January 2012 Archives

Television is littered with commercials and advertisements that say just about anything to sell a product. While these commercials and advertisements are often successful in capturing our attention, they do little to inform us of their products' actual capabilities. "The Bender Ball" is just one example of such a product. Throughout "The Bender Ball" commercial, testimonials from supposed "actual users" are played. The similar, vague responses in each testimonial shown, lead one to question the sincerity in each response. In addition to its questionable testimonials, "The Bender Ball" commercial contains several statistics to further convince the viewers of the effectiveness of their product. One such statistic shown is that "The Bender Ball" is 408% more effective than the "standard crunch." This statistic is presented as a graph (as seen on the left). It claims that the data was collected from a university, but fails to elaborate. In addition, it fails to explain the dynamics of the experiment from which the data was taken, therefore preventing it from being replicated or falsified.

The makers of "The Bender Ball", unfortunately, are not the only advertisers using outlandish claims, unsupported statistics, and exaggerated data to sell their product. Click here to see more humorous infomercials and commercials.

Fact. Have you ever seen a pigeon play Ping-Pong? Well through simple animal training techniques this is an actuality. Using a couple simple training techniques an animal behaviorist, named B.F. Skinner, was able to teach two pigeons to play during World War II. Skinner later had the idea based off of the Ping-Pong experiment to use pigeons to help guide missiles to specific targets during the war. In theory the pigeons would help to avoid human causalities from fighter pilots getting shot down, as the pigeons were much smaller targets. Although, Skinner's theories about pigeon guided missiles was never actually attempted during the war.

Skinner used a technique called shaping by successive approximations, or shaping. Shaping is used to achieve a particular behavior by finding one that is close to the desired behavior and then slowly "fading" out the behaviors closer and closer to the desire one. Skinner also used chaining, which links two smaller behaviors, that are easier to train, together. By doing this, the animal is cued from the second behavior by merely doing the first and so on. With the successful chaining of the two behaviors, Skinner was able to teach the pigeons to play a seemingly never-ending game of Ping-Pong.

In fact Skinner's techniques on animal training are still used by animal trainers today.

To view the pigeons playing Ping-Pong click here.

Persuasion is a very powerful tool. People who are good at persuading others have a nack for bing heard and making people see things through the perspectives they want. They listen to feedback from the subject and can adjust their sales pitches accordingly. Most people believe in the phenomenon called subliminal persuasion, or subliminal messaging. The theory that an idea can be planted in our brains by being sent to us at a level that isn't picked up by the filter of the conscious brain.

The problem with this theory is that it doesn't follow any of the guidelines of normal persuasion. People who are strong in the fields of persuasion will tell you the only way to convince someone is to logically or emotionally appeal to their brain. Without the conscious mind knowing its received a message, it hasn't filtered it to accept or reject it, thus like it was never there. It's quite interesting that people today still believe in subliminal messaging even though studies show that it doesn't work.

The Opponent Process Theory is easily explained that we perceive colors in terms of three different pairs of colors. These pairs are red or green, blue or yellow, or black or white. This theory is important because, it explains how we see things. It lets us understand how illusions work and confuses the eye. I have experienced illusions where you stare at a picture for a certain amount of time and when you look away you see the same picture with a different color. It can be explained by the Opponent Process Theory. Here is another example of an illusion that uses the Opponent Process Theory (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8xo2y3N-_c). There are a few questions I still have about the Opponent Process Theory. I would like to know more details on why our eyes work like that. Why do certain colors pair up better than other colors and is it the same for animals? Also I would like to know how this theory affects people are are color blind. I feel that people who are color blind wouldn't be affected by the opponent process theory since they can not perceive color. Overall, the Opponent Process Theory is very interesting and explains how illusions are seen through our eyes.

In most textbooks, chapter one is the baseline. Sometimes it gives an overview of what is to come, sometimes it gives a history of the subject at hand. Most textbooks are also boring. However, chapter one in Scott Lilienfeld's
psychology textbook starts right off the bat with a quiz! He does gets into a short history of psychology as well as an overview of future chapters, but mostly he get's right down into the subject matter.

In my opinion, the most interesting concept in chapter one is the idea of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the idea that we, as humans, tend to look for evidence that supports our claims and beliefs and completely disregard any evidence that refutes our ideas. In other words, we get a case of "psychological tunnel vision," according to Lilienfeld. Confirmation bias can affect us in our daily lives as well as in psychological studies. For example it can change the light in which we see political candidates or how we feel about sports teams other than our own.

To read more about confirmation bias click HERE

Overall chapter one is a great and (for a textbook) very exciting start to psychology.

Can a mental illness actually put you in jail or does it help keep you out? The answer to both is yes. A mental illness can put you in jail involuntarily this is called civil commitment a procedure used for keeping us safe from people with mental illnesses and helping keep them safe from themselves. On the other hand mental illnesses also help people from being convicted. The best example of this is the insanity defense which is when people claim that either a they did not know what they were doing at the time of the crime or b they did not know what they were doing was wrong. One good example of this was the Andrea Yates case.

In 1999 Andrea Yates drowned all five of her young children in the bathtub because she was convinced that she had received command to do so from Satan. Yates was later acquitted on the basis of an insanity verdict in 2006. She was diagnosed with postpartum depression. The public is so convinced that people with mental illnesses are all physically aggressive when the truth is only a small amount actually are.

Can you believe that something really essential for human survival from the ancient time can fool you really bad? What you believe worthy turns out to be insulting you. This naughty boy is called heuristic by the cognitive psychologists. Heuristic is mostly useful as it helps us to streamline our thinking and simplifies the information that we receive. If we do not have heuristic, we would have been in trouble of accepting too many information more than what we really need. Heuristic allows us to make sense of our world and understand the reality. This really useful and essential boy changes to evil and oversimplifies things. When it happens, people begin to misunderstand unintentionally. But don't worry about this too much! The design research can help us from trapping that can result from misapplying heuristic. What a beauty and necessity of good research design!

Chapter 4 mentions a psychological disorder known as akinetopsia, or "motion blindness." Motion blindness is a very severe and rare disorder in which the brain has trouble perceiving motion. To visualize this, think of the eyes and brain like a video camera. The eyes take multiple "pictures" every second and sends those pictures to the brain. The brain then strings these pictures together, which we perceive as motion. In the mind of someone with motion blindness, the brain isn't able to put those frames into a smooth motion. Instead, a person with motion blindness sees a series of sporadically spaced images. As can imagine, this can make even everyday tasks extremely difficult. I found it amazing that something that we consider as elementary as perception of motion can be disrupted. I might even go as far as to say that we take it for granted.

For further information, and a simulation of motion blindness, check out this video.

Chapter 2 of our Psychology textbook "From Inquiry to Understanding" brings to attention different ways that research for psychology can be inaccurate and ways of prevention against errors. One way researchers can be fooled by their research results is because of heuristics and biases. Heuristics are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that can sometimes cause people to oversimplify any information which can skew data. Fortunately, improved research designs can help to avoid heuristics and biases.

This chapter goes on to discuss what makes an "experiment" an "experiment" because these designs differ from other designs in that they permit cause-and-effect inferences. The two components that make a study an experiment include a random assignment of participants to conditions, and manipulation of an independent variable.

One thing that I found the most interesting was the introduction to this chapter about "facilitated communication." This is a technique used to help people with autism (who have a movement disorder) to communicate with others by helping them type sentences with a keyboard. After questionable situations, there was a study done to examine the accuracy of this type of communication. Through showing the child with autism and the facilitator pictures of two different animals and observing which animal was typed, it was concluded that facilitated communication originates entirely from the minds of facilitators.

Looking at the title you may be confused. You may think I have gone mad. Look at the letters in the title for 15 seconds and then try to recall them. How'd you do? Odds are you didn't do too well. Now try this 15 letter string instead: CIAUSAFBINBCJFK. Now how did you do? You did a lot better because you "chunked" these 15 letters into five meaningful groups. This is the whole idea of Chapter 7 of our text.

Chapter 7 of the text is all about memory. It covers how our memory operates, the three processes of memory, the biology of memory, the development of memory, and most importantly false memories. The latter, false memory is what really struck me as interesting. For example take an eyewitness of a bank teller who has just been robbed. Even though the teller may have a good look at the face of this bank robber; her eyewitness memory of his face is likely to be impaired. Take a look at this video. This shows that our memory has a "bias".

Perhaps, we should rethink how our justice system uses information to convict individuals. I believe we should focus more on verifiable evidence such as DNA tests and focus less on eye-witness testimonies as they are showing to be flawed.

For more information on eyewitness testimonies and its flaws see this article.

Do you continuously make the same mistakes over and over again? What is it that you keep missing? Well, according to an article "Oops I did it again" from newsweek magazine, it might not be you so much as your anterior cingulate cortex. While I do not doubt the possibility of the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (more specifically, the electrical impulses of the cortex) in the learning/correcting process, I am wonder about how much involvement the anterior cingulate cortex has to do with the actual correction of the mistake, and am skeptical about the correction of emotional mistakes versus motor skill mistakes (ex. hand eye coordination). In the study reported by Newsweek, Jason Hall and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota tested subjects, whom they found had the highest and lowest scores for impulsivity and antisocial behavior out of 1,600 previously tested subjects, using an EEG machine (measures electrical activity of the brain) with a cognitive test that involved rapid perception and hand movement. Hall and his colleagues found that the subjects who had higher impulsivity and antisocial scores showed lower electrical activity in the anterior cingulate cortex than those with higher scores, and that low electrical activity was found to become lower after an error was made. All of the subjects for the test were university students, which most likely indicates that the population used does not accurately represent the population as a whole, and based off of my current knowledge and information from the article, it seems there was not a distinction made between emotional mistakes and say motor-skill mistakes. Is the anterior cingulate cortex in some way responsible for those who consistently make bad choices in who they date by dating people with the same flawed characteristics, and for those who repeatedly make the same mistakes at bop-it? It's possible, but until better tests are conducted, I will remain skeptical.

