PSY 1001, Fall 2011--Sections 08 & 09

Is seeing really believing???

2011-12-06T06:59:45Z

The more I learn about the brain the more I realize how uneasy our brains are! There is a saying that goes, "You have to see it to believe it". The truth is that whatever seems real to us may turn out to be a fabrication of our subconscious mind and our senses. I know now that what we feel and how we think about the world influences how we actually see it.
Five years from now, I will remember the concept of sensation and perception. Sensation occurs when your sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment and your sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain. Perception follows that when the brain organizes the information and translates it into something meaningful. Here is a video that I believe tackles the concept of sensation and perception called, "The Rubber Hand Illusion":

In this illusion, a brush strokes the fake hand and the real hand until you feel the sensation from the brush on both hands. Then your perception of the "rubber hand" changes and it starts to feel like your real hand. This is exaggerated when the experimenter pulls out the hammer and smashes the rubber hand and the volunteers pull back as if it was their actual hand.
Here is a short video that deals more with perception:

In that video we learn just how easy it is to not detect something when our attention is focused on something else.

I find both experiments to be fascinating, but the question that remains is what makes something "meaningful"? How do we know what information is important and what information should hold my focus? I have yet to understand how our brains choose to focus on one thing more than another or how we can see something we know is not real and still be convinced that it is! So I'll leave you with this, just because you touch something or just because you see something... is that all the evidence you need to believe it is true?

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

2011-12-06T05:45:11Z

The mention of fetal alcohol syndrome (in class and briefly in the book) broke my heart and especially resounded with me because my family has opened up our home to foster children, many of whom are affected by FAS. The choice to impair a child within the womb is not a typical one to make, but unfortunately, there are many cases in which families, specifically women as they carry the child(ren), affect their children so profoundly with the use of alcohol that the effects last a lifetime.

In professor Koenig's first lecture, she showed a video that talks about how alcohol affects the ventricles in the brain: these holes are much larger in children whose mothers use alcohol than those whose mothers do not. Also discussed was how the brain density is smaller and cell groups are in the wrong place for these children. The effect of alcohol leads to children with FAS having symptoms like facial malformations, physical growth retardation, learning and behavioral disabilities that can all impair their progress within society. My own adopted brother is one of these children; it's been upsetting to watch the ways in which he does not get a chance to live life to the fullest because he cannot function normally within society. His brain does not work normally because he is literally not all there; of course, despite the ways in which he might not "be all there," he is for my family because that is how we have always known and loved him.

The choice to improve a child's life is one that will always be necessary in order to create improvements within civilization. That is why steps to educate men and women on prenatal development and teratogens like alcohol is especially important if the world is to continue the advancements it is making and better opportunities for all.

Typical facial characteristics of a child affected with fetal alcohol syndrome as a previously mentioned symptom from http://www.nsnet.org/nsfas/symptoms.html

The Milgram Paradigm

2011-12-06T05:37:58Z

Over the entire semester of psych 1001, the Milgram Paradigm was the one most fascinating study that I've learned about. It's really scary to think about what normal people would do, if given an authoritative figure. The Milgram study was designed to understand the causes of obedience. Stanley Milgram thought obedience was more interesting to study than conformity because "he believed that unquestioning acceptance of authority figures is the crucial ingredient in explaining unjustified violence against innocent individuals," (Lilienfeld 508).
Two participants are said to be participating in a study used to learn the effects of "punishment on learning", with one participant being the learner and the other being the teacher. You are then asked to draw a card saying which role you would get where the actual participant always ends up being the teacher and the other participant who is actually a confederate gets the learner, because the cards are rigged. As the teacher you are required to read a long list of words in pairs, and present learner with the first word of the pair and have them repeat to you the second word. If the learner gets it wrong, you are required to give them an electric shock ranging from 15 volts, up to a lethal 450 volts which is listened as "XXX". If any of the teachers complained or asked to stop, the authoritative figure or the experimenter in the white lab coat would tell him they have to continue.
Yale psychologists hypothesized that only 0.1 percent of people would go all the way up to 450 volts, however they were proved completely wrong. All of the participants displayed some obedience by administering at least a couple shocks, and most went up to at least 150 volts, but an astonishing 62 percent of people displayed complete obedience going all the way up to 450 volts.
It's truly ridiculous thinking that people have capabilities to harm and even kill others just because some "official" person gave them instructions to. This makes me think back to the Holocaust and genocides, is everyone truly bad? Or does the influence of the few make everyone seem evil? I don't know what I would've done if I had volunteered for the Milgram study. I hope I would've stepped back and refused, but since so many people seem to have full obedience it makes me wonder if I would be just as bad. I am truly mesmerized by this study and I think this is something I will remember for years to come.

