situation was distressing enough to stick. As a kindergartner, I was shy and well behaved. I had a classmate, Kyle, who was impulsive, loud and disrupted class frequently. Our teacher had a reward system know as "A pat on the back" that would go to the best behaved student that week. These "pats on the back" were the bees knees with special, pretty paper and a "give yourself a pat on the back" written on the paper hand. I now know why I NEVER got one and Kyle received one almost every other week.

My teacher was practicing positive reinforcement. She would present a pleasant stimulus, the pat on the back, to Kyle when he was acting the way she saw acceptable. She was encouraging him when she saw he was behaving. I on the other hand was always behaved and she didn't find reason to shape my behavior. I believe my teacher was also using the idea of variable ratio schedule. Instead of reinforcing the good behavior every time Kyle performed it, she did it randomly after an average number of good behavior, not after a fixed time or fixed number of good behaviors. This way, Kyle was constantly on edge, not knowing when the teacher was watching or noticing his bad behavior, making him behavior better for longer to get the "pat on the back". Ratio schedules have been found to be more effective and consistent than interval schedules due to the anticipation of random reinforcement.

Something I know I will never forget is bystander apathy. I had known about this concept before I came into Psych 1001, but now it seems to catch my eye a little more, literally. Just the other day I was walking in front of Coffman and I saw a man fall off his bike. I watched as multiple people just kept walking, as did I. Fortunately another man stopped to ask if the biker was okay. When I witnessed the man falling, I instantly thought of my psych book, and everything I had read about bystander apathy. In my head I knew I should have stopped, and I felt terrible when I kept walking, because that biker could have been me. I always want to remember this because someday I might need someone to help me out. Also someday I may be the that one person who can prevent an accident from worsening. Also, I like knowing I helped somebody out.

One idea of Psychology we have learned about this semester that will stand out to me for the next 5 years (and probably much longer) if flashbulb memory. To me it makes a lot of sense that I will remember this concept for a long time because that is essentially what a flashbulb memory is: a typically emotional memory that is extraordinarily vivid and detailed. Although I do not really have any emotional ties with this particular concept of psychology, I think the fact that I find it very interesting and I have many flashbulb memories from my past will further help me to remember this.

I really like the idea that your brain can forever store some of your most cherished as well as your most horrific memories. After learning about other topics in Psychology like evolution I think that flashbulb memories may have been of evolutionary significance to our ancestors and that is why we possess this ability. It makes sense to me that flashbulb memories could be a useful evolutionary tool because it would be important to remember exactly what happened at specific moments in your life. After taking psychology, I can honestly say that many of the things the human brain is capable of are quite amazing, and flashbulb memories are just one of those things.

Conformity refers to the tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure (Lilienfeld 500). I will always remember this because it happens everyday. Everyday I see people j-walking across the street and at least one out of the group that does, only did it because the bigger group did. The main reason I will remember this is because it comes to my mind all of the time. I always think to myself, "would I do this if I was alone?" Most of the time I would, but sometime I wouldn't and that can help me not make rash decisions.

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Conforming happens all the time and from that came people who are non-conformists. Those people claim that they don't conform to larger groups and tend to stick out more. This helps me remember this concept because when I notice people who stick out in a crowd, I can assume that they may be a non-conformist. But there is one question I will leave unanswered; "Do non-conformists conform to be non-conformists?"

The psychology concept that I found the most thought provoking was obedience from the social psychology unit. This idea not only helped me to better understand why some events such as the Holocaust of My Lai occurred, but it also showed me the importance of thinking individually and checking my ethics and morals in every situation.

I will never forget the shocking results of the Stanley Milgram test. An overwhelming 62% of people completed the study that involved delivering lethal shocks to another subject. Before Milgram's experiment found these results, the effects of an authority figure were underestimated. Learning about this experiment made me question how I might have reacted in the situation. Although my morals tell me I wouldn't have done it, my natural respect and trust for authority figures makes me wonder if I would have completed the experiment.

After learning about the impact of authority and obedience, I am now more aware of ways to prevent subjecting myself to manipulation in the future. In situations where I am expected to comply with a leader's request, I will first evaluate if the action is something I would do normally. Ethics, morals, and individuality can protect me from unethical behavior if I think in terms of an analytical lens. The shocking results of the impact of obedience and my new insight to preventing them are the reasons why obedience is a concept that will stick with me after completing my psychology course.