Assignment 4: April 2012 Archives

So here we all are, after a long semester filled with pages and pages of reading, countless hours of studying, and last but certainly not least, exams. There's a lot we all learn about psychology throughout this semester, and each one of us retains it all differently, and what we retain is unique as well.

For me, I felt that what I'll keep most in mind in the coming years are things such as the availability heuristic, and representative heuristics, and most of the heuristics that define our everyday lives. I feel I'll remember these most because they exist to correct our thinking in a way to better ourselves, and seek to make us question the world around us.

I think the heuristics are an important aspect of Psychology that hopefully we'll all hold on to and utilize in our everyday lives. Without them, we may still be projecting out feelings on to others rather than inquiring about what's on the outside that's changing the inside; we may still be over simplifying situations that require explanations that go above and beyond what we can see with our own eyes; we may be going about life blindly with all these misconceptions bogging us down.

"Naïve realism: the belief that we see the world precisely as it is." Upon taking Psychology this semester, I have learned so many fascinating things about the human mind and how we interact with each other. But Naïve realism, as defined in the first chapter of our textbook was one of the topics that first caught my attention. Initially after learning a bit more about naïve realism, it helped me to understand the stories that my grandparents used to tell me of their beliefs and perceptions in their culture before they immigrated here to the United States. One in particular was of how you could walk to the end of the horizon and touch the blue skies, because the world was indeed flat and fitted into a dome size snow globe.

IIn all honesty, I really won't remember most of what we covered this semester because it's not in my major, and I won't remember specific sections or specific concepts. I will remember little snip-its, though. This class hasn't been at the top of my "to do list" this semester, but what I have retained will probably impact some part of my life five years from now. I'll probably remember how short term information gets stored in the brain and becomes long term information. I'll probably remember OCEAN for the rest of my life too. I'll probably be sitting down at a table to some dinner in the future and study peoples personalities. Not in a creepy sort of way, but just so I can get to know them. Another thing I'll probably remember five years from now is how a baby can learn different languages, and they are able to detect subtle differences in any language. I'll probably look at my future infant child and speak random German to it and study its reaction. I'll probably look at that child and wonder how much information it has retained too. Just little bits of information like that will stay with me five years from now or even longer.

I'll be completely honest. In 5 years, I can guarantee with nearly 100% certainty that I will have forgotten about B.F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, and Ivan Pavlov. Chances are pretty good that I'll have forgotten much of the terminology I've learned over the year as well. But I think for sure that one of the things that I'll retain is the knowledge of classical conditioning.

About 3 years ago, my family adopted an Alaskan Husky from the pound. My brother and I grew up with a Lab and when we pictured a dog, we naturally assumed that it would be mellow and easily trained, common characteristics amongst Labs. It quickly became very clear that, while a very sweet dog, she would take some serious training. My Mom, Dad, brother and I took turns trying to train her to sit, come, and lay down. 3 years later, she's come a long way but still has a long way to go, and up until this class, I always assumed that it was her and not us. After the chapter on classical conditioning, however, I'm not so sure. I quickly realized that we weren't consistent with our conditioned stimuli, so naturally, the conditioned response took much longer, and wasn't nearly as consistent as it should be.

Now that I know the basic principles of classical conditioning, I'm looking forward to trying it out on my dog, and I'm noticing it in everyday life. I just watched this show of The Office the other day, wherein Jim demonstrates the merits of classical conditioning on Dwight. Enjoy!!!

My friend thought the jackelope was a real creature. It isn't that absurd, we all fall prey to loopholes in our thinking.

As this semester has progressed and my understanding of psychology has grown, I have also gained an understanding of the importance of scientific thinking. This theme of scientific thinking is one of the most crucial components of psychology, hence the first question of each chapter quiz. It was difficult at first to identify the heuristics and loopholes of our human thought processes, but I have gained a solid understanding now that our semester is coming to a close. These basic keys of scientific thinking are useful in everyday life.
It is important to be skeptical of surroundings and to trust instincts and interpretations. Understanding the ways of scientific thinking has made me incredibly aware of the potential faults of my interpretations of the world. In a modern world in which it is nearly impossible to avoid the intrusive bombardment of media and advertisement, I believe it is important to have a strong mind that can identify faults in the claims made by corporations and agencies. The world is threatened by the ease at which one can become a cognitive miser. Being aware of lazy thinking and simple shortcuts has made me more able to interpret the world in a genuine way.

I've learned a lot of interesting things in the Psychology class. What I found the most memorable among the course is the formation of Language. I've always been ambitious in different kinds of language. In order to learn a language well, I have to understand the words. However, It's been very disappointed to found out the Critical Periods in book p295, Proficiency in Second Language Depends on the Age of Exposure. Since I lived in chinese environment for the past 18 years, my ability to learn a new language well has drop to the lowest level, the same as the age 39.
Another interesting things about language is Linguistic Determinism, which explained by the book as the view that all thought is represented verbally and that, as a result, our language defines our thinking. This might explain why sometimes, or most of the time, I don't know what I'm talking about. I just express myself in the way that my thoughts admit, before myself even aware of those words coming out of my mouth.

Looking back at what I have learned over the semester, one thing that comes to mind is the twin study that was conducted here at the University of Minnesota. In the study, 130 identical and fraternal twins were reunited after being separated immediately after birth and growing up in different families. When comparing the personalities of each twin, researchers found that identical twins who did not grow up together in the same environment were no more alike in personality than identical twins who did grow up in a shared environment. Researchers were able to conclude that shared environment plays very little role in the type of personality a person will have as an adult.

This finding was very surprising to me. I had always figured that how a person is raised and the type of environment that person is raised in would be a very important factor in determining a person's personality, but this is not the case. So when we want to claim that a person's personality is what it is because of how that person was raised as a child, we should think twice and consider other factors. The results also show the importance of genetic factors on personality, so we should also keep that in mind. I think the twin study is definitely something I'll remember five years from now.