Mean Girls

2011-12-06T05:36:14Z

Five years from now I will remember the concept of conformity. I find this concept important and interesting because it is so relevant in our daily lives. Most people face conformity nearly on a daily basis and it's definitely not going away. The scientific definition of conformity is the tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure.

Teen girls are especially prone to conformity. I know I was. Cliques start to form during middle school, and these cliques come with rules and expectations of their members. The following clip is the trailer of a popular movie called Mean Girls. The trailer doesn't quite show the real extent to which conformity is relayed throughout the movie, but it gives a pretty good idea. As you will see, there are many different groups which people are categorized into, such as the cool Asians, burnouts, jocks, and the plastics. The main character, named Cady, gets drawn into the plastics group, where she is pressured to dress, act, and even talk a certain way.

But conformity doesn't just take place in ridiculous cliques throughout the teen years; it remains constant through adult lives as well. It comes down to being as simple as facing a certain direction in an elevator because everyone else is facing that way, (as we saw in our discussion section). In the end, conformity will inevitably continue to exist.

Development

2011-12-06T05:05:47Z

We've learned about a lot of different areas of psychology this semester. When looking back, I see myself remembering the most about developmental psychology five years from now. Developmental psychology is the study of how behavior changes over the life span. I will remember this area of psychology the best because I am interested in learning how parenting and environmental factors play roles in a child's life. I also look forward to having kids of my own one day, and knowing developmental psychology will help understand what area of development my child is in, and how to parent during that stage. One area I find especially interesting in developmental psychology is the parenting styles and how they affect a child. After reading about the parenting styles; permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative, I realized that the best parenting style for me is authoritative. I think this is a lot like the way my parents raised my brother and me, and I believe they were successful in doing so. My parents set good authoritative rules by giving us a curfew, punishing us when we broke rules, and giving us appropriate punishments. However, they made sure reward us with our free time as well. They let us go out with our friends, and even when given permission, come in later then curfew. I would like to raise my children this way as well because I see the benefits of it by the way my brother and I turned out.

Pseudoscience

2011-12-06T04:47:01Z

Five years from now I am going to remember the differences between science and pseudoscience. More specifically, I am going to remember how to determine whether or not something is pseudoscience or an actual science. There are always people trying to scam you, and I don't want to be one of their victims. It is important to be able to tell the differences between the two because science can actually provide help, but pseudoscience generally just makes the situation worse.
For instance, people who write self help books are somewhat hypocritical. The term self-help means helping yourself without the help of others. It strikes me as odd that they are writing a self-help book, even though the goal is to help the reader. This doesn't see like it is actually about self-help, or helping people at all. It is only a ploy to gain money.
They don't care what so ever about helping people at all, so they claim to have proof and facts. People are desperate, so they turn to pseudoscience, which has "solid" proof, instead of actual science that only suggests. No one wants to get scammed or fall victim of pseudoscience, but they do because nothing stops them from stating that they have facts.
This YouTube video can't be embedded, but it is worth watching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn4EXAETBhA

Operant Conditioning in our World

2011-12-06T04:33:32Z

Years from now, I'm sure I'll still remember the concept of operant conditioning. If you aren't aware, operant conditioning is a theory of psychological learning that deals with "reinforcement" and "punishment." Good behavior is rewarded with reinforcement, while bad behavior is met with punishment. Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning in that it deals with one's own behavior, rather than others'.

I'm sure I'll remember operant conditioning simply due to the vast number of occurrences in our society. Even now, I'm a slave to my conditioning: I get frustrated while working on homework, which punishes my behavior of working on homework, so I tend to do it less or put it off. However, completing the homework is rewarded (hopefully!) with a good grade, so I tend to do it more. There are nearly infinite similar examples of operant conditioning's affect on our day to day life, in big ways and small.