Link:http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2007/04/23/oops-i-did-it-again.html

While many people place great faith in their ability to understand events and people through use of their "common sense", there are many situations where common sense is incorrect and unhelpful. Two common misconceptions illustrate how common sense and naive realism are fallible, the realtionship of the Earth and the Sun, and the assumption that everyone except ourselves is biased in one way or another. Common sense would suggest that the Sun revolves around the Earth, at least that is how it seems to work from an earthen vantage point. Science, however, has proven that the earth revolves around the sun, contradicting what common sense suggested to be true. While this discovery occurred in the 16th century, a modern example would be how we view people who hold opinions contrary to ours. Meeting someone who holds an opinion different to yours is always an interesting encounter. It can lead to argument and healthy discussion , but, deep inside everyone feels that the other person must be struggling at least a little bit with their personal biases. Everyone, however, struggles with biases, regardless of whether they know it or not. Uncommon sense, therefore, is knowing when common sense is mistaken or inapplicable, and is just as vital to our well being as common sense.

I and I know many other people like to think that they are unique and stand out in a crowd, but for how many of this is actually true? As social creatures we are more likely to conform than to stand against the crowd.

A social psychology experiment done through Candid Camera shows multiple people falling victim to social conformity. They placed people in an elevator and everyone start facing the door. As the elevator ride continued they had their plants changed the side of the elevator that they were facing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQI8pZJiMe0

Then there were the Asch conformity experiments where many people in a room were asked to identify which line matched a set of three. They had one test subject sit in a room where many people answered out loud before the test subject. Even when the other people in the room gave an obviously wrong answer the test subject gave the same answer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA

This makes me question whether or not people are really as individual of thinkers as we now assume and where is that one person who wouldn't turn the same way in the elevator? More often than not there are certain types of people who are taught to question their surroundings more often than to conform to them, like studio artists, performance artists, philosophers, psychologists, and hipsters. There have been studies in the book that compare sex and race to conformity but no information on area of study or career choice. In doing this study I do not know what valuable information it would give us. I would just be very curious to see someone like an theater artist who is constantly trying to come up with new ways of theater and stand outside the norm react in these situations.

The reasons that I ask these questions are because I consider myself a theater artist. I am not one of those crazy thespian actors but instead a theater technician. I am curious about how much of our education as we are taught to think for ourselves and come up with individual and unique answers, not just in theater, but in the University as a whole. Do we as students really think for ourselves? Or are we just a reiteration of what our professors teach?

Chapter 16 is an interesting chapter devoted to explaining and clarifying various psychological and biological treatments available in order to help people change. One of the psychological approaches that I found particularly interesting was the behavioral approach, where behavior therapists focus on explicit variables that sustain problematic thoughts and behaviors.

Behavior therapists apply various learning principles to treatment including systematic desensitization, an exposure therapy where clients are exposed to anxiety-producing situations in order to confront clients with what they fear. In systematic desensitization, clients are gradually exposed to slightly more frightening scenarios each time. Flooding therapies on the contrary, go right to the top of the anxiety hierarchy and expose clients to these stimuli for prolonged periods of time. A key component to flooding therapies is that therapists must prevent clients from performing their typical avoidance behaviors.

Modeling therapy is a type of therapy where clients learn how to handle situations after observing a therapist. Role playing is commonly used in these therapies in order to teach clients new skills. Aversion therapy is a type of operant procedure that uses punishment to decrease the frequency of undesired behavior. When a person engages in problematic behavior, a therapist uses punishment in order to attempt to teach clients.

Throughout reading Ch.1 I have discovered things that I had no idea existed in psychology. The chapter talks a lot about the fact that in psychology, when looking at claims, you need to be careful that what you are looking at is supported with scientific evidence and that the claims can be replicable in repeated tests. One of the big thing's that was stressed in this chapter and that I found very interesting, is how to know the difference between good scientific claims and pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is a set of claims that seem to be scientific, but are not. Pseudoscience can be very discrete, but some of the big warning signs that can help you know if something falls into this category, include: exaggerated claims, overreliance on anecdotes, and lack of self-correction. Those are just some of the key thing's to look for when deciding whether the claim you are looking at is possibly pseudoscience. So why are we all drawn to this kind of stuff anyway? Well, the reason is that many of us tend to make order out of disorder and sense out of nonsense. What that means is that a lot of times we have the tendency to make connections to things when those connections aren't actually there. It can be very easy to mistakenly take something to be a good scientific claim when it actually might not be, but as long as you look deep into the context of the claim and how it is written, you can be able to tell if it is pseudoscience or not. Bibliography Lilienfeld, Scott O. Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding. Boston: Pearson Education, 2011. Print.

Remember the D.A.R.E. program you went through sometime in junior high? Well that's what it did to juniors, it got them high. Research has shown that the program may get kids interested in doing drugs rather than keeping them off drugs. The D.A.R.E. program failed to work because junior high is simply too late to start talking about prevention of drugs and alcohol during the beginning stages of adolescence. Research has shown that the one good thing D.A.R.E. did for our youth was make police officers approachable.

If a program is to be run in the school systems to prevent kids from getting involved with drugs it should be in elementary school. Not as a scare tactic but to let them know before they start doing drugs the harmful effects that it can have on them. I know when I was in junior high I liked to goof off and often say things to make the class laugh, a serious topic like prevention of drugs was not something I would listen to.

Programs that focus on managing stress, nutrition, staying healthy and alternative activities are just some examples of other methods of prevention to junior high kids.If they get the drug prevention as a youngin then more healthy life choices as an adolescent, it may help keep them off drugs when they are first DARED to take their first hit.

What if simple thoughts about ourselves could alter our body to feel and experience pain? If the thoughts, whether or not they are true, are believed enough, could they really alter our physical reality?

Our book talks about different effects that may come from various experimental designs, one of these being "The Nocebo Effect". Referred to as the "evil twin" of placebos, this effect signifies the notion for people, when told to expect a certain pain, feel it whether or not that warning was true.

An example of this in effect was a study conducted to a college class where the students were given sugar water. After they were told that it was a powerful emetic (causing nausea), 80% of the students vomited.

This is a fascinating phenomenon that to me illustrates the power of our brains and mental state on our body.

Sources:

http://altmed.creighton.edu/placebo/nocebo.htm

http://harvardmagazine.com/2005/05/the-nocebo-effect.html

Chapter 2 (Research Methods: safeguards against error) allows us to view insight on conducting research and the importance of good research design. By showing us fallacies in research and how findings can be skilled, it points out why we need necessary tools to be able to efficiently come to more reliable research findings with validity. It takes into account the ethical issues for research and evaluating conducted psychological research and claims.

In Chapter 16 there is a mention of "unconditional positive regard". This is something that therapists practice in order to help their client feel more open and safe.
The book gives an example of a father who praises his son when he receives good grades from school, but doesn't when he receives bad grades. I agree with the father that praise should not be given for something bad but I disagree with the disapproval toward the son.
It should be common sense to give children unconditional support in everything they do.
Psychiatrists almost always use a method of reveling hidden or suppressed memories from childhood because they believe it plays a major part in any psychological problems.
Parents are a child's only thing to rely on and please during their early years, if they feel they are failing at their only task of pleasing their parents or feel unloved by the center of their life that might cause a huge scar that carries on into adolescence.
Chapter 16 also talk about Strategic Family Therapy; it gives an example of reverse psychology. A psychologist tells a struggling couple to continue to argue so they can discover how much they love each other and the couple does the exact opposite and stop arguing to prove they don't love each other.
If this is not as obvious to anyone else as it is to me I'll say these two grown people are very childish.
From what I have seen and heard, there are many parents who act like children themselves. They don't like to step forward and be the bigger person when it comes to a problem they have with their children.
This has and will keep on killing children's healthy minds.

There was a time when philosophers contemplated the true meaning of the brain and thought it of little importance, irrelevant to our mental being. This is a very huge difference from our current understanding of the brain as the most complex structure in the known universe. Much research has been done and is still in process in an attempt to realize the entirety of the brain and everything it is connected with.
The brain is interwoven in our every second waking being, everything we do our brain is a part of, no matter how small the movement or thought. The brain is split up into two different hemispheres, the left and the right. These different sides control different things, where the left hemisphere controls fine tuned language skills and actions, the right side controls coarse language skills and visuospatial skills (such as face perception and perceptual grouping). I found it very interesting how in depth and captivating our brain truly is, with all of the different functions and roles it offers.

Chapter 5 is all about consciousness of the human mind. It explained a lot about sleeping, such as different sleep disorders and dreams. It also talked about drugs and the effect that they have on consciousness. The thing that really jumped out at me as being very interesting in this chapter was the section on lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is defined as the experience of becoming aware that one is dreaming. I found this interesting because it has happened to me before. It is believed that while in a lucid, you are able to control what happens in that dream.
The ability to control your own dreams really interests me. I used to not even know what lucid dreams were. I recently had one and thought that it was really cool. I found some websites that claim to give you simple steps to be able to have lucid dreams more frequently and be able to control them. All of the steps involve training your mind so you can recognize when you are dreaming easier. I am very interested to see whether or not the techniques can actually help you have lucid dreams.

Chapter four had to do with sense and perception. All of the human senses were talked about, including what we see and how we see them. It also mentions how some are unable to do so. Many of us can't imagine what it's like to be blind, although we've probably tried on occasion. If it weren't for Braille, visually impaired people wouldn't be able to read and write. The code, applied to many languages, can be seen in various public places, but few know much more than that. It is read by moving fingers left to right along characters made up of dots. Each character, or cell, is arranged in two columns with six total dots. The number and placement of dots represents a letter, a number, or punctuation. Braille isn't as limiting as one may think, either. Just as people beginning to read or write in English, different shortcuts and symbols can also be learned the longer you do it. According to nfb.org, 90% of blind American children are not taught to read at all. That was a shocking fact to learn for me. It is so important for children born blind to begin reading Braille early on. One research study found that "literacy rates of blind high school students who began their Braille education at an early age are consistent with those of their sighted peers." Hopefully in the future blindness won't hinder people from reaching full potential.

Many studies over the years have shown that anxiety disorders are genetically influenced. The most studied of these possibly genetically inherited disorders is obsessive-compulsive disorder, or more commonly known as OCD. These studies have shown that people with OCD are twice as likely to inherit a specific overactive gene related to the transport of the neurotransmitter serotonin, than people without OCD. The overactive serotonin response causes the obsessive-compulsive response in the brain to malfunction. When this response happens, it causes the brain to have problems with shifting through thoughts and behaviors, much like a car stuck in gear. This then causes the obsessive behaviors in the individual. The rest of chapter 15 describes many different psychological disorders and addresses mental illness. It describes the many different issues with depression and suicide. Some of the other big topics in the chapter are schizophrenia, dissociative disorders, and childhood disorders. If you would like to read more about how OCD is related to genes, click here.