Going into this class, I figured that I would just try and get through it with as little effort as possible. However, over the weeks I found myself stimulated and interested in the course material. I will take away many things from this course, but the biggest thing that I think I will remember in the next five years is the personality unit. In particular, I think that the Projective Tests will be the thing that I remember the most. These tests include the Rorschach Inkblot Test and the Thematic Apperception Test. I find this very interesting because you can find out a lot about people with something so basic.

I enjoy trying to "read" people to try to gain insight on others' perspectives so I can attempt to see things from all angles. I think that this could be useful to figure out how people are feeling based on their reactions and descriptions of basic, ambiguous objects or situations. Figuring out these slight cues in their words and actions may be helpful in determining how I decide to go about interacting with them for the remainder of the time being spent with them. This is just one of the many things that I will remember, but this will probably be the most helpful thing I will utilize in social situations.

The following video shows some examples of Rorschach Inkblot Test:

"You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones perfectly describes why my personal favorite unit, Mental Disorders, didn't arrive until the very end of our PSY 1001 class. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that the myths and misconceptions that our textbook and lectures sought to shatter will never affect me again. I have had the great fortune of knowing and interacting with several people diagnosed with mental illnesses in the last few years, and the time spent with each has been illuminating for me. Learning about several of these conditions in greater detail, along with receiving an emotional glimpse at the afflicted, will allow me to stay mindful of the environmental and genetic factors working against both diagnosed and untreated individuals. I can only hope that my next five years brings me into contact with others in similar situations. In these interactions, I hope that I can use my PSY 1001 knowledge to make each situation more comfortable for the other person.

There are few greater human pursuits than cooperation with and the betterment of our fellow man. Resorting to social ignorance and avoidance tactics to make ourselves feel more comfortable in the presence of the afflicted might be the easy way, but it is also the destructive way. Mankind cannot sustain itself except through understanding. Cultures, beliefs, and even psychological conditions are the barriers that separate us, and the same walls must be overcome for the good of our world.

"Treat others as you would treat yourself."

If there is one thing that I have learned in Psych that will stay with me, it is personality and the "Big 5 Model" in particular. It is amazing how different every individual is, and being able to understand personality gives us a better grasp of who a person is. I think being able to read people and being able to understand a person's personality is a necessity in life. When meeting new people, I realized that I now think back to the Big 5 Model and try to figure out peoples levels of things like extraversion and agreeableness. Without the understanding of personality how would we understand who a good potential friend or partner may be? We size people up everyday, and being able to read people is extremely important, especially in many careers. In any sales job, the ability to figure out the customer is vital. Personality is something that is such an important part of a person and I think that this concept is something that I will carry with me for a long time.

The thing I will remember the most from PSY1001 5 years down the road will have to be about how our memory works. It should have seemed obvious that our different senses remember things differently, like our iconic (visual) and echoic (sound) memories remember things for different periods of time. Also, the concept of how our short-term memory works. The diagram in the textbook of the three-memory model made a lot of sense to me. Unless we make something in our short-term memory meaningful, we either can constantly rehearse it, or we forget it. I have already began to incorporate strategy like chunking, or elaborative rehearsal to remember small things in my daily life, like picturing the hands of a clock in my mind to remember when something starts, instead of just the number. Just having a basic understanding of how your brain retains memories can save you a lot of stress if you know how to efficiently remember important things in your daily life. And for this reason PSY1001, I thank you.

The most important thing I learned in this class was the importance of using the scientific method when evaluating claims. To me this means using these ideas whenever possible. If somebody describes a story, il say something like "You're wrong! thats anecdotal evidence and violates the scientific principle of replicability". If somebody proposes a very elaborate explanation of an event I interject and say "You're forgetting about Occam's Razor". Because of how often I use aspects of the scientific method with my friends, I know that it will be with me for a very long time. Hopefully through my continuous, and sometimes annoying, use of the method more people will start to think more scientifically.

Throughout the semester, my favorite topic was personality. Learning about the "Big Five" personality traits was really interesting. It really surprised me how accurate a simple personality test was at describing my personality. I was placed in the "scholars" group during discussion, which was low in extraversion and high in conscientiousness. The description of this personality type was quiet, reserved, hard-working, and well-organized. I would use all of those words to describe myself. When I applied the "Big Five" personality characteristics to my friends and family, it was interesting to see the differences between them.

Another reason this topic was my favorite is that I learned that personality is something we can't really change about ourselves; it's a part of who we are. Personality can justify why people are a certain way and can help predict the actions of others based on their personality. For example, my sister is high in extraversion and low in conscientiousness. Based on her personality, I wouldn't expect her to sit quietly at a family gathering; I would predict that she would be highly social and outgoing. Learning about different personality types can be a very useful tool in life and can help in understanding other people.

A topic that I will remember most is about how our brains think (biological psychology). It is interesting that the right hemisphere of the brain works for the left side and the left hemisphere works for the right side of the body. I always found that to be interesting, although it may be an awkward concept to keep in mind, but I find that it actually might come in handy for the future. I say this because I know that as you grow older, there will probably be more troubles to your body such as strokes, brain damage and such. An example of this is when a patient goes through split-brain surgery and they become "blinded" to some things on the left or opposite side. Also with people who have brain damage on a certain hemisphere, it would be helpful to know what body part or function in your body won't be working.

If I had to damage a side of my brain it would probably be the right hemisphere which functions the coarse language skills and visuospatial skills because I rather keel the actions. The brain has so carries so much information it could be an endless conversation. Of course, there are many interesting things that we should all know about the brain and this is just one tiny bit of information.

Perceptual blindness is an effect when someone is concentrating on something and passively ignore other details or actions that are in their sight. Perceptual blindness happens all the time, but of course, if you are experiencing it, you won't remember it. I remember the first time when I heard about perceptual blindness, I, myself was a victim in the experiment. But after learning about perceptual blindness I found myself to pay attention more to my surroundings and to my own actions.

