PSY 1001 Section 02-03 Spring 2012

Lie to Me

2012-05-10T22:40:48Z

When commenting on the blogs, I realized that my previous post had not been posted, so here it is, much later than intended!
One of the things that will really stick with me is the information on facial expressions and how to identify them, because I have recently gotten into the show Lie to Me. It got canceled after 3 seasons, probably for good reason, but I still like it. I had a long bus ride and only a phone with Netflix to entertain me. One of the recommended TV shows was Lie to Me so I gave it a shot and it was actually interesting and it really connected the facial expressions to something real--lie detection.

In the show, the detectives use minute facial expressions to tell if individuals are lying. A lot of the ones that are usually used are disgust and anger. Disgust is especially used because it is evidently the greatest indicator of hatred, not anger. I put a video clip in here about the show. It's a little preview part to show some of the things that are actually addressed in some of the episodes.

Now I'm just that weird person who's attempting to use TV show concepts in real life and turn myself into a human lie detector, but it is genuinely applicable. Because of the show, I now have a connection to a concept, and it will probably stick with me in my new endeavor to become a lie detector. I'll always remember this psych class when I'm trying to see if someone's being deceptive, although I will most likely fail at my goal.

Decoding the World Around Us

2012-05-02T15:57:20Z

Throughout this semester in psychology, one unit in particular got my attention more than others, this being sensation and perception. The world around us is different for each and every person, all of us perceive the world in our own unique ways. I even watched a video earlier this week that pushed on the idea of God being within the neurons. This video got me thinking how much things require sensation and perception. The mind is complex and the parts of brain/body that are responsible for taking in the world around us. Sensation is everywhere. It dictates the way we see art, taste food, and act. It is what makes each and every person unique. Something that takes that much purpose in the lives of everyone on Earth, should be something of importance. Within the unit of sensation the one thing I found most interesting would be the end step within the process of sensation, sensation integration. This is the main event of how we take in the world around us. It controls our emotions and our actions in many senses as well. The final step, sensation integration, is the key to decoding the world around us.

How can you not?

2012-05-01T19:08:10Z

It was stated in our book that if you are exposed to something many times, we are more likely to remember that thing. This being said, the thing I will remember most about psychology from this class are those damn five principles of scientific thinking. I mean, lets be honest here, I had to encounter those being drilled into my head at bare minimum, 3 times a week. Not only did I come across these multiple times a week, but their magnitude of importance in Psych 1001 made me create tricks to remember each of them. It was stated in our book that by creating tricks and mnemonic devices we remember things much better. It is no surprise then that I will probably remember these terms more than anything else. Another learning technique described in our book was the fact that learning over a long period of time, as opposed to cramming, tends to lead to more remembrance long term. Considering that I learned and continued to use these over the course of a whole semester, I will most likely remember them for some time down the road. The combination of these three learning techniques, along with others, is plenty of evidence that I will be stuck with the burdensome task of always asking myself, "Correlation vs. Causation?" Thank you Psych 1001 for ensuring that I never forget to check my 5 principles. My life is now complete.

What's Wrong With Red Ink?

2012-05-01T17:19:24Z

A nice pen? Maybe just a card. These days, it has become common custom to present business partners with a gift after a deal. However, that is where the similarities seem to end, as what gifts to give varies greatly with each culture. Write a letter to a partner in China with red ink and you'll be sure never to hear back from them as this signifies their death. Now, business theorists have been writing about the great differences not only in gift giving, but in many other aspects of business and their managers. The differences in problem solving between Western and Eastern business culture is almost night and day at times.

When it comes to problem solving, Western businessmen tend to go into things headfirst without thinking it over as much, This make sense however, when we look at a book written by Zelmer-Bruhn, which relates this to the large amount of individual independence shown in Western cultures.In Eastern culture on the other hand, businessmen problem solve extensively before taking action on business measures. This is in turn due to the strict authority figures and lack of risk taking in their cultures. These differences strike me because I didn't think that different cultures could create such a discrepancy in how businesses are run. This could lead to many issues when dealing with companies from other countries.

Psychology & Me

2012-05-01T03:49:39Z

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.