During the middle ages, before mental illnesses were fully understood, there were tens of thousands of innocent people that were executed in Europe and America. The reason for all of these unwarranted deaths was that people with mental illnesses were thought to be witches that were under the control of demons. In fact, during this time period Malleus Malleficarum, a book that helped to identify witches, was the world's second best-selling book behind the Bible. It was not until the fifteenth century that the demonic model was replaced by the medical model, which diagnosed mental illnesses as physical disorders rather than the previous view that they were the work of demons.

I understand that in the middle ages they did not have the same medical knowledge that we have today, however, I still found it very surprising that it took until the fifteenth century for people to figure out that mental illnesses were not the work of demons. I believe that the main reason that witch hunts were still occurring in the fifteenth century was that the church wanted to maintain as much power as it could. I believe this because as humans learned more about the world around them they began to rely on the church much less. If you want to learn more of the specific details regarding the witch hunts that took place in the middle ages I suggest that you check out the following articles by the Smithsonian and the University of Chicago.

There is no doubt that our cultural environment affects the way we live, the way we feel, and the way think. Most people do not try to find out why we have those feelings and why we think the way we do. Aside from our cultural environment's impact on our thoughts, are our genetic makeups involved in our thought processes? Yes, genetics affect our behavior, and its evidence is all around our natural world, from small insects to humans, and to every living species. For instance, people who have down syndrome tends to be happy at all time, even when they're doing boring jobs like washing dishes. Only when things are not "normal" then we see a difference. We "normal" human feel "normal" because at large, we share similar genetic makeups that determine our thoughts. But that doesn't mean we all process our thoughts the same way. Apart from cultural factors that impact our thoughts that are based on the human brains' capability of learning. Genetics can make some people more aggressive than others given the similar cultural environment. Many people fear height, but how many of us were told to fear heights? It is how our brains are programed to have the phobia of height. In evolution, the ones that don't have this traits are more likely to die from falling, therefore after a long time, more and more people have the phobia of heights. Same way ants are programed to respond to different chemical signals. We are programed in a more complicated way, that involves learning, and our natural instance build in our subconscious.

Remember hearing those stories in high school about school shootings, like the one that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado? Along with all those school assemblies with guest speakers and "retreats" that focused on ending bullying? A lot of people assume that when an individual comes into a school and begins shooting, it's because they were bullied and had low self-esteem. However, in chapter 11 these popular psychology ideas are addressed and questioned. Recent studies conducted in 2003 and 2005 show that individual's with high self-esteem are just as likely to become drug addicts or alcoholics as those with low self-esteem. However, another study conducted in 2005 does show that people with high self-esteem are more prone to aggression. In particular, narcissistic individuals, like the ones in Cale and Lilienfied's 2006 study of prisoners, were more likely to react aggressively when given orders.

During the Columbine High School shooting two boys entered the school with guns and bombs. They walked around the school shooting different people, through bombs into rooms and harassing people. They called people names, asked them questions and laughed at them before shooting and killing them. Many people assumed that these boys were bullied, which may have been the case in their earlier years of school; however, after looking through personal diaries it became apparent that these boys thought they were superior to their peers. This is evidence that there may have been multiple reasons why they did this, but it may not have been due to low self-esteem.

References: Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding

http://iconoclastradio.com/columbine-high-school-attack/

Psychology 1001: Introduction to Psychology. Probably, this course is the first psychology course to many of us. Even though this may be our first psychology course, we all kind of know what psychology is, right? Well, psychology sounds friendlier than apiology to me (apiology is the scientific study of honey bees for those who are curious). So what do we know about psychology? What is psychology? As it is the first chapter, chapter one focuses on basic knowledge of Psychology--defining and giving examples of psychology, psychological pseudoscience, scientific thinking and brief history of psychology. The text book defines psychology as the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior.The part I found most interesting in chapter one was "Naive Realism: Is Seeing Believing?." Naive realism is the belief that we see the world precisely as it is (Lilienfeld, Lohr, & Olatanji, 2008; Ross & Ward, 1996). The book says that we assume "seeing is believing" and trust our intuitive perceptions of the world and ourselves. Say if you are walking on campus--heading for psychology discussion--and you see a bicyclist come towards you really fast, you would get out of the way because you know if you don't you will get hit by the bike. You are trusting your perception. However, in many cases, the reverse happens. Believing is seeing! Our beliefs shape our perceptions of the world (Gilovich, 1991). What do you guys see in this picture?
For more pictures, click here.

When trying to solve a problem, you first have to accept the problem for what it is, correct? A day planner doesn't necessarily help time management, nor does extra sleep solve laziness.

Instead of trying to change behaviors or negative thoughts, acceptance therapy is a new wave of cognitive-behavioral therapy that starts with the client accepting their experience, whether thoughts, feeling, memories, or physical sensations. Acceptance therapy then uses both cognitive and behavioral therapies in treatments. As the example that the book gives; a therapist will encourage their client to accept their intense emotions while actively attempting to cope with these emotions by making changes in their life.

I reference this to an experience at a prior job. 'Passing the monkey' was a running joke. It was the concept of passing a problem on to someone else because you didn't want to deal with it, and could then point fingers rather than take accountability and action. I see this example in the Acceptance Therapy. We are who we are for a variety of reasons, we can't change our experiences. By accepting them we are accepting ourselves - the good and the bad. By accepting ourselves we can legitimately make changes that are relative to who we are and, I would believe, more realistically become who we want to be.

For a brief overview visit: http://www.goodtherapy.org/Acceptance_Commitment_Therapy.html

Most of us have seen this picture of what appears to be the profile of a young woman, and then had someone tell us to take a closer look to find another image. Depending on their perceptual set, viewers will either see a young woman or an elderly woman with an extremely large nose. When our perceptions are influenced by our expectations, our brain and senses are more likely to pick up on a specific image within a perceptual set.

Context plays a key role in our expectations, and affects how we perceive certain words and letters. When looking at shapes and symbols that appear to have multiple perspectives, our brain picks up cues from the surroundings within the image, and our previous experience, and views obscure or missing letters within the context of the whole word or sentence. In the second image, the same symbol can be read as the letter "B" or the number 13, depending on how the surrounding letters and numbers are viewed. For more examples of perceptual sets click here

Chapter 11 focuses on the emotions humans experience and the motivational forces that drive human behavior. I was most interested about the myths and realities of the things that make people happy. As humans, it is in our nature to seek things that will provide us happiness. It has been widely known that happiness is associated with living longer. Thus, finding out what makes us happy is a curious topic for many.

One of the common misconceptions about finding happiness is that "money makes us happy." Research suggests that money and material items don't buy happiness once we're financially comfortable. Once we're financially stable, additional money doesn't make us much happier. Yet, most unhappy people continue to believe that they would be happier if only they had more money. However, these people tend to forget that higher salaries typically mean longer working hours and less free time, which leads to less happiness. In fact, in the past 60 years, the U.S. gross national product has increased dramatically; yet, Americans' average level of life satisfaction has stayed constant over that time span. For a further explanation of these results, visit this website.

On the other hand, some of the common realities that do make us happy include: marriage, friendships, college, religion, exercise, and giving. Of course, these items don't guarantee happiness but they're typically associated with it.

I do agree that happiness cannot be bought. Happiness arises from the simple act of enjoying what we do. As said in the textbook: "Happiness lies in the pursuit of the prize, not the prize itself (426)."

It may be no surprise to you that college students drink alcohol. While we are not alone in our alcohol consumption, drinking has a large impact on every aspect of our lives. The way each person responds to alcohol is different. Some become a more happy, outgoing version of themselves. Others become sad, depressed, and angry at the world. So how does someone go from this: to this:?

Chapter 5 talks about the physiological effects of alcohol on a person. As I'm sure many of you know, alcohol is a depressant. Although I had always heard this I was always confused by it. If alcohol is a depressant than why do many people feel happier when they have it? The key is that alcohol only acts as a stimulant at low doses and as you drink more it turns into a more violent depressant. I think this is an important tidbit of knowledge for people my age who are likely to not only drink alcohol, but drink an access of alcohol.

I'm not here to tell everyone to stop drinking alcohol and that is the greatest evil of this world. What I'm here to say is that we should all be careful during our adventurous weekends. Having a fun filled night is something we all deserve, but spending that night hanging over a toilet is something you and your friends do not. For more information on the effects of alcohol on your personality click here.

Chapter 5 deals with fascinating aspects of subconsciousness and sleep studies. It is interesting from a college student's perspective to learn about how a given time frame of sleep effects your mental health. We all know REM sleep is great for us, however, could those cups of coffee you drink every day, napping or relationship problems lead to insomnia, depriving you of your precious REM?
We can better understand the benefits of sleeping, and the amount of time we should be sleeping simply by understanding the stages of sleep. As can be seen in this link, we actually have many stages of REM sleep. Certain disorders or conditions listed in chapter 5 can effect the amount of time you are spending in your REM cycle or how many you get in a night.
I couldn't help but think of the movie Inception when talking about "lucid dreaming" or the realization that you are dreaming.

Why do men and women find the opposite gender more attractive with dilated pupils? The answer to this question and other related "beauty" issues is actually biological. When we find someone physically attractive, our pupils dilate, which is why humans find this trait more "beautiful" whether they realize it or not. In fact, research has shown that women prefer men with more dilated eyes particularly during their menstrual cycle (1). The photo shown here is from a popular YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knEIM16NuPg that most people probably find horrifying, but in reality, we find features in the final woman's photo more attractive for very basic genetic and evolutionary reasons.

A classic example is that of the "hourglass figure." Sorry guys, but you find this attractive because it indicates a woman's fertility. In reality, research shows that "thinner" is not necessarily more beautiful, but rather having a smaller waist to chest ratio. Women's ratio is smallest from ages 15-35, which (surprise) are our most fertile years. It is generally thought that having wider hips is more advantageous when giving birth and that a smaller waist enhances the perceived width (2).

Another example that most people have probably heard of is that of symmetrical faces. In animals, this is linked to having "sexual selection" for "good genes. The following links provide information on the evolution of beauty and sex in both animals and humans respectively: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/09/980928072106.htm, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080818-body-symmetry.html.
One might notice that the final image from the YouTube video is more symmetrical than the woman's original face.