I used to think that in movies, why do the protagonists always drive pass each other, or miss small details in critical scenes, where they are actually looking for each other or something important. After learning about perceptual blindness, it makes sense that the protagonists are too concentrated on something else that they miss certain details. People, who are experiencing perceptual blindness, probably won't notice that they are experiencing it until someone else informs them. Perceptual blindness is probably one of the most interesting subjects in psychology that I learned. Below is one of my favorite perceptual blindness video, as much as I would like to tell you about the video, it is best if you watch it yourself.

Nearing the end of Psychology 1001, I am almost shocked that I made it through the thick textbook, never ending exams, blog posts, weekly quizzes and lab discussions in one piece. There have definitely been some times or 'aha' moments throughout this semester when I have realized that I had just related some part of my daily life and routine (whether big or small) to something that I learned in this class.

Thinking ahead, I definitely do not know much about where I am going to be in the next 5 years, but I will definitely remember some of the theories that have been engrained in my brain through this course. One of the things I will never forget learning about is Pavlov's classical conditioning. I believe that because classical conditioning made so much sense to me when I learned about it in class, it is one of the things that I won't have a hard time remembering. The concept of acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalization, discrimination, and more apply to so many real life experiences and the theory of classical conditioning almost always holds true to the situation. It helps to explain so much of our actions that most of the times go unnoticed, which is something I have and always will find very interesting.

Overall, I believe I will remember much more than this concept alone, but taking this class is only the beginning of my psychology studies in college. It has been a great start to the rest of my major-credit classes and I can't wait to learn more.

When I look back on my Psychology 1001 experience in five years, the concept I am going to remember and use the most are memory aids such mnemonics and the Method of Loci (oh the irony of remembering learning tricks). The first reason I'm am going to remember these ideas because they are extremely simple (I've been using mnemonics since I was a young child). The usefulness of mnemonics stretches from when I started learning the music staff for piano (Every Good Boy Does Fine!) at age seven up to now, memorizing concepts and keywords for classes. The second reason I know I will remember these techniques is their everyday usefulness in school, work, and everyday random activities. For example, the method of Loci is ideal for perfecting that long presentation or speech for class or the important business meeting. As a whole, remembering these memory techniques (enough with the irony already) will help me gain a competitive edge by allowing me to recall ideas and information easier, faster, and more accurately, thus giving me a competitive edge in life, school, and ultimately the workplace.

Through the whole course, there were so many examples about how human's functions been affected by biological factors rather than psychological factor itself, or the two factors function together to result a phenomenon. This is very important for people to understand what they have experienced were really come from other than the clear evidence in front of their eyes.
There are certainly some other important and interesting topics in the course; the chapter of memory and the chapter of human development have all gave me some very interesting ideas. However, these are interesting knowledge at the front, not the ones would help people improve and extend learning and critical thinking skills. Compare to those, the idea of thinking about psychology along with biology was particularly important to me.

We have learned about some topics like the drugs' effects to the brain and dreams relation to biological activities. Before, I only considered our thinking process as part of consciousness, did not really noticed anything happened without awareness. Also, I have not been thinking about how biological activities in our body will affect our brain and our thinking. This helped me built a way of thinking which lead me to consider and connect the major evident factors with other factors in the deep environment. I would say this is the most important thing I learned in the course.

What defines who we are? How do people develop their individual characteristics and what influences their behavior?

Psychology and theatre has always been an interesting topic to me. I have always been intrigued in what influenced people's actions and attitudes, and I always found it fascinating how actors can transform into different characters from role to role - sometimes transforming from being the protagonist in one production to being the antagonist in another production. Although I enjoy the whole psychology field, I tend to focus on personality psychology. Thus, I enjoyed Chapter 13: Social Psychology and Chapter 14: Personality the most, along with the corresponding lectures.

One of the topics that I enjoyed reading was the twin studies as well as the adoption studies. After research about twin studies, I found the finding that the environment played a very small influence in adult personalities. There were many examples presented of twins who were raised in different environments, but shared the some of the same personality traits.

Another topic that I enjoyed was the discussion about the Big Five Model of Personality and the personality quizzes/tests that we took for lecture and for our discussion sections. This model is an easy way to characterize people and even fictitious characters.

Psychology is a great field. It tells you a lot about other people. I love analyzing and watching people and this course has helped me to decode some of people's behaviors and attitudes. I will definitely remember what I have learned from this course!

Ironically enough the topic that I think I will remember the most is memory. I think the process of how the brain stores information is really interesting. I never really acknowledged the difference between short and long term memory; I always just thought of memory as one general concept but it has much more depth than that. Everyone is always trying to remember things throughout their life and knowing how to to maximize your memory is important. It is very useful to know how to make information easier to remember with tactics such as chunking and using mnemonic devices. The other thing about memory that I think is really cool is the amount of space the brain has to store long term memory. It pretty much has unlimited space for storage even though we aren't conscience of all of it. The uncertainties of memory also make it a very intriguing topic and I look forward to hearing more about it as research continues to investigate the mysteries of memory such as where in the brain all of it is stored. Diseases such as dementia leave scientists and doctors baffled and we don't know much about how and why this terrifying transformation of the brain takes place.

When going over the section in the book entitled Emotion and Motivation, I was struck by the universality of emotion over different cultures. I was amazed by the study done by Paul Ekman in which cultures who had never been exposed to Western Culture before could still recognize emotions in westerners faces fairly accurately.

http://sharpbrains.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/faces.jpg

This shows that emotions are fairly universal over cultures and also that emotions have an evolutionary base. I found it fascinating that all emotions can be broken down into seven basic emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, disgust, fear and contempt. I also found the two factor theory of emotion very interesting. Before taking psychology, I had never really thought about how emotions were created, I just took them as an inevitability, and now that I had learned about emotion, I could better understand my emotions. Psychology has taught me this lesson in many factors of my life. I had always taken many aspects of psychology as inevitabilities. Now that I am aware of psychological phenomena, I am more aware of my surroundings and can more effectively react to and think about the world.