An example of operant conditioning (possibly taken to extremes) is applied in this big bang theory clip: http://youtu.be/qy_mIEnnlF4

Note: Embedding is disabled on the video, otherwise I would have embedded it.

assignment 6

2011-12-06T04:32:10Z

Psychology 1001 has covered numerous topics this semester. It has outlined the important parts and the more commonly known pieces of psychological research and thinking. We haven't gone too far in depth on many of the subjects due to the large amount of material covered, but I will remember the subject of false memories. This topic was covered in discussion sections a few weeks back and outlined the case of Paul Ingram and his family. When we reviewed this in discussion it we were required to go further in depth on the ideas of false memories and how situations like this come about. The case of Paul Ingram centered on the facts of how his daughters accused him of abuse and he denied the accusations right away, but as more and more came forth from his daughters he began to believe them and doubt himself. The daughters accusations were meritless, but soon Ingram admitted to the charges. Paul Ingram was a religious man and he came to the belief that he had taught his daughters not to lie and thus they must be telling the truth and he eventually admitted guilt to all charges. Remembering the ideas of false memories in 5 years will be something that I know will still stick with me. The case of Paul Ingram is the main reason why I believe this to be. In a case like this where an innocent man spent over 20 years in prison makes me wonder how many other cases false memories may have played a part in an innocent individual admitting guilt. As we ventured further into the subject and got to flash bulb memories this made me wonder more on the whole idea of traumatizing events and how we are able to imprint memories i.e. flashbulb memories, or in some cases completely wipe the memory from our conscious. All in all false memories play a large part in proper investigation and the ability to back up claims whether true or false.

Assignment 6

2011-12-06T04:04:33Z

Five years from now, I will have graduated from college. I hope to have a BA in psychology and a job working with kids. I love kids. Actually, I have my life partially planned out already: when I was 12, I decided I would never have kids of my own. I wanted to adopt a little girl and name her "Maya." That dream still holds.

That being said, I think the concept from Psychology 1001 that I will remember most five years from now is the Attachment Theory, which looks at the attachment between a child and his or her mother. As discussed in class, there are three types of attachment: secure, avoidant, and anxious-ambivalent. The theory was tested by having a stranger be in the same room as a mother and her child, and after a while, having the mother leave and return to see how the child would react. Children with a "secure" attachment viewed their mothers as safe bases - they cried when their mothers left and calmed down when they returned. Children with an "avoidant" attachment seemed indifferent to their mothers' actions and refused to acknowledge their mothers' return. Children with "anxious-ambivalent" attachment to their mothers tried both to cling to their mothers and push them away at the same time, due to their disorganized coping behavior.

The reason I believe that the Attachment Theory is the concept I will remember most from this class is that I want to have a secure attachment with my future child. When the professor showed statements pertaining to each type of attachment in class and told us to judge ourselves based on those statements, I realized that I have more of an avoidant relationship with my parents. I'm the type of person who doesn't like to make it apparent when I'm upset, and I tend to want to deal with my problems by myself because I don't want to inconvenience anyone. Because of this, I went through a lot of depression in high school and it wasn't healthy by any means. I don't want my future child to go through the same thing.

I mentioned earlier that I want to adopt a child when I get older. The Attachment Theory that we discussed in class seemed to pertain only to children and their biological mothers, and one of the main things I was left wondering is whether or not it applies to adopted children as well.

This video shows how attachments can be made with adopted children:

Even after watching this video, I am left with a few questions: How early in life does attachment type become apparent? Can attachment type be changed (say you adopt a child who has a history of anxious-ambivalent attachment with her caretakers - can you still form a secure attachment with her?)

Conformity

2011-12-06T01:04:59Z

One thing that I will remember five years from now is the concept of conformity. According to the book, conformity is the "tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure." In my own terms, I would describe this as something we do in order to fit in with a group of people to not look unintelligent. We are in fear of embarrassment when we engage in group activities or experiments where people are watching us or are a part of a social group.

The reason why I think I will be able to remember this concept in five years from now is because it is such a common thing that I'm sure all of us have experienced it at least once in our lives. So five years from now, I will remember the concept of conformity whenever someone tries to answer a question in a group setting in the same way as someone else.