If this topic interests you, I recommend the following books: The Red Queen by Matt Ridley and Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson.

Sources:
1. Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding by Scott Lilienfeld et al., 2nd edition (p. 137).
2. The Red Queen by Matt Ridley (p. 292-293).

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Lincoln was assassinated on a Friday. Kennedy, suspiciously, was also assassinated on a Friday. When Lincoln was leaving for Ford Theater, his secretary (named Kennedy) told him not to go to the theater. When Kennedy was leaving for Dallas, his secretary (named Lincoln) told him not to go either. Curious, no?

An interesting concept discussed in Chapter 1 of our textbook is the idea of apophenia. Now, apophenia is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections among unrelated phenomena. Essentially what this means is that if we as humans apply ourselves, we can find coincidences much like the one between Lincoln and Kennedy quite easily, even though they are actually unrelated.

Apophenia falls into a larger category of psychology known as pseudoscience. The prefix "pseudo-" literally means fake, which means that pseudoscience is literally fake science. Effectively, that is correct for the definition of pseudoscience is a set of claims that seems scientific but aren't. Pseudoscience is a prominent concept in psychology and continues to stagger the imagination.

For more on the "coincidences" between Lincoln and Kennedy, click here.

Acupuncture is generally established, or perceived by at least most of Korean people as a scientific way of curing diseases, and relieving pains in Korea. Since childhood, I had long suffered from sinus infection- inflammation of the paranasal sinuses, which may be due to infection, allergy, or autoimmune issues. Without exaggeration, my parent spent thousands of dollars to remove my long-accompanied illness to the well-known acupuncture clinics, but there had been not much progress. This mysterical curing-method still becomes the central issue on debate.

The Chapter 2 of the Psychology Textbook covers the Experiment- the research design characterized by random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable. With experiment design, psychologisists obtain cause-and-effect inferences. Joseph M. Helms, a physician in Berkeley, Calif., performed acupuncture treatments on women diagnosed with primary dysmenorrhea. The independent variable was the receiving either actual or placebo acupunture, and the dependent variable was the actual treatment effect on the women. While in the real acupuncture group, 10 of 11 women showed significant improvement, four of 11 in the placebo acupuncture group showed improvement. This experiment proves that the acupunture does relieve pain! see more information

However, back to my story, after I had one single surgery in the western-style hospital, my torturing friend left me. Does the acupuncture really work? Opponents argue that clinical assessment of acupuncture treatments, due to its invasive and easily detected nature, makes it difficult to use proper scientific controls for placebo effects. At least to me, it did not work.

Chapter 7 talks about one of the most important function of our brain - memory, and states the paradox of our memory that the same mechanisms that serve us well in most circumstances can sometime cause problems in others. This chapter first explains the three processes of memory and then goes into more details of the biology of memory and the development of memory.

The topic that shocks me the most is false memories. People generally trust their memories to provide them with an accurate recounting of their past. Indeed, in most cases, our memories do a good job. However, over the past few decades, researches have shown that our memories can be more fallible than any of us could have imagined. Sometimes, those false memories can bring a catastrophic result to one's life. The wrongful conviction of Ronald Cotton(right) is one of such cases.

Jennifer's misidentification of Ronald serves as a striking example of how fallible of human memory can be. For Jennifer, this chain began when she attempted to translate her memories from that dark, traumatic summer night into concrete, usable information by working with police to assemble a composite sketch. The image of the composite sketch then primed her to select Ronald's mug shot, which resembled the composite; her selection of the photograph, in turn, influenced her perceptions when Ronald appeared before her in person. Although unsure for a fleeting moment, she chose Ronald from the line-up, thereby solidifying her identification of Ronald as her perpetrator.
Ronald finally walked out of prison, as DNA technology identified the true perpetrator Bobby Poole(left).

The thirteenth chapter in the Lilienfeld textbook focuses on social psychology. This type of psychology can be defined as the study of how people influence others' behavior, beliefs, and attitudes--for both good and bad (Lewin, 1951). The chapter goes into much detail on several psychological terms that stuck out to me, such as mass hysteria, groupthink, obedience, the bystander effect, and cognitive dissonance. Also, there are detailed descriptions of experiments or past events in history that can be viewed as examples of the psychological terms listed. For example, I found the tragic story of the murder of Kitty Genovese to be quite interesting but disturbing.

Catherine (Kitty) Genovese was only 28-years-old when she was murdered on March 13, 1964, at 3:00 A.M. Kitty was only returning from work to her apartment in New York City when a random man attacked her and began to stab her repeatedly. She screamed and pleaded for help during the attack but her neighbors failed to come to her rescue. Several of the neighbors turned on their lights because they heard the attack, but nobody called the police or came to her aid. Kitty was found dead later after the attack. This disturbing story is an example of the bystander effect because since there were a great number of people that overheard the attack, people were less likely to help Kitty. It is possible that the people wanted to help Kitty but they found themselves too frozen to help, or figured that someone else would intervene by coming to her aid or calling the police. Why do people seem to do more bad than good in situations such as this one?

For more information on Catherine (Kitty) Genovese and her murder click on this link.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/kitty_genovese/3.html

That's right, now that favorite game that seems to beckon your name every time you have homework, can actually help prevent symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can occur when stress for an individual is too much to bare. This disorder can sometimes result directly after an extremely stressful life event and evoke intense fear and helplessness. It can also cause many symptoms such as "vivid memories, feelings, and images of traumatic experiences, known commonly as flashbacks. [It can even cause] symptoms such as feeling detached, difficulty sleeping and startling easily." (P464).

But for those of us who entertain the idea of a healthy study break, we are in luck because studies have shown that games like Tetris can alleviate certain types of flashbacks. In one research study, "students watched a horrifying video of deaths and injuries and recorded any experience with flashbacks. It was discovered that students who played Tetris directly following the video, experienced less flashbacks from those who did not play the popular game. This is in the belief that the games alluring colors and shapes aid to distract the participant from upsetting thoughts.
Although this study has not yet proven to avert PTSD among people who have already experienced traumas, researchers are still looking for ways to condense stress with the use of computer games.

Reference: "Psychology From Inquiry to Understanding"

This chapter focused on human development, that is, how and why we change. The area that interested me most was the portion on nature vs. nurture. Development by nature argues that we obtain our personalities and characteristics through genes passed on to us. Development influenced by nurture is based on the environment we grew up in and how we were raised. I, along with a majority of others, believe both play a role in our personal development. Take athletic ability as an example. Anybody could make a strong argument that athleticism is a genetic ability because there are so many examples of families with outstanding athleticism in the world today. Some examples are the Manning family with Payton and Eli, Venus and Serena Williams, Clay Matthews of the Green Bay Packers is the 3rd generation in his family to play in the NFL, and the list goes on. Somebody arguing towards nurture development would say they had experienced parents or mentors growing up and had a childhood indulged in sports, which led to their success as athletes. Psychologists continue the struggle of finding the correct balance between the two and are having much difficulty due to the amount of outside factors. If you would like to learn more on this topic and arguments of different psychologists, I'd suggest visiting this site.

Chapter 11 focuses on the emotions and feelings that humans encounter throughout their everyday lives. What I found most interesting was how different cultures have different views on certain emotional and human behaviors. This applies to everything from the most casual of encounters, like handshakes, to the more intimate, like kissing. In the United States, kissing someone on the hand or cheek is considered, by most, to be an act of friendship and fondness. But in India, those same acts are considered scandalous. For example, Richard Gere was guilty of committing this Indian scandal with Indian actress, Shilpa Shetty, at an AIDS awareness rally in India. You can read more about this story at this website.

Another major social human behavior that is viewed differently in cultures in personal space or the proximity of others to your being. In America, we typically have about 12 feet of space for public speaking, 4-12 feet for average conversations, 2-4 feet for conversations among people with whom we have a close relationship with, and 0-2 feet for intimate actions. These culturally appropriate distances differ from country to country. For more on cultural differences of personal space, go to this website.

The reasoning behind these cultural differences is just what each culture's norms are. There's obviously not one set universal rule for social behavior. Different people accept different customs regarding social activities. I personally think that these behaviors that are considered acceptable in certain cultures are also tested on individual basis. Just because someone lives within a culture, doesn't mean they have to be comfortable with that culture's beliefs regarding social situations. I believe it should be decided on more of a person-to-person basis instead of a culture-to-culture. Cultures can have their norms, but the people within those cultures should be able to deviate from them as they see fit.

Even though the sentence "can I toss you down the stairs and see what happens" sounds ridiculous, without ethics in research, it can happen. In Chapter two, the importance of ethics in research is discussed. It would seem that smart, academic individuals who are conducting research would not need to be reminded to be kind to their fellow man (and woman). Yet research practice has a sordid history. One of the most famous is the Tuskegee Syphilis study that the United States government conducted on poor black men in Alabama. Even though a treatment was available, the researchers did not administer it to the men because they wanted to see what happens if the disease goes untreated. No consent was given by the individuals. They were not told they were going to be human guinea pigs for the sake of medicine. Due to research practices as horrendous as this, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) was formed at colleges and universities. Just have a conversation with a professor or graduate student, and the dreaded IRB process to get approval for their research will come up in the conversation. The IRB is often viewed as a hurdle to conduct research. Yet it is there to protect not only the participants in the research, but the integrity and reputation of research. If ethical consideration is not present in research, then soon researchers will be viewed as the Nazi doctors who did experiments on people because they could. Isn't that what happened in Alabama?

Chapter ten explains how and why we as humans develop. This chapter is broken up into four different sections, each of which touching on different areas within this unit; first is the special considerations of human development, next the physical and motor development in a human, after, how the cognitive mind develops, and finally the development of the social and moral aspects of humans.

One topic discussed in the cognitive development portion of this chapter that really caught my attention was the insert about the supposed "Mozart Effect." The theory is that listening to Mozart--or classical music of any kind--will make you smarter, so to speak. In a study conducted in 1993, researchers had one group of college students listen to Mozart, and another listen to relaxation music while completing a "spatial reasoning task". The group listening to Mozart preformed better than those who didn't - and the Mozart Effect was born. People took this study and applied it to many situations, such as listening to Mozart during pregnancy to enhance the intelligence of their child.

When further research was done, it was found that this theory is not true. Researchers guess that Mozart's music--like other classical musicians--simply gives people temporary emotional arousal.