When thinking ahead to 5 years from now and what concepts we have talked about in psychology and still be really relevant to me it is hard to choose just one. But the one that would be relate-able to everyday life would be our topic of personality. Specifically I think of our discussion when we were put into different groups with people that matched our personalities according to a survey that was taken. I think it is very important to be aware of the personality of people that you are with a lot, specifically in five years I think it would be most helpful pertaining to my coworkers. I feel as though the better you know one another personality the better you will be able to get along with them, and be able to figure out better ways for you to get along. Also just when we would talk about personality in either lecture or discussion it was just the most interesting topic I thought that we had covered. So I think that it will make it more likely to be a topic that I think about five years in the future. So among the many topics that have been covered this past semester I feel personality will be the one that is looked back upon the most.

The concept that I think will definitely be relevant for the next five years is the concept of memory retention. Mastering memory retention skills such as chunking, rehearsal and the use of mnemonics are of utmost importance to me in order to be successful for the rest of college. In chapter seven I learned many different strategies that will help me retain information for tests more effectively. One of the most important strategies is spreading out my studying more rather than cramming. Before I read chapter 7, I thought it was equally effective studying really hard the night before the test and I ignored all of my teachers' advice of studying early and often.

I also thought that the reading on short-term memory was fascinating. It is interesting how some things such as emotional memories are so easy to retain and how it can be seemingly impossible to remember factual information for a test. It is also surprising how it's possible to plant ideas into other people's minds and how the brain automatically fills in blank spots in certain memories. Some people can be lead to believe things that never happened just like the girl who after a talk with a superstitious summer camp leader falsely accused her own father of sexually abusing her when it had never actually happened.

There are plenty of psychology concepts that I will need to use later in life: the theories of learning for teaching and raising children, the "Big Five" personality traits, and the three stage theory of memory. But what interests me most on a purely "cool" level is the development of infant psychology.

Meanwhile, watch this cute baby use sticky mittens. It's cute because it is hilariously uncoordinated.

I find it completely fascinating at how simple tasks are impossible for infants and even young children. It's hard for us to imagine not having a "theory of mind" to understand other points of view. Equally as astonishing is how fast these mental abilities develop in children and how relatively universal the age is that these developments unfold at. My niece is still a baby, and it will be interesting to watch her develop when I know certain milestones that occur.

While I feel that infants are very simple in regards to my previous examples, I can still marvel at how complex of a learning machine they are. The study of universal adaptability towards phonemes shows how powerful the human brain is even at a young age. From now on, I won't look at a baby as a small, babbling ball of soft flesh. It is a learning machine, just as complex as we are.

Punching bags have become a real money maker in today's market. In fact company's like Everlast, have grown into international corporations around items like punching bags and boxing gloves. But why are such items so popular? The answer can be found in a psychological concept known as displacement. Displacement is the act in which we direct an impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a safer and more socially acceptable target. A life without frustrations is next to impossible in today's world. Our society however has learned to use displacement however, to direct our anger away from our boss or from all the other cars jamming up the freeway and towards things like punching bags. I think it's safe to say that most people would agree that society as a whole directing its physical aggression towards these punching bags and boxing gloves is probably the better alternative. And multi-million dollar corporations like Everlast and Mizuno would most likely agree.

Personally, my favorite unit of this semester is chapter five, consciousness. From the beginning of the semester I was especially interested in the stages of sleep and was eager to learn about dreams. This chapter also intrigued me with déjà vu, as well as paradoxical sleep and lucid dreaming.

When I was younger, I remembering noticing how my older sister's eyes were darting underneath her eyelids when she would take her naps. It frightened me at first, but as I got older I started to understand that she was undergoing REM. Before my parents explained to me what REM was, I always came to the conclusion that my sister's eyes were darting because she was having a crazy dream.

Prior to learning about paradoxical sleep, I wasn't aware of it and it didn't ever occur to me. It is quite ironic because a week or two after reading the section on paradoxical sleep, I myself experienced an episode. I felt that my eyes were glued shut and it was extremely frustrating. It only occurred during my naps, though. I felt extremely tired and wanted to open my eyes and move my body, but I could not gather the strength to do so.

Psychology 1001 opened my eyes to many things that I am now aware of, and I really do feel that despite my grade in the class (I will withhold from saying what it is), I learned a lot and can apply so much new knowledge to my every day life.

What will I remember most? What still stick with me the most? The first thing I thought was that we've learned a million things, there's no way I can think back and pick just one!! That's crazy!! But when I actually sat back and thought about this, I was shocked to see that I could think of one thing that stuck with me the most over this semester.

This topic was a broader topic that we learned about, and really can relate to anyone in our class. The topic I'm talking about is personality. Specifically, the five different categories of personality. The categories are, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. By taking a personality quiz, we each found out where we fit in the most.

I was more on the extraversion side. This was interesting to me because that does explain my personality, but even more interesting, is that I never used to be like that. Due to my dance career and performing on stage my personality has changed into what it is today. The reason I found this topic so interesting was because there are so many people in this world. By no means is everyone the same, or should everyone be the same. The fact that there are different personalities and different personality categories, greatly explains the diversity and uniqueness our world consists of. That's so great that we can all function and live our own life with our very own personality. Where would we be if everyone had similar personalities?? The world functions the way it does because we work off of others and learn from ourselves and from other people personalities everyday.

The fact that some people are organized, or conscientious, or caring, or easy to get along with, or adventurous, allows us to take full advantage of what we enjoy most. It doesn't matter if you are one type of personality or another. It is the fact that we can accept our personality and have the ability to categorize it, that allows us to learn more about ourselves!! It really is interesting!!

When thinking about which psychology term I will remember in five years, I was trying to figure out which one I could apply to my every day life. After much deliberation, I finally settled with Pavlov's very own, classical conditioning. As a declared marketing major, I feel like I will have the opportunity to incorporate different aspects of classical conditioning throughout my academic career as well as my career. It is one that can have such a strong influence on people; yet, more often then not, goes unnoticed since it is almost always down subliminally through advertising.

Similar to classical conditioning, I also think that I will be able to incorporate Skinner's operant conditioning methods when raising my kids and interacting with coworkers on a day-to-day basis. Much like classical conditioning, although we do not really think about the term at the time, in some way or another, we are almost always engaging in some sort of conditioning throughout our daily interactions. Whether that be offering to help someone and expecting something in return, or intentionally avoiding something due to past experience, both classical and operant conditioning play major roles throughout our lives.