The Psychology of Morality

2012-04-30T20:37:09Z

In all honesty, I entered Psychology 1001 reluctantly, because I had to and not expecting to encounter any particularly influential ideas. However, I was surprised when learning about psychology changed my worldview in a number of ways. The most significant of these was my concept of morality. A short time ago I believed humans' moral instincts were perhaps divinely inspired, or at least of more significance than simple science. However, psychology reveals that morality is in fact perfectly explainable with evolutionary theory. They are created in people when they associate actions perceived as immoral with punishment; later immorality is associated with fear and, later still, immorality is a negative stimulus all by itself. This revelation has a vast number of implications. For example, if one were a perfectly logical person, one could arguably use this information to commit any immoral act without reservation. I don't think I could ever be such a cold person, since my morals are too deeply ingrained in me and to break them would cause me too much psychological pain for it to be worth it. However, after this new knowledge I will be sure not to judge too harshly people I consider to be immoral, because it's not necessarily their fault, but the fault of the environment in which they grew up. In any case, there is no way I will forget this information in five years, or ever.

Snow Globed World

2012-04-30T18:21:21Z

"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.

]]> I still remember chuckling at the idea of anyone believing in anything like that. But what I didn't realize was that prior to immigrating, they used to live in an isolated 3rd world country, where their perceptions did not go further than what they could see with the naked eye. Lack of education and knowledge of such things were not in their reach, thus shaping their perception of what they "see" it to be. Learning about naïve realism has really broaden my horizons in order to understand others around me, especially others who may come from a different culture in another area of the world. Perhaps in their eyes, I may be the one who prone to naïve realism. Despite whether a certain idea may be right or wrong, real or ridiculous, I think that understanding this concept could help us to all "see" why we believe in certain ideas and perceive them the way we do.

In all Honesty

2012-04-30T15:25:06Z

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.

Pet Training and Me

2012-04-30T05:26:30Z

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!!!

Mind the Jackelopes

2012-04-30T05:08:14Z

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.

Language and Human

2012-04-30T04:53:54Z

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.

IQ Testing

2012-04-30T04:49:24Z

The topic I most found interesting and memorable this semester in Psychology was when we learned about the different components of intelligence. I enjoyed both the lectures on the subject and the discussion section for the topic of that week. Intelligence can be so variant from person to person, and I thought it was important to realize the causes and examples of different types of intelligence. As the text states, there is the concept of g, or general intelligence, but there are also nine different forms of intelligence that psychologist Howard Gardner narrowed down to define the different ways a person can have intelligence. For example, there is linguistic intelligence, where a person can write and speak well, musical intelligence where an individual is musically inclined, or spatial where a person can reasonably and easily think about an area or space. Intelligence or how people are perceived based on their intelligence also varies between cultures. An "intelligent" act in one culture could be construed as something completely different in another. Because of these different types of intelligences, there has never been an IQ test developed that reasonably and fairly, without bias can test a person's intelligence. I also found it interesting this semester learning how much genetic influences have on IQ, or if intelligence is more largely based on the environment a person was raised. Twin studies were an interesting example when learning further on this subject as it showed there was a high correlation of the level of intelligence twins shared, especially if they are monozygotic. This shows that genetic influences do play a large part on the IQ of a human being.

Twin Study

2012-04-30T04:39:20Z

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.

Using Psychology Moving Forward

2012-04-30T04:32:25Z

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:

'Cause you got, personality!

2012-04-30T04:12:33Z

Lately while at work, our radio station has been set to the sounds of the late 50's and early 60's. As I go about my job, I often find myself humming along to songs from The Temptations or The Supremes but lately I've had one song stuck inside my head and oddly enough, its about personality. What does this have to do with psychology you might ask? Well, it got me thinking about the relationship between personality and behavior. During class I was placed in the "artist" group otherwise known as the introverts. Generally, I consider myself an introvert but I'm always thinking about how I act when meeting new people, which is shy and quiet but when I'm with people I know, I have no problem being loud, funny and the life of the party. Which makes me think, while I may score like an introvert, it doesn't last for very long once you get to know me. My personality might be described as quiet, flighty or unaware but certain circumstances in life have shaped my behavior to be more like an extrovert in some cases and more of an introvert in others. Either way, my personality defines me in the broadest of terms but like Lloyd Price says "I'll be a fool for you, 'cause you got, personality!" and that is something I'll take with me when I graduate.