This article from the Washington Post discusses this subject further.

Growing up in our society, it is almost guaranteed that you have been told that you are either a "left-brained" person or a "right-brained" person. Left brain individuals are thought to be more organized and logical, while right-brained people are thought to be more creative and artistic. But does this connection really exist? Is there really a correlation between your actions in life and the side of your brain that you predominantly use? According to the text, no there is not. There is a constant connection between the two parts of the brain, and one is not used primarily over the other. Instead, the two sides work in a way where they are constantly complementing off of each other. This is why we have the corpus callosum so that the sides can constantly communicating with one another. So the next time someone gives you the explanation of "you're a right-brained person, you wouldn't understand", you'll be able to prove them wrong.

While there are no proven data or results, any exercise for more than eight weeks can relieve depression and anxiety caused from the stress from your college classes which in turn can help you concentrate better in them and keep you calm when exams roll around. In chapter 12, stress is defined as "the tension, discomfort, or physical symptoms that arise when a situation, strains our ability to cope effectively" (Lilienfeld, pg. 457). Besides a good, hearty 30 minutes of exercise a day, there are other proven ways you can change your lifestyle to reduce stress that I found interesting!
1. Stop smoking. Seriously, not attractive. Very few people want a relationship with someone who smells and tastes like chimney. Besides, smokers are four times more likely to suffer from clinical depression than non-smokers.
2. Curb alcohol consumption. Four or more drinks and you're cut off. No one wants to be the person that wakes up Sunday morning with no remembrance of the weekend. Heavy drinking increases different types of cancer, fatal liver problems, pregnancy complications and brain shrinkage. Keep those brain cells people!
3. Achieve a healthy weight. We have all been guilty of over-eating once in our lives but too much over-eating can lead to being overweight. There is a positive association between obesity and depression (so much for the stereotype of obese people as jolly). Monitor what you eat, simple as that.
4. Exercise regularly. Pretty simple. Run, walk, jazzercise, take a Zumba class.
It's best to stop stress at the root. You need to stop these unhealthy habits (smoking, drinking, and over-eating) that reduce stress in the moment, so that you don't put your future at risk.

Every day, we receive countless amount of stimulus from our world. Our iPhone rings and vibrates to tell us we have a text message. We walk through Coffman Union and see flyers for a concert next weekend. The ringing, vibrating, and seeing all has to be processed in order for us to understand them. In Chapter 4, we learn about sensations and perception. We may naively assume that our senses are flawless; however, we'll come to find that the way we perceive some sensations that are entirely twisted.

Look at the following image. What do you see?

Really, is there anything else?

This image is an example of a bistable image. These types of images show how we instantly decide what the central figure is and mainly ignore the background. In these types of pictures, there is another possibility for the central figure. In this picture, you either chose the women's face or the man playing the saxophone as the central figure. If you found it challenging to switch from what you originally saw, that's okay because there are limits in our abilities to transition.

Another example of errors in our perception comes from us creating a perceptual set; we let our expectations influence our perception. Click here to view a video that explains related studies. We made perceptual sets for the animals and then the faces and this affected what we thought the final image was. This shows that we tend to perceive our world based on our preconceptions.

Though we can have misled perceptions of our world, our brains do a pretty great job of sorting through all the signals that are sent to it.

In the well known and loved classic of our childhood Star Trek, there is a character known for his solid reasoning devoid of emotion. While for some, having these often difficult and contrasting feelings out of the way may seem like the way to go, in reality emotions are a necessary part of your everyday life. Chapter 11 explores emotions and the causes and effects of them.
Everyone has emotions and in fact, there are some referred to as 'primary emotions' that are universal across the world. Facial emotions are the most easily recognizable from culture to culture but there are other methods of expression as well. For example, body language and non-verbal clues such as those used in texting are especially common and easy to read. For a fun test of your ability of interpreting facial expressions, click here.
(Some examples of non-verbal clues used in texting)

Chapter 11 goes on to cover self-esteem, motivation and attraction. Many myths are called out, some my favorites included these misconceptions: Money makes us happy, happiness declines in old age and opposites attract. Whether it be happiness, love or motivational drives, these emotions and mental states of mind give us advantages our friend Mr. Spock lacked, and we should be thankful for them!

Everyone has different beliefs, backgrounds, and opinions built through their life time. Therefore, even two people in a same situation can think and act differently. For example, when there is a half cup of water on a table, person A might say "it is half FULL!" while person B says "it is half EMPTY."

Chapter 16 discusses various psychological and biological treatments. In particular, cognitive-behavioral therapies can change people's negative thoughts to be more positive and rational. By changing the thoughts, the behaviors of people can be also changed. This type of therapies brings us a question of its process. When a client had so much of negative experiences, he or she might fear or worry about his or her future that cannot even be controlled. How can cognitive-behavioral therapies change their attitudes or personal philosophies? Cognitive-behavioral therapies encourage clients to think more rationally and to rethink their assumptions or maladaptive beliefs. Instead of thinking "life is terrible because it is not going the way I wanted to" which is an OPINION, thinking about facts such as causes of negative events would help clients to adopt more positive thoughts. Cognitive-behavioral therapies can be applied to various people such as alcoholics or people with depression.

Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) has been widely used by many colleges for determining and assessing student admissions. High SAT score is one of the most important criteria for students entering well-known Universities, so many students put cutthroat efforts to earn good SAT scores. As a high school student, I was, too, stressed out and under pressure of getting good SAT score. However, recent research showed that high SAT score does not guaranty success in Universities; there is poor correlation between students' SAT scores and college GPA. According to Nader and Atkinson's study, there is almost zero correlation between students who earned between 1500 to 2300 SAT scores. If there is poor correlation between SAT score and success in colleges, why do the University make the students study and spend much time on painful, boring and unproductive test? Some of the major Universities decided to ban the SAT in their admission process because they acknowledged that SAT scores have slight correlation between high SAT scores and successes of students in the Universities. According to an article, the president of the University of California decided to abandon SAT as a requirement for admission. Charles Murrray, the author of the article, advocated, "knowing the SAT score added next to nothing to an admissions officer's ability to forecast how an applicant will do in college". In my opinion, if a student earns same and above of a specific score, Universities should regard the SAT score as just basic reference that this student has an ability to learn; the Universities should rather focus more on extracurricular activities, which indicate their interests and passion on specific subjects, and advanced placement (AP) subject scores, which indicate their capability to learn college-level subjects.

Most of us have heard about the very controversial topic of stem cell research at some time or another. In chapter 3, the subject matter is yet again brought back to our attention. Seeing as the chapter as a whole mainly focuses on biological psychology (how our brain responds to our body), stem cells closely fit into the boundaries of said topic. The way our body and brain continue to grow is through different groups of cells. Each group of cells specialize in carrying out important orders. The amazing thing about stem cells, is that they can be directed to cover a variety of different needs throughout the body. They have the capacity to become muscle, blood, and even nerve cells. The amount of research being done with these types of cells span a large spectrum of different disease, such as diabetes, Alzheimer's, and some cancers. Having the stem cells available for research is very important in order to make knowledgeable advances about these diseases. Controversy comes into play, when the researchers are forced to dispose of stem cells only after a few days. Some see these cells as early human life forms that are just being tossed out like trash. While the research is so valuable, is it really worth losing all of those cells? You be the judge!

To find out more information on stem sell research, you can visit this website!

Chapter 3 is about biological psychology, going into detail about much of the human body and how it functions. The brain is obviously extremely important, and the prefrontal cortex is arguably the most important aspect of the brain. It is responsible for thinking, planning, and language, and contributes to mood, personality, and self-awareness. Phineas Gage's family and friends know how important the prefrontal complex is better than most. Phineas Gage was a railroad foreman in Vermont in 1848. One day, while using a tamping iron to to press gunpowder into a hole, a nearby flame lit the gunpowder and sent the nearly 4 foot long iron bar flying through Gage's skull and landing over 30 yards from the accident! Amazingly, Gage was able to walk just minutes after the accident and lived for another 13 years. However, both the right and left sides of his prefrontal cortex were damaged, causing severe changes in his personality and leading those who knew him before the accident to say he was "no longer Gage." Gage's survival and subsequent personality changes confirmed that certain parts of the brain can be damaged while others remain unharmed, and proved that the prefrontal cortex plays a significant role in personality. Without this freak accident and Phineas's remarkable survival the study of the brain and the field of psychology would have been set back by years.

Have you ever wondered why when people are 60 years old they can still remember events from their teenage years? Chapter seven discusses and describes the memory of humans in detail. Sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory are the three headlines of human memory. What I found most interesting about this chapter was how the human memory can endure specific events for years, even decades, and sometimes permanently. The brain works in a specific way to get information into our long-term memories. There are three major processes of memory: Encoding, storage, and retrieval. Encoding refers to the process of getting information into our memory banks. To encode something, we must attend to it first. Following encoding comes storage. Storage refers to the process of keeping information in memory. In essence, this means, "filing away our memories". Finally, the last process of memory is retrieval. Our memories are reconstructive, often transforming our recollections to fit our beliefs and expectations. If someone suffers from long-term memory loss it usually results from failures of retrieval: Our memories are still present, but we can' access them. So next time you are recalling an old memory, remember the three processes that allow you to.

For many people, it is simply believed that we are free to do whatever we please. It is assumed that we can make our own decisions and have complete free will. We decide what we want to do and when we want do it as long as it is within the bounds of our legal system, of course. Most psychologists would agree that we, as humans, have some sort of free will. However, some imperative psychologists believe that free will is just a very dominant illusion.

Throughout chapter 1, there is a lot of introductory information regarding the study of psychology and it's history. However, one of the two great debates of psychology really stood out to me: the free will/determinism debate. Do people truly have complete free will? Or is free will just a powerful illusion? Many would argue that most things in life are determined by free will. For example, if a person was to go dine at a restaurant, all things considered normal, that person would be able to pick and choose from a variety of options, thus expressing free will. However, determinists believe that this so-called expression of free will would be a result of thousands of outside influences, therefore simply making free will an illusion.

Want to learn more about the debate between free will and determinism? Click here.

Out of a tangled skein of observations of animal communication, some common strands emerge. The profound effect of human language on human thought positively leaps out. Humans--no matter where we live--acquire an incredibly complex language so early in life that it colors everything we think. In fact, memories of events that occurred before we had words to describe them remain hazy and vague--if we can remember any such early events at all. And we are so steeped in our ability to symbolize reality that we tend to forget the difference between the symbol and the reality.