Have you ever wondered how accurate are these personality tests? I thought they would not be accurate at all before I took any. I then took the Big 5 test in lecture and was very surprised how accurate it was. I then compared it to my Strength Finder test I needed to take as a freshman. They were very similar for example I scored high in Consciences on the Big 5 test and then scored high in Responsibility on the Strength Finder test. These similarities were only supported by one of the six principles of scientific thinking, replicability because two tests scored the same category. This may not be an exact match since they were different tests so there would be many different independent variables like the questions but the dependent variables are very similar strengths and personality. I think personality tests are very accurate and extremely helpful in life. These tests can be used in companies to match certain employees up on an assignment. They could also be used to assign duties which fit their personality or strength. Furthermore they can benefit individuals by allowing them to give back to their community using their strength for example a person who scored high in extraversion could rally their neighbors for a food drive.

Five years from now I see myself sitting on a couch somewhere and watching re-runs of That 70s Show. Some may think that first sentence has nothing to do with this blog post, but it definitely does. When I look back on my time spent on the course Psychology 1001 there will always be that one topic that I will never forget. For me, that one topic is the Big Five Model of Personality, and I found out the other day while watching That 70's Show, that it's engraved in my brain forever now.
After learning about the Big Five Model of Personality it was so much easier to place the name-tags of Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism on each of the main characters in That 70s Show. Each of them is unique in their own way, especially one in particular, Michael Kelso. Kelso is highly extraverted and open to new experiences, and extremely low in the conscientiousness category of the Big Five Model. Kelso likes to try new things and tries to get as many girls as possible, while also getting people to like him at the same time. He also is very irresponsible when it comes to school and in one aspect in particular when he accidentally gets a girl pregnant.
Overall what I'm trying to say is that not only can I relate the Big Five Model of Personality to some television show that I watch every day, but I also feel like I will use this for many other things I come across in my life to try and identify people better. I definitely think that this topic of the Psychology course will stick with me for a long time. If this topic just sprang into my head while watching this television show, then I know it will always be in my mind in case I need it to identify people's trait's in other situations as well.

The topic that I have found to be most memorable this semester was learning about the ways in which we remember things. This concept is extremely pertinent to all college students, as we are asked to recall and recognize a wide body of knowledge for various classes. Learning memory techniques, such as chunking and mnemonics, has proven to be an effective way to study. I can remember a greater amount of information in a smaller amount of time by using these techniques. I found the lectures that included slides of numbers that we were asked to memorize for a short period of time to be particularly interesting.
Learning about the ways that the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information can affect the processes of learning. That is to say that we can consciously affect what we remember by knowing how we remember things and how our memory works. For instance, if one wants to remember a famous quote, one could repeat the quote a few times to move the sentence from sensory memory to short-term memory, and continuously reviewing the quote could move it to long-term memory. Thus, we have the knowledge to go about remembering something in a more informed manner.
As the picture shows, mnemonic devices can help us to chunk information into units that are easier to remember. The information that we have learned about how our memory works is something that I will remember for quite some time.

Five years from now, ideally, I would be a multi millionaire living with my family, good friends, never having to work again a day in my life. I'd be sitting in Dubai already retired at 24, author, musician, NBA player, entrepreneur, etc. I would probably also want to have Siri (from the iPhone) remind me every Friday that it happens to be payday. Also, Natalie Portman and/or Olivia Wilde would be my wife...
Anyways, psychologically speaking (Psych 1001 I mean), I believe I would most likely remember the concept from Pavlov's classical conditioning. It was remarkable to me that associating something with a pleasurable want would have a great affect on the associate. So in this case, ideally, I would pretty much love to hear Siri's voice considering that it would remind me of the ensuing million dollar paycheck I would have coming into my hands. Good plan, right?
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/images/clscndaf.gif

Have you ever thought about what makes you different from every other person on Earth? How is it possible that out of nearly seven billion people, each person still manages to have unique characteristics? It is all summed up with one simple word, personality. Personality is an extremely interesting concept because it consists of different qualities that make an individual unique. Basically, a personality is a set of qualities that defines a person and makes him different from everyone else.

I was curious about studying personalities and applying this knowledge to myself and my relationships. When we took the survey to measure ourselves on the "Big 5" traits, I really took it seriously. I found that I scored extremely high in extroversion and conscientiousness. I have always known that I am a social and organized person, but this test showed me that these qualities are actually large components of my personality. After learning more about my own personality, I tried to assess and evaluate the personalities of my friends and families. I realized that I can relate much better to those who are highly extroverted because there are no boundaries in conversation and it is effortless. I also realized that I have a hard time relating to people with low conscientiousness because they are much more risky and I don't understand their logic.

When I really try to relate something I have learned in school to my everyday life, I find that I remember it for a very long time. Studying personality is very applicable to my life. I will continuously use the "Big 5" traits to try to understand others and work on relating to different types of people. By applying this knowledge to real-world experiences, I know I will remember the OCEAN acronym for a very long time.

Dear Psychology,

What an adventure you and I have gone on this semester. From filling my brain with knowledge about...the brain... to explaining basic human behaviors. I have learned so much. The thing I found most fascinating was what you taught me about personality.

The three levels of consciousness Freud postulated called the ID, ego, and superego, was a fascinating way to describe every human.

I really like the idea that we have base impulses that fuel us (id), and then our ego, and superego translate our actions to tell us of what we did was right or wrong. It makes it sound like your brain is watching you act and trying to make sense of it all. Which I think explains why we blurt things out loud.....which I do often.... so it was interesting to see a reason as to why.

It will be interesting to see how I now perceive and analyze situations in my life from here on out, thanks to you psychology.