One question with this concept that I've thought about is that do we only conform in front of groups? What about just in general by ourselves when we are talking to people? Don't some people answer questions or talk in certain ways that society "likes"? It seems as if society has such a big impact on us that we conform to the standards that it has for us. For example, since society seems to portray going to college as something that is needed in our lives, someone who didn't go to college (but who is around the same age as a college student) might try to sound more educated or "college-like" when speaking to someone. Or they may try to act smarter than they really are just to look good to people because of what society says.

Here is a video on social conformity:

Assignment 6

2011-12-06T00:53:05Z

The topic I will really remember would be Pavlov's classical conditioning experiment. It is something that has caused quite a bit of research. It is really something that is learned very early on in Psychology, and it is an easy topic to understand. Pavlov's face is quite memorable to me, and it is something that I have seen quite a numerous amount of time. It is really a well known experiment has won a numerous amount of prizes.

Conformity

2011-12-05T23:42:24Z

The one concept in psychology that I know I will still remember 5 years from now is conformity. According to Lilienfeld, conformity is "the tendency for people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure." There is always the saying, "don't give into peer pressure," but it is not as easy as it may sound. In high school, there were many times when I saw people fall prey to conformity and did some pretty "dumb" things. I myself have also fallen prey to conformity during high school when I changed my fashion sense to match those of my friends (i.e. growing out hair, following fashion trends). Although we may hate to admit it, conformity plays a role in our decision making even if we don't consciously think about it. Returning back to my high school years, I remember buying clothes that my friends would of have bought not noticing that my fashion sense had change because of the people I was with. I feel like this concept will stick with me for years to come because now it is one that I personally deal with on a daily basis.

This image show an example of a man who refuse to conform with the bigger group. In high school, if you did not conform with the group, you were not "cool." Which may be why I consider high school a time period in my life where I conformed and why I will always remember this concept.

Final entry

2011-12-05T22:01:21Z

The five stages of REM sleep will always be with me throughout my life, not only did chapter five fully capture my attention, but I have always been interested in figuring out what goes on during my sleep. There are five stages to sleep and each stage has different wavelengths and periods' determining what is going on within that stage. REM sleep is biologically important and probably essential in everyday life. During REM sleep 82 percent is associated with dreams. Dreams have always been a mystery to me. As I learned in lecture, dreams are integrating new experiences with established memories to make sense of and create a virtual reality model of the world. This will always seems to amaze me that our dreams can produce so many implications of real life. With sleeping there comes different types of sleeping disorders like, insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, night terrors, and sleepwalking. When looking into these disorders you can relate them back to the five stages of REM sleep. All of these concepts are intertwined with each other and If I was going to peruse a degree in psychology I would choose to have an emphasis on the developments of the five stages and developments of dreams with also development and trying to cure sleeping disorders.

Neuroplasticity

2011-12-05T21:23:49Z

The capabilities of the human brain fascinate me, more specifically, neuroplasticity. The ability of one area of the brain to regain functions of a separate, damaged region is remarkable. The brain is capable of reorganizing itself. Simultaneously as we were exploring this concept in psychology, my freshman writing class was reading an excerpt from the book "The Brain that Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge. The text offered three case studies to explore the workings of brain plasticity, including the story of Cheryl Schiltz (see related video), whose vestibular apparatus wasn't functioning until she sought treatment from scientist Paul Bach-y-Rita. Another focused on Pedro Bach-y-Rita, who was 'permanently' paralyzed and unable to speak. After intense therapy, Pedro regained his normal functions. It was after his death that doctors discovered a large lesion in his brain resulting from his stroke that had hardly healed; his brain restructured around it.

Neuroplasticity is an ever-changing area in the psychological, scientific, and medicinal world, and I suspect that numerous breakthroughs will be made in the future. Not only will I remember learning about such aptitudes of the brain throughout my life because new experiments and advances will be shared by way of the media, but I'm sure at some point in my life I'll have the pleasure of meeting an individual who has experienced trauma, and in adapting, has rewired their own brain to cope.

"The Five Minutes That Changed My World"

Neuroplasticity

2011-12-05T21:23:49Z

"The Five Minutes That Changed My World"