It's no wonder, then, that we think of animal communication in terms of human language. We tend to measure animals' ways of communicating against the "standard" of human language. Scientists, linguists and philosophers argue about whether apes can truly communicate in human sign language or with arbitrary symbols organized in a humanlike grammar. But we know relatively little about apes' natural modes of communication

Humans harbor an acute conscious awareness of communicating. But do animals? A wide spectrum of conscious awareness exists between the extremes of composing a sonnet and an unconscious knee-jerk reflex, but scientists and philosophers have laid animal communication at each end. A safe stance would call animal communication neither a poem nor a twitch. But placing animal communication more precisely on the spectrum may prove difficult. Even in the case of talking parrots, the animals best able to imitate human language, and the great apes, our nearest relatives and probably the "smartest" non-human animals, we know little about how conscious they are of communicating, and researchers do not agree on how much their behavior resembles human language.

Chapter 8 in our textbook does a great job at describing what nonverbal animal communication and how animals communicate. To learn more in depth about this topic read an excerpt from the book Animal Minds by Donald R. Griffin.

Have you ever wished their was an easier way to learn a different language?
Well now their is! How you may ask? the answer is quite easy; simply listening to the language while asleep. Well at least that is what some people claim...
I've always thought to my self is it possible to actually learn something while I was asleep. I've always wanted to give it a try but have never known if it would in fact work or just be a big waste of time. After reading the text I have learned that it would have been a great waste of time if I had done it. There are many people that swear by learning new things while they are asleep. However most people do not account for the fact that you often drift in and out of sleep throughout the night causing you to hear bits and pieces of the content. If you are skeptical about the findings in the text and want to give it a try, click here to see how.

When we hear the word "Therapy," most of us will picture a client laying on a couch spilling their innermost secrets to a cerebral looking therapist, who politely nods while jotting down notes and using phrases such as "I see" and "very interesting." Although this scene that most of us create is fairly accurate, our actual knowledge of the psychotherapy process is usually quite vague. Chapter 16 in our textbook takes us on a behind the scenes look of various forms of psychological and biomedical treatment. The text answers such questions as "Who seeks and benefits treatment?" "Who practices psychotherapy?" and "Is psychotherapy effective?" For example, most of us assume that all psychotherapist have advanced degrees in mental health, when in fact volunteers and paraprofessionals often provide psychological services. Like most parts of psychology, psychotherapy is not an exact science and has many different factors that play into its effectiveness. Psychotherapy is ever-changing and adapting it's practices to better benefit clients, this is evident in cutting-edge virtual reality technology which helps clients who suffer from phobias confront their fears in a safe environment. As we better understand and study psychology, psychotherapy is right their applying new information to better help people like ourselves.

In Chapter 14, personality is defined as people's typical ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. This chapter goes more into depth of just what personality is and the multiple ways that we can study and explain it. To better understand what influences personality, psychologists have done many experiments and studies including: twin studies and adoption studies, Freud studies, and factor analysis. In addition, Sigmund Freud, believed that our individual personalities were mainly because of three elements of the human psyche - the id, ego, and superego. Within the ego Freud believed there to be multiple defense mechanisms to deal with terrorizations from the outside world. This excerpt appealed to me the most, as I was able to make a connection with one of the defense mechanisms - repression.

Because I am newly addicted to the Dexter TV show, I easily made a connection between Dexter himself and repression. As defined, repression is motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses. In a Dexter episode in Season 1, "Seeing Red," Dexter arrives at a bloody crime scene, which causes him to slowly start having flashbacks of watching his mother's murder when he was young. This painful memory was locked away in Dexter's mind for several years, although it continued to unconsciously influence his behavior and personality by the very own irony that he too became a serial killer. To watch the part of "Seeing Red" where Dexter finally remembers the repressed memory of his mother's murder, click here.

The answer to the above question is no. The statement that stress causes your hair to turn white is nothing but a myth, but it does have an effect on ones health. Stress is tension, discomfort or actual physical symptoms that occur when a difficult situation arises and one does not know the best way to deal with that situation. In a scale of forty-three stressful events the most stressful event a person can go through is the death of a spouse while the least stressful would be a minor violation of laws. Stress can cause depression or discomfort, but if not treated carefully can cause physical damage such as a rash or blood clotting. Get the help you need by talking your problems out or gaining control of the situation are the best options in order to slide away from mentally or physically hurting yourself due to stress.

Click here in order to learn about more symptoms and treatments of stress.

Extrasensory Perception, or ESP, brings about the argument of whether or not certain people can predict events or see things that haven't yet revealed themselves. Parapsychologists, or people who study ESP, have broken this phenomena in three categories, Precognition, Telepathy, and Clairvoyance. In the 1930's, Joseph B. Rhine conducted studies in order to obtain results on whether or not ESP is possible within the human psyche. He used a set of Zener Cards, which are shown in the picture, in order to test his subjects' performance in each of the three categories of ESP. Since then, there have been many replications of Rhine's study; however, none have demonstrated evidence to support the phenomenon.

Another type of test that was used was the Ganzfeld technique which, just like Rhine's studies, initially showed positive results but these were quickly proven wrong. Through many other tests and observations, there have yet to be conclusive results to prove ESP achievable. These tests are a great example of the decline effect, which displays the usual initial findings to be positive but decline over time. Another reason why parapsychology may be hard to completely prove is that when scientists perform tests on subjects, the results do not show ways that ESP is correct, but rather why ESP may not be correct. So, throughout all of the studies so far, ESP seems to reside only in the believers. For tips on how to impress others, check out some tips on cold reading.

As human beings, we are always interested in how and why we change over the life span. Chapter 10 focuses on identify ways for us to think scientifically about human development. In evaluating how and why human change throughout the life span, from infancy to aging, we learn about developments in our body, mind and personality. What interested me most in this section is when it go into details about changes in adolescence. Adolescence is a very special period in our life span. It is like a bomb, one never realize it is there at the first place, but suddenly, "boom", everything become so different and complicated. Your body is different, and you start to think and act different from the past.

Adolescence is a time of the body growing fast and bigger with many hormonal changes. A boy and girl become very different from each other in hormones, body function, physical strength and athletic abilities.

Adolescence is also a time about brain development. Becoming mature in the brain influence our behaviors. We begin to learn very difficult things, make decisions, control ourselves and decide what is right or wrong.

Since we humans are all social beings, our changes in adolescence not only affect ourselves but also people around us. There are many good things, like figuring out what one truly like and work hard on it. However, not all the developments in adolescence have positive effects to our lives, like having conflict with parents and friends. One of an interesting example might be we realize we never have enough clothes. As adolescence is a time of exploring who we are, we always want to buy more and more cloth to try to "built our personal image". It is understandable that everybody wants to be good looking. But sometimes, when one try on different identities by dressing in particular ways to be different from others and show his personality, some crazy things might happen. It doesn't mean that dressing in particular ways will be harmful to others, but we all might see people before looking at their photos in adolescence and say:" Why I was dressing like that?" Just as Charles Dickens said about adolescence:"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

We all wonder what really makes people laugh. But is there really a way to control a study of people laughing? There is an argument about not being able to conduct a laughter study in the confines of a laboratory because people may be more nervous or more likely to not think something is funny if they know they are supposed to laugh at it. In 2006 Robert Provine conducted a naturalistic study to observe what people laughed at; his conclusions were women laugh more than men. We would think it would be at jokes or funny stories but only 20% did! The large majority of laughter "preceded by quite ordinary comments (like "It was nice meeting you, too")," (p.51) which seems odd because that's not funny, so what were they laughing at? This interests me to know why people's reactions are to laugh or giggle at common statements. There are a few flaws in studies like this because it could have been prompted, not fully understood by the observer or the causation may not have been interpreted correctly.

Chapter two focuses on basically how to interpret data from research done the naturalistic way or prompted in a laboratory and the ethics behind which way is better to use data that supposedly pertains to the real world. Also, that when conductors of studies publish surveys, how they choose to word the questions is crucial. This was demonstrated in an example on page 54 when people surveyed to see who in the sample believed if the Holocaust actually happened; first round (poorly worded) 22% did not believe that it happened, second round dropped to 1% in disbelief.

Chapter 7 goes into depth about the facts and ways behind the memory within the minds of people. There are three main systems behind the memory in our brains: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
In the film Rain Man (1988) starring Dustin Hoffman as Raymond, Raymond is an autistic man who lives in a world of his own. His brother Charlie (Tom Cruise) realizes that Raymond has an incredible memory. Raymond would memorize entire yellow page books to remember every small detail of everyday of his life; he is also very good with numbers. The average digit span for most adults is between five and nine digits. Raymond proves this fact wrong by a long shot as he can remember exactly what numbers and cards are left in a game of black jack. Charlie realizes this and takes him to Las Vegas and he can count cards so good he knows every card left in the deck. He ends up winning over $100,000 in one night and puts everyone working at the casino in disbelief.
This movie is a great example of someone's short-term memory that is much greater than the average human and how much power this can give someone in our society. Memory is something everyone possesses and mostly everyone in the world is born with very similar memory abilities. Although, as we age this is not always the case, especially in Raymond's unique case.

Defining intelligence can be a tricky task. It can take many forms, and be difficult to assign a definition. Testing an individual's intelligence can also be tricky, because of the complexity it holds. There are many factors that are taken into account and many ways to compute a person's IQ. Intelligence testing has altered over the years, with the hopes of becoming more and more accurate.

It all started when Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon invented what is regarded as the first intelligence test. This is a tool that was developed to measure someone's overall thinking ability. The test required the participant to memorize pictures, know vocabulary, name familiar objects, repeat sentences and follow commands. Overtime there have been changes and modifications to the original intelligence testing.

Today, the IQ test is seen as one of psychology's biggest, and perhaps most controversial, accomplishments. The IQ test has been remarkably influential and is still used today. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is the most popular test used today to test adult IQs. It consists of 15 subtests that assess different mental abilities. There are adapted versions to test children and adolescents. There are also culture-fair IQ tests. These tests do not depend on language and are seen to be less influenced by culture.

Overall, testing intelligence is a daunting task, but because of the advances and inventions in psychology, it is becoming easier and easier throughout the years.