-Goodbye

" It's 2 am, why I still can't sleep?'
"It's 3 am, Oh my goddess, I really want to sleep!"
"Oh no! 4 am, seriously? I'm still awake? Well, I lose my hope..."
I used to talk those sentences to myself when I turned over again and again on the bed in midnight. Yes, I was a insomniac. You can't imagine how miserable it was when I struggled every night. Fortunately, I studied chapter 5 which talked about sleeping. One point is about insomnia and how to cure it.Honestly speaking, it's really saved me and I'll never forget this knowledge.
I always felt nervous when I went to bed. I'll think, what if I can't sleep this time. Therefore I was often in an anxious situation. As what this chapter says:" Many people don't realize that even most "good sleeper" take 15-20 minutes to fall asleep". I always worried about the time and felt more and more clear-headed. Then after I finished reading, I obey the advice which was put forward by James Maas. He suggested that people need to hide the clock. At the same, I stop dinking coffee and napping during the day. Then I felt tired and want to sleep in the night. I become more relaxed as well. Finally, I successfully fell asleep and had a nice dream.
After that, I realize how important the psychology is and it's really useful in every daily life. I think it's really a right decision to choose psychology this semester.

It goes without saying that Psychology 1001 caught me off guard with the amount of work that I would be doing. The countless hours that needed to be read to understand what was going on in the class room, the quizzes, and the strenuous exams. It was an endless amount of work but to be honest, it was all worth it because of how much I learned this semester and how much I will be able to keep with me as I continue my college career.

The concept that I found most interesting was all the information discussed on IQ testing because I really did not know there was so much to cover on the subject. What I thought was most interesting was how an IQ score can determine your mental age compared to your chronological age, whether you are average, a genius, or struggle with some sort of a mental disability.

It is to be expected that there are some flaws to IQ testing and that some people may have their own thoughts on the matter but overall they are more helpful than not. They are a helpful way of determining intelligence while among other things such as what subjects one may be strongest at compared to what subject they may be weakest at or in need of more improvement.

Out of all the things that I have learned in psychology this year, the topic that stands out the most for me is the bystander effect. This means that when there is an public emergency situation, people often find themselves wanting to help, but they become frozen in place and unable to help. I have witnessed this firsthand when I was on an airplane to Europe a few years ago with my family. A flight attendant came over the loudspeaker in the middle of the flight and asked if there was a doctor on the plane. My dad is a doctor, but he was hesitant to get up and help because he figured that there would be many other people that would offer their help. However, after no one got up to do anything my dad stood up to help the person in trouble. I think that this is interesting because even though my dad is a doctor and deals with patients everyday, he was still hesitant to help the person on the plane because he believed that there would be plenty of other people to help. In this case, it was good that he decided to help the woman because no one else offered their help. Also, one would think that on commercial flight there would be more than one doctor on the whole plane. As the textbook states, there is a danger rather than a safety in numbers. This could be due to the diffusion of responsibility. This means that when there are other people around, people feel less responsible for the outcome of the situation. If my dad had not helped the person on the plane and she ended up getting more sick or even dying, he could have felt that it was not his fault since no one else had helped either. I know I can speak for most people when I say that we all want to believe that we would not fall victim to the bystander effect, but chances are most of us would.

There is no doubt in my mind that I will remember many of the lessons I have learned in psychology this semester throughout the rest of my life. However, the section on thinking and reasoning, specifically the use of heuristics, was especially interesting in my opinion.

It never occurred to me how much thinking I do every single day. Most people do not factor in all of the little things that you have to remember to do every day such as knowing what time it is, trying to avoid obstacles in your way, and planning on what you are going to put on all while making sure that you are out the door on time. Thank goodness for these mental shortcuts our brain has otherwise according to the textbook, we would be psychologically paralyzed.

Not only are heuristics useful for the sake of our thinking process, we also use them to draw inferences about what was going on. I never would have thought that my brain was using a shortcut to come to the conclusion that my parents were home when I saw their keys on the table or when I decided not to drink the funky smelling milk in the refrigerator. If my brain did not use heuristics I could find myself in some not so pleasant situations.

All in all, I am grateful and amazed for the way that the brain thinks. It is an amazing thing that will continue to puzzle me and astound me throughout my entire life.

My last blog was also about the bystander effect and how it amazes me that people witnessing an emergency or what not, especially when in a big group, are actually less likely to help the person in the possibly dangerous situation. This concept or lack of action, has been one of the most interesting scenarios that I have learned more about this semester. After reading more about the bystander effect in our text book and other sources, it mentions how people reading or learning about it don't think they would act in such a way when witnessing any sort of emergency, but most likely when the situation comes about people find themselves as part of the audience to a critical situation rather than helping the individual in need.

The text book also mentions that once informed about the bystander effect, people are more likely to help in the future rather than just be that helpless bystander. I have actually been one of those people. After reading about the bystander effect I could remember scenarios where I have been both the bystander and the lone individual in need of help, and I didn't want to he that helpless person anymore. I was shopping at a store this past week when a lady knocked down a bunch of shoes accidentally. There were quite a few people that just watched, but didn't help. I on the other hand wasn't going to be one of the observers, so I went over and helped they lady. She truly appreciated it and it felt great to help someone and not be a part of the common bystander effect. I hope all the Psych students disengage in the bystander effect and instead become one of the brave souls, helping those in need.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIvGIwLcIuw

As a student, it is very exciting when a class topic excites you or is something you are passionate about. I have always been a big advocate of gay rights, and because of this, the concept that will stick with me most from this semester of psychology is the genetic component behind homosexuality. I have always believed homosexuality to lie within a person's genetic makeup; however there are so many people who go to great lengths to claim that it is a choice, and even some who will then condemn people for that choice.

Of course, it is a very large issue in our society today as well as in the world of politics. This is one of the reasons why this component of the course will be something I will never forget. While reading the textbook, I could not help but think to myself that I was so glad all at least all of the students in my class would read this and be provided with real information that made a claim against homosexuality being a choice, and that maybe if this class and that information effected enough people's lives, we could come one step closer to change, but more importantly equality and tolerance.