Click here to learn more about IQ tests and view examples.

In their junior or senior year of high school, all students at the University of Minnesota were faced with a task: what test to take. By test, I mean the ACT or SAT; the two most popular college admissions test that causes students across the country, stress, pain, and a Saturday morning that they would rather spend sleeping. Following the test, many students feel like either a winner or a looser based on the score they receive and worry about success in college or even just getting accepted to the college of their choice. Chapter 9 addresses Intelligence test and specifically College Admissions tests in relation to future predicted success.

As it turns out, both the book and ABC News say the same thing: tests scores really don't matter as much as they do. ABC News looked at grades and found only a 10-20% of grades can be explained in a correlation to SAT. The book also explains when looking at specific ranges the effect of SAT predictions decreases even more. For those who believe that taking preparatory classes will increase their scores by leaps and bounds, they're riding on false hope. An average increase is 30 points which is equivalent to about 1 ACT Point, but practice tests can help too.
With the new information surrounding test taking some are calling into question the emphasis placed on exams, including the president of the California University System calling for their elimination.

Chapter 9 focuses on two main topics: IQ testing and the different forms of intelligence. While the topic of IQ testing brought up a number of unique points and different information, the idea of different forms of intelligence intrigued me the most. Chapter 9 went into detail about the different forms of intelligence by explaining intelligence as abstract thinking, the difference between general and specific abilities, fluid and crystallized intelligence, multiple intelligences and the biological base of intelligence.

This section went into detail about how even though a person may come off as "dumb" or less intelligent in one area of their life, they may be very intelligent in different ways. In our generation, it is very common to classify someone as book smart or street smart, but this section went into more detail about the triarchic model, which further explained what each of those meant. The triarchic model lays out the existence of the three main intelligences: analytical, practical and creative. If a person is able to reason logically and typically does well on traditional intelligence tests and college admissions exams, you could say they are "book smart" or analytically intelligent. If a person can easily solve real world problems, you could call them "street smart" or practically intelligent. The third type of intelligence included in the triarchic model is creative intelligence, which would explain a person who is able to write an emotional poem or compose a unique piece of music.

After reading this section of the chapter, I thought about the times when I've felt a person was "dumb" and began to realize that in reality, I was the one who was being "dumb" and close-minded. There are a number of people in my life that are far more intelligent than I'll ever be in different areas of their lives and vice versa.

Chapter nine focuses on intelligence: what it is, why there are different kinds, and how to measure it. What struck me as interesting was the aspect of multiple intelligences; how some people have a greater skill in certain intelligences and others are skilled in a different intelligence. Howard Gardner specialized in this practice and created a theory of multiple intelligences where there are eight "frames of mind" of how a person thinks of the world. His eight proposed intelligences are: Linguistic, Logico-mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic.
However, Gardner's model has not been formally tested and there is no concrete evidence that all of his "frames of mind" are completely independent like he says they are. There is also speculation on the intelligences chosen for his theory. Researchers say that certain intelligences like Humor or Memory should be added and the Bodily-kinesthetic should be removed because it is more of a talent than intelligence.
Gardner's model has been integrated into the educational system, especially for younger students. Teachers are trying to specialize their teaching to the certain ways their students learn best. However, many have said that this approach may just weaken the skills a child is already bad at and a teacher should try to help them develop them.

Gardner's Theory in Schools

Chapter 3

There are many parts of the brain that completely effect what you do every day of your life. The brain is a precious organ that should be treated with care. If one thing goes wrong with your brain it can seriously change your life forever.

Phineas Gage was a railroad foreman in 1848. He was putting gunpowder into a hole with the use of a tamping iron with great strength. Unexpectedly an explosion occurred sending the pole straight through his head. The pole pierced that man's face right underneath the cheekbone and destroyed almost all of his prefrontal cortex, which is the very front of the brain that is located under the forehead and is responsible for executive functions such as distinguishing between right and wrong choices/actions. Gage survived but according to his friends and acquaintances he was never the same. The accident caused him to display a large range of profanity (which he normally didn't do) and also changed his mind to a great extent. In the end, the skull was examined and the conclusion was made that Phineas Gage had intense damage made to the right and left sides of his prefrontal cortex. (page 97 of our psychology textbook)

As stated in the beginning, there are many different parts of the brain. These specific parts and lobes and uses of these parts tend to get confusing and tough to memorize at times. This is a handy song I found that might just help you memorize them all...and maybe even have a fun time doing so! The Brain Parts Song!

Recently, a Florida school principle faced charges which originated because of him hypnotizing students and one of the students ended up committing suicide, one year ago.

The principle is charged with unlicensed practice of hypnosis, which has a maximum sentence of one year in jail, but I was curious as to whether or not hypnosis could have really led to the student's suicide. Chapter 5 provides some definite insight into this issue, and it debunks 6 myths largely associated with hypnosis.

Hypnosis does not produce a "trance state" in which a person will do anything they are told. This is seen especially during staged hypnosis shows, however a person is able to resist and oppose hypnotic suggestions. This myth alone suggests that the principle had no influence over the student because he had hypnotized her. Another myth is that people under hypnosis are in a sleeplike state, however studies show that brain waves are not the same as when someone is actually sleeping. One interesting fact is that people are fully aware of their surroundings, and can recall the same details they would be able to under normal conditions; their memory is not improved. While hypnosis can increase the amount of information a person can recall, much of it is inaccurate because they become confident in both real and false memories. In fact, courts in the US have banned testimonies from hypnotized witnesses because of this reason. It would appear that in considering the many misconceptions regarding hypnosis, I doubt that the principle had any hand in the death of one of his students, however is high school really a place to be practicing hypnosis?

Our biological clocks determine what kind of day we're going to have.

We've all had "one of those days" where sleep just seemed far more important than Avogadro's number and how it relates to an atom. But seriously, you don't wanna be that guy.

Don't be that guy

But, then again, at least you didn't fall asleep on the bus on the way to your first day of second grade.

THAT sucks.

While you were busy catching some sleep on the bus on the way to elementary school, your brain was busy conjuring up some pretty awesome dreams. While many dreams have a hidden meaning, some are also very straightforward.

A dream of a flat tire could mean you're anxious about losing status at your job.

OR

A dream of a candy store could simply mean you really love candy. Or that you're stuck in the dream on the bus on your way to second grade...your pick.

There are also a number of other ways to experience an alteration of consciousness.

A daily example of deja vu in our lives.

Many hypnotists use a hypnosis circle.

A daily example of deja vu in our lives.


A much less safe option for altering your consciousness is using illegal narcotics. Remember those pictures from middle school that our health teacher tried to scare us into not using drugs with?
Ew.

While some ways of altering your consciousness are safer than others, it's ultimately up to you!

Have you ever wondered where phobias originate in people? Are we predisposed to fear certain things? Maybe, you want to know if there is a biological answer to foot fetishes. Chapter six in our textbook will help to answer all of those intriguing questions about fears/phobias, fetishes, and disgust reactions. In addition to that, the text dives into the meaning behind Pavlov's discoveries and the influences that punishment and behavior have on an organism. The major theme of this chapter is how organisms learn certain behaviors and also the molecular influences that affect our learning. After establishing the driving forces behind learning a behavior, the chapter concludes by discussing different approaches that claim to amplify learning, such as speed-reading, and decipher whether or not their methods adhere to the system of human learning.
Now you may be asking yourself, why should I care about cognitive models of learning? My answer to you is that knowing the material in this chapter will not only help you do well on the psychology final, but may also help you succeed in other courses. You could essentially set up an entire process of learning for ANY new material you encounter!

Chances are, all of us have encountered a non-human animal in our life. Also, chances are good that we've seen two or more non-human animals coexisting. Typically we see these animals finding food, shelter, warning another animal to stay away, or looking for a mate. However, sometimes what animals do when a human is not watching can be quite remarkable. In Chapter 8, language, thinking, and reasoning is discussed; the chapter is centered around communication and how humans and even animals have developed ways to perform social tasks.

Communication as we humans know it is based in language. Whether it be spoken or seen visually, we are nearly dependent on it. While spoken languages are rare in the animal kingdom, a couple animals have learned to "talk" like we do. Animals like Alex, the African Gray Parrot had learned how to speak about 150 words of English, and had appeared to understand what he was saying. Could this be the key to human-animal speaking? The problem was that the repetition of words was the primary contributor to this spoken language. For more information on Alex the Parrot click here.

While most animals can't handle any spoken language, some animals' lives are highly affected by visual communication. One example of a social interaction performed by an animal can be seen in the beehive. When returning to the hive, honeybees inform other bees which direction, how far, and how much pollen a flower has through dancing. Without this, the bee population would be drastically reduced, due to flying without knowing where to go. Once again its not speaking to us, but its communication in the bees' own way.

Both humans and non-human animals are unique. We humans have our way of communicating and those animals have their way. We humans are the only species that can talk and understand spoken language, but animals sure get what they need to keep living through their own unique ways of communication too.

Chapter 7 focuses primarily on memory and has an array of interesting information. The section that drew my attention most, however, relates to amnesia. I've always found the concept of anterograde amnesia to be both intriguing and intimidating. Anterograde amnesia basically means your brain is not capable of programming new memories from your experiences usually after a head injury of some type. Contrary to popular belief, amnesia does not produce a loss of all memories; in fact, such a case is remarkably rare. The textbook uses the Hollywood hit movie "Memento" to depict anterograde amnesia. This "R" rated flick features a main character who suffers a virtually complete form of it and uses tattoos to remind himself of events since an accident that altered his current memory forming capabilities.

Like most people my age however, I was first introduced to anterograde amnesia in the fourth grade from the Disney movie "Finding Nemo." In the movie, the character Dory says she suffers from short-term memory loss. In reality, her brain is unable to encode new memories, such as the first time she meets Marlin. Upon first viewing this disorder in the cartoon format I thought it was comical. It never occurred to me that her inability to process memories could be a real condition. Upon reading this textbook I have now learned that the concepts we first encountered in children's cartoons are real conditions that people struggle with on a daily basis.

Chapter 3 provides an in-depth analysis of the biological aspect of psychology. The chapter is centered around the structure and function of the human brain. Biological psychologists continue to look for ways in which the nervous system and human behavior are related. As scientists continue to conduct research and experiments, greater knowledge and understanding of the structure and function of the brain becomes available. Undoubtedly, the brain is a very complex organ within the body. As presumed by its great complexity, the brain is one of the most important parts of the body as it is a strong determinant in the way humans perceive the world and then react to certain perceptions.

One of the areas that I found interesting and I would like to highlight is adrenaline. Adrenaline is released from the adrenal glands (shown in picture), many times in very dangerous or exciting situations. High levels of adrenaline within the body trigger changes in which people are sometimes able to perform amazing acts. One example was a woman temporarily obtaining the strength to lift a car to save her trapped infant. This superhuman ability triggered by an adrenaline rush is personally very fascinating.

Chapter 5 discusses the phenomenon known as lucid dreaming: the ability to realize when one is dreaming. Most of us have had lucid dreams in the past, but did you know that lucid dreaming has actually been used as a treatment to overcome psychological disorders? Many people use lucid dreaming in order to help deal with problems such as depression, social anxiety, and other common mental health disorders.

Lucid dreaming is a skill that can be acquired by practicing and training the mind. One such method involves a person constantly asking himself throughout the day, "Is this possible?" For example, a person will see a pedestrian walking across the street, and he will ask himself, "Is this possible?" If he continues to do this, he will begin to do this in his dreams. Thus, when he sees a flying pink elephant and he asks himself, "Is this possible?" He will be able to draw the conclusion that it is not possible. Therefore, he must be dreaming.

Another popular method involves doing very repetitive patterns throughout the day. Lighting does not change in a dream when a light switch is flipped. Therefore a common practice for people who wish to become better lucid dreamers is to flip on and off light switches on a regular basis. When they begin to do this in their dreams, they will notice the lighting does not change, and therefore will know that they are dreaming. Lucid dreaming takes a lot of practice and most beginners often wake up as soon as they discover they are dreaming because they get overly excited. Psychologists recommend keeping a dream journal, which will help the dreamer discover patterns that they can use to become better lucid dreamers.

In chapter one the idea that I was most intrigued by was functionalism. This is the idea the psychological characteristics can be explained by their adaptive purposes or in other words that different behaviors and feelings were inherited through evolution. This idea was heavily influenced by the work of Charles Darwin who created the idea of evolution and natural selection.
This theory drew my attention because I find it interesting that human behavior could be influenced by natural selection and serve an evolutionary purpose. It's easy to see how physical adaptions like a fish's gills or a insects camouflage gave them advantage but it's more difficult to think about how certain behaviors give humans a higher level fitness. This subject also sparked my curiosity because of another class I am taking this semester about the biology of sex. This class focuses on how evolution could be the answer to many of the biggest questions we have about living things. It's interesting to see that this same idea has also been applied in psychology. Hopefully we'll go further in depth about this subject later in the class.

Chapter eight focuses on the mechanics of language - answering questions such as how we learn language, how did it come about, and what its importance is to us as a human race as language proves to correlate with thought.

But what happens when one is deprived of language?

This question can be answered by the disturbing case study of "Genie", a thirteen year old girl who spent most of her life deprived of language. The young girl was found chained to a toddler's potty training seat, forced into social isolation and, of course, severe language deprivation since she was a toddler. While Genie's story is extremely unsettling, it provided psychiatrists with an example of the effects of language deprivation and a better understanding of the extent of language rehabilitation that can be expected after years of silent torture. Sadly, after being rescued, Genie only showed basic abilities to communicate, never becoming a "fluent language user".

Other factors could also play a role in Genie's language rehabilitation. Genie was not only deprived of language, but also social interaction. The physical and psychological effects of social isolation could be easily considered a major factor in Genie's inability to make progress.

As disturbing as Genie's story is, it struck me as an important example of chapter eight's focus. Her story is an example of the importance of language. The following is a link of an emotional video of Genie's behavior and mannerisms resulting from years of language deprivation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICUZN462qMw . The short video is an example of how language is, in fact, correlated with thought and behavior. In addition, Genie's story illustrates how several factors can influence one's behavior and psyche, while proving the importance of ruling out multiple hypotheses before establishing a theory.

For more information on Genie's story, read Genie: A Scientific Tragedy by Russ Rymer.

Written by Amber Wasley
Psych 1001
Section 24

Chapter 3 of "Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding" explores the neurotransmissions throughout the brain and how it effects our behavior as human beings. The brain is a complex system of nerves, synapses, axons and a variety of chemicals along with other aspects such as electric impulses that control not only what we do, but how we feel both physically and emotionally. Perhaps the most interesting section of this chapter is the analyzing of which lobes of the brain control what aspects of who we are, and how incredibly amazing its recovery system can be. Not only can the brain help us recover from extreme emotional trauma, but also it can also miraculously save us from seemingly irreparable physical damage. For example, Phineas Gage was a railroad worker in the mid 19th century when an unexpected explosion propelled a railroad spike through his skull with such force that it went under his left cheekbone and through his prefrontal cortex on top of his head. While most would clearly assume that such a tragedy would immediately kill Gage, he actually survived, although he was never quite the same. The part of the brain that the spike drilled through (the prefrontal cortex) happened to be the lobe that receives information from other regions and contributes mostly to mood and personality. While it is lucky that it did not, for example, pierce the limbic system whereas he surely would've died, Phineas Gage was altered for life into what was described as a sort of mad man with no inhibitions (especially about profanities). Gage is a perfect example of how amazing the brain's recovery system can be and how interesting the separate lobes of the brains are in how they each control a different aspect of who we are and how we operate as human beings.
For more information on Phineas Gage!

When reading chapter 3 in Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding it is hard to deny that the brain is the single most essential organ ensuring our survival within our own world. This mushy palate that seems almost life-less actually plays the most active and significant roles in almost every function that a human body performs. The behaviors we act upon goes hand in hand with the brain. Each part of the brain has a duty, and each neurotransmitter has a message. Almost always, if one piece of the brain puzzle is missing or damaged, the ability to continue a normal life is doubtful without medication or treatment.

I found that the most interesting part of this chapter was neurotransmission. These neurotransmitters run through the brain directly to the central nervous system. Each transmitter has only one receptor that it fits into. It is absolutely mind-blowing that there are so many roles that these chemical receptors play. Without them we would lack complete control of our emotions. Roles such as relaying information, contracting muscles, feeling hunger or sleep, feeling excitement, and feeling of pain is all a result of neurotransmitters. Imagine a world without emotion, or control. Humans would be the stereotypical vegetable with no feelings or voice.

For more information on neurotransmission

What makes up a personality? We know that each person is truly unique in their mannerisms. We all react to and perceive similar situations differently. But why? Also, how does one measure the psyche? Are there superficial traits that indicate who we are and how we behave?
In chapter 14 a massive portion of the theories behind personality, and the methods used to identify and quantify personality are explained. Although there is a significant amount of material covered in this chapter, and the assignment was specific to a general overview of the chapter, a particular portion drew me in and I found myself reading the entire section.

Several years ago, I recalled watching a news story about how employers would screen potential future employees by collecting a writing sample, such as a signature, and sending it off to be analyzed in order to determine if the person would be correct for the job. Initially, I found this absolutely absurd. How can our handwriting be of any indication of our personality or work ethic? Well, that particular study is called "graphology"; it is the psychological interpretation of handwriting. Our psychology book goes on to say that there are even proponents of "graphotherapeutics" that claim to cure psychological disorders by altering people's handwriting. The book also goes on to reveal statistics collected and facts about the graphology. To the readers of this blog (and no peeking in the book!) I ask- do you think there is any way for handwriting to indicate any portion of our personalities? How so?

Most of us have probably heard of the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" but how many of us have stopped to really think about all that phrase implies? Chapter 13 of our, book titled "Social Psychology," looks at the ways in which our interactions with those around us affect us and help us to understand how we view ourselves in relation to others and how we interact in social settings.

The Social Comparison Theory struck me as interesting. It says that we evaluate our abilities and believes by comparing them with others. For example, to evaluate how well I am doing in this course, I may use the scores of my peers to gain a perspective of my overall grade. The book suggests two type of comparisons: downward social comparisons (comparing with those who are inferior) and upward social comparison (comparing with those of a higher level).

Such comparisons can have devastating results. This article demonstrates the ways in which American consumerism patterns and desire to compare themselves to those of the highest social class have led political leaders in Africa to devote millions of dollars to frivolous status enhancers such as marble floors while the majority of the population lives in the slums.

The recent execution of Troy Davis, an African American man convicted of murdering a police officer, brings into question the accuracy and procedures of our current justice system. In the case of Troy Davis, his conviction and subsequent execution were based almost entirely on eye-witness testimony. Psychology has long known the fallibility of eye-witness testimony. Eye-witness testimony can be swayed by subtle cues from interrogators, the way the line-ups were presented, and subsequent discussions and recall of the events.

It has been reported in the news media that in the case of Troy Davis that the eye-witness accounts were subject to all kinds of problems. For example, it was reported that police placed wanted posters of Troy Davis in the neighborhood, cued witnesses as to who they expected the witness to pick from the line-up, and creating a mock-up of the event. These factors could have easily produced false memories of Troy Davis' role in the shooting of the police officer. Out of the nine eye-witnesses who identified Troy Davis as the killer, seven individuals have subsequently retracted their testimony. They are no longer confident that he was the real killer.
Perhaps, we should rethink how our justice system uses information to convict individuals. I believe we should focus more on verifiable evidence and focus less on eye-witness testimony which is so often intrinsically flawed.

For some good news articles on the Troy Davis case (and my inspiration for writing this post) check out CNN and Slate News.

For a good review of our knowledge of eyewitness testimony and its flaws see this article.

Welcome class! This is your new blog site.

You can find more specifics about your assignment in your syllabus, but I wanted to point out a few things that make a good blog post.

1. Pick a good topic that is relevant to Psychology. Make sure you clearly show in your post how it is relevant to Psychology.

2. Connect it to every day life. This could be your own life or another person's life.

3. Be creative in your posts. You are encouraged to include media (photos, videos, and links) to improve the quality and content of your post (and to make it eye catching!).

4. Read each other's blogs. Commenting on each other's blogs is strongly encouraged. This is particularly true if you are writing on the same topic.

5. Use appropriate writing mechanics and styles to clearly communicate your topic and points.

Thanks to Jhon Wlashin for ideas on the key points for blogs (see his tips here).

You can also check out more tips on good blogging by reading:
The 4 pillars of exceptional blogs