I think the part of psychology that I will be most useful to me in the future is the section on problem solving. It will help me to refrain from or at least realize common mistakes when I approach my problems. Some common mistakes we learned to avoid are salience of solution, mental sets, and functional fixedness.

The salience of solution refers to the error of looking at only the surface of a problem and trying to use previous methods that worked for problems that are actually very different fundamentally. The mental sets error refers to being stuck on one way of solving a problem even when it's clear that it won't work and being unable to come up with alternative solutions. Functional fixedness is the inability to realize any other uses for objects than their originally intended use. Of these errors, I think the one that I make most often is the mental sets error. Once I start thinking that I can solve a problem a certain way, it's hard for me to come up with any other alternative solutions because I get so focused on my original solution. I also often have a problem with salience of solution. I tend to look at problems and try to think of ways to solve it that have worked for me in the past rather than coming up with new methods. However, hopefully knowing these things will help me to feel less stressed when I am faced with a problem and help me to handle it to the best of my abilities.

Everyone always says, "You figure out who you really are in college". Parents, teachers, and high school councilors all told me that college would be a time of personal, social, and emotional growth. I guess I didn't really believe them. That is, until I started looking back and realized how different I had become in the last 9 months. The"Big 5", that we learned about in Psychology, helped me to understand more about myself, and why I've changed so much. When we took the test in lab, and then analyzed our results on the Big 5 test I was shocked. I didn't get the score that I had expected to receive. I found out that I score low on the scale of extroversion, high on consciousness, high on openness to experience, high on agreeableness and low on neuroticism (which pretty much means I get stressed out a lot). I had been expecting a high score on extroversion, but when I really considered it, I found that I personally get the most joy out of being with small groups of people. The Big 5 also has helped me to manage my stress levels better. Before the test, I thought my stress and anxiety levels were normal, but after scoring a 7 (that's about as low as you can do), I decided to get help in managing my stress. The Big 5 has really helped me to understand myself as a person and as a college student, and I know that I will continue to change and grow as the years go on. I can use the Big 5 as a tool to understand why I am the way I am. And it's the concept that I will remember 5 years from now.

The idea/concept that I will remember the most and continue to use to most from this class are the six principals of scientific thinking. They are as you probably know ruling out rival hypotheses, correlation vs. causation, falsifiability, replica ability, extraordinary claims, and Occam's razor. These concepts will still be present for me after this class because they are general ideas that should apply to everything. This class taught me to question what I hear frequently and to find proof to support ideas. The six of these principals I can apply to everyday situations as a move forward. We used these principals in class to make sense of some ideas and to prove things about studies and I can do the same in my personal life. Looking back I have been using these concepts all of my life without knowing it. One example of this is when I was growing up and still to this day I play the basketball game HORSE, and when you get to the last shot if you miss the shot on your first try you can either choose to shoot again or make the other person shoot again. This uses the concept of replica ability. These concepts have been around me my whole life and will continue to be after this class is over.

When the weekend finally rolls around, most people seem excited to get together with friends to go out and have a good time. While I too like spending time with my friends, my idea of a great weekend usually involves spending a lot of time alone, usually with a good book. I've always known that I am more introverted, but growing up in a society where withdrawn people are seen as weird, and being part of a family where openness and constant chatter are basically required, I often felt like there might be something wrong with me. I started to force myself to talk to people more, and go to more parties, but it didn't make me very happy.

During the personality lectures, the discussion about introverts needing to shut out external stimulation really hit home for me. It may be hard for others to understand that sometimes we would rather daydream than hold a conversation or eat alone in peace than keep up our polite façade. I think it's important to realize that this is normal for us, and introverts don't need to change their personality just because our silence might make others uncomfortable.

Here is a great article, "10 Myths About Introverts," that other introverts might identify with. And maybe you extroverts might learn a little something us, too!
http://www.carlkingdom.com/10-myths-about-introverts

After reading all about IQ and tests to give you a proper intelligence result, the more I realized how non-valid it can be. I realize there are many correlations that show it shows the potential success and job success, but it does not do it entirely. What really grinds my gears is the fact that all college institutions, including IVY League schools rely on such tests as ACT and SAT. Also, the fact that there are programs out there to "boost" your ACT or SAT score by the means of attending a class for a month shows that it can be pretty easy to learn a concept that the test covers pretty easily. These IQ tests are suppose to be tests of what you learned your whole entire life, not what you learned in 4 weeks. I am glad that GPA is another factor that schools look into which shows work ethic, not just intelligence. In the job industry, you could have a worker who is naturally gifted academically, but won't work at all, so no work gets done. I really hope psychologists find a different method of IQ testing that is more valid than the ones now, or find a different system for colleges to accept students in for.

I think the concepts that I will remember most in five years is everything related to teaching and learning. I am currently studying to be a high school teacher, as a result, I will be practicing these teaching concepts daily. Obviously I will have much more training on current teaching methods and how these concepts apply to practical teaching, but it is something that I think I will remember.

Ideally I will be able to take these concepts and use them in a practical way in my future. I am fully aware that I will most likely not explicitly remember these concepts, it's not like I will be able to think back, "Oh yeah, that was on page 456 of my psych book!", but rather the concepts will be ingrained into my teaching, personality, and mindset. It truly is applied psychology, here I will be taking something that I have learned about and almost unconsciously apply it to my life and career. I fully believe that some of the best work in any field has come from people that don't know enough to know just how special what they are doing is. It's almost as if the formal terms trip you up, sometimes the less you know, the better.

There are over 7 billion people living in this world, all of whom have different personalities. Whether you are talkative, sympathetic, organized, relaxed, or creative, everyone has a unique personality that is special to themselves. We've developed our personality through genetics, as well as through our daily experiences, which have helped shape who we are today. For this reason, I believe the topic on personality is the most valuable subject we learned about this semester, and will deeply remain in my long term memory.

Each individual has goals in the life, whether it's to become a great engineer and work at power plants, or to become a veterinarian and take care of animals. Our personality is a main factor that will guide us towards our desired futures. My favorite thing we learned in the personality unit was about the Big Five Model because of how applicable it is to finding out what kind of person we are. I would consider myself as extroverted, which could possibly be the reason I am seeking a career in the field of business. So no matter where we end up in the future, we will always hold onto one essential trait, our personality.

As the year is winding down and I look back at the wide range of topics we covered I would have to say that behavior and social behavior has been the most interesting topic. I think it is interesting to look into what makes a person who they are and see how they act in a group of people and why. I've always had some clue as to what kind of person I am. Happy, talkative, energetic.. well depending on sleep, and a risk taker. But it was nice to finally see this while taking the Big 5 personality test, it showed I was high on extroversion, which explains how i used to always get in trouble for talking, and agreeableness. I was surprised I was not very high but still slightly above average on Conscientiousness and openness to experience. I found my traits very interesting, anyone else?

Stress, at least for me, is a part of our daily lives and during the college years the stress of finals, interviews and social events seems never-ending. Whether it's the little hassles in life or the large events, stress plays an important role.

That's why I think the topic of stress is the most important topic we learned about in psychology and learning how to cope with stress is something I know I will use in the future.

I have always looked at meditation and thought, why would I ever do that? When I was 12 years old my soccer coach made it a team ritual to meditate before our state games. I remember sitting in the grass and thinking well this is boring and pointless. However, after reading about it in Psychology I learned that meditation helps to train attention and awareness. It actually heightens creativity, empathy, alertness and decreases anxiety and recurrences of depression. Although scientists are unsure why meditation has these positive effects, many people seem to benefit from it.

So now, rather than isolating myself or under-eating when I'm stressed out, I have the knowledge to seek out other stress coping activities... like meditation!

Impulsive, inattentive, does not sit still, does not play well with others, and throws a lot of temper tantrums are all symptoms that my step-bother has had for years. They are also common symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder. Children with this disorder are diagnosed with or without hyperactivity. My step-brother definitely has the hyperactivity part of the disorder.

I will remember this concept from psychology because I never really knew what it meant to have ADHD until I came across the definition of it the text book. My step-brother takes medication for the disorder, and the disorder has also gotten better with age, just as the text book says it might do. My step-brother still has trouble in school and in learning and still has bad balance and coordination. He also lacks commonsense. Other than those issues, most of his symptoms simmer down when he takes his medication on a daily basis.

My step-brother's first boy cousin, too, has ADHD. Studies have shown heritability is as high as .80. The boys' grandpa also has symptoms of the disorder and had a lot of troubles growing up. Because I can associate the concept with my life, I will remember the symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder and the statistics about it for many years to come.

This video describes the supernatural patterns in the Nazca of Southern Peru. The Nazca lines spread over the whole plain, which is unwatered and some even stretch for several miles. These patterns include the geometric figures, animals,plants and others. "The geometric ones could indicate the flow of water or be connected to rituals to summon water. The spiders, birds, and plants could be fertility symbols. Other possible explanations include: irrigation schemes or giant astronomical calendars."(Brown, Cynthia Stokes ,2007). Because these lines seem to be extraordinary claims, some people believe that Aliens did them. And the most famous and unexplained patterns look like an astronaut and airstrip. Also, people think the ancient Nazca people didn't have enough knowledge and technology, especially they did not have tools to check the patterns. As a result, Nazca lines become more mysterious. But many local Nazca people believe that their ancient made the lines. For me, I think these amazing patterns could be made by human. Because, I can't understand the purposes if the Aliens did them. Why the Aliens made them in our Earth? I agree that ancient Nazca people might made these lines to find water or hold pray rain activities because of their geographical locations. It could be coincidence or unaware to draw an astronaut and airstrip. Moreover, these pictures are imagined and called "astronaut" and "airstrip", they are subjective ideas. Whatever, I'm so interested in landscapes. I believe that we can find the real answers in the future. The reason I chose this topic because in chapter 2 I leart that we need find reliable evdiences to explor unknow things. I believe that I will remember to use scientific method to understand things in the future.

Notes:
Brown, Cynthia Stokes (2007). Big History. New York: The New Press. pp. 167. ISBN 978-1-59558-196-9.

Psychology is present in our lives whether we like it or not. Rather than ignore this fact, I decided to make good use of psychology this year in college. One of the major things that I struggled with on my transition to college was that I did not know exactly how to study for my exams. I especially looked forward to the memory portion of our class, hoping that I would learn some useful tricks and tools to studying for tests. When we came to this section I read the chapter and was happy to find some useful concepts to apply to my studying. One of the major concepts that I used was the distributed versus mass studying. Instead of cramming for a test the night before, I decided to distribute my studying throughout the week before the test. Thanks to this, I earned a much better grade on my Biology test than I had before I learned this method. Another concept that I found to be prevalent in my studies was the testing effect. I noticed this greatly in none other than my Psychology class! Throughout the chapters there are short true or false quizzes, after reading the chapter there are chapter quizzes, and before the exam there are practice quizzes. After taking each of these and testing myself as much as possible, I was able to retain much more information and do better on the exams. Over all, psychology has been an ever-present force in my studies and has allowed me to do my best in my classes.

Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding PG 261

I think that the biological drive that we have to form groups also has a direct correlation with conformity. The need to belong or form groups seems ridiculous when we look at it from outside of any given situation because we want to believe that we are independent individuals. In the book, it says that the threat of social isolation can lead us to behave in self-destructive ways and even impair our mental functioning. When I first read this, I thought that statement seemed a bit exaggerated, however, after thinking about it, I realized just how rarely I do things by myself. Even something as simple as going to the bathroom at a sporting event or party, most people, including myself, almost always ask the people they are with if anybody else has to go.

Although it may seem unnecessary looking back, asking someone to accompany you to the bathroom is a harmless act. Unfortunately, sometimes a group setting can involve very harmful acts as well. For instance, the art of peer pressure and conformity when it comes to deciding whether or not you want to participate in an illegal activity with a group of friends. Your conscious tells you not to, however, your desire for acceptance takes over and you find yourself doing things you would not normally do.

Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding
Chapter 13, Page 495, "The Need to Belong: Why We Form Groups"