blog post numero trece

i thought that the study of the three boys was pretty interesting..the fact that just the leadership styles affected how the boys did their work. in the autocratic leadership, the boys worked the hardest, but sometimes they wouldnt if the leader wasnt looking. the amout of violence went up and they showed more submission to the leader too. in the lazee faire (dont mind the spelling!) leadership, they got very little work done, and at the lowest quality possible. violence was up in this also. when the groups were democratically run, the boys showed the highest levels of motivation and originality. there was more mutual praise and playfullness. it was leadership style and the social situations it created, and not the personality of the individuals involved that were the critical factors in that experiment. this leads people to believe that social situations significantly control individual behavior. asch's conformity was the experiment where people were given four lines, one that was the example, and the other three to see wich one was similar. the person being tested on is last in the group, and when the other people (who were in on the test) started picking answers that were clearly incorect, they found that 70% of the subjects sided with the majoritys wrong judgement at least once. i thought that was suprising, that people would choose the wrong answer just because other people were. that tells us that we are easily manipulated just so we can fit into what the group thinks. in the prison experiment, i thought it was really interesting that people would get so into their character, especially the guards. even though they knew that it was just an experiment, they wanted to play their role in it, and they played it too well. the study ended after 6 days. human nature was definently changed, just by playing a role.
social influence is when we change what we believe or how we behave after observing the attitudes or actions of others. one example of me changing because of social influence is when i went to a teen night club thing. at first i wanted to just lay low, and not do anything. but my friends were really excited to be there and wanted to get out and dance, so i just sided with them even though i was kind of etchy on the fact of being there. it turns out i had a really fun night! but my parents didnt really like the fact that i went there....... another example would be of when i was littler and we went to disney land in florida. my parents and sister wanted to go onto the "it's a small world" ride, and i DID NOT want to go at all. but they kept insisting and insisting so i told myslef that it probably wasnt going to be that bad, and we went on the ride. (p.s. i will never ever go on that ride again!!!)
the most interesting thing i learned in this class was either learning about the nature vs nurture thing or the different things you can do to trick your mind. the nature vs nurture asks questions like...did you grow up this way because of the environment you lived in or because of the way your parents treated you? i think that both of them contribute to how we are, to how we act, and other things. the mind tricks i really liked. i never knew we had a blind spot in our eye! aslo the images that looked like they were moving but werent i liked.
i have greatly enjoyed this class, even though my grades dont reflect it. i really liked learning about psychology, even though i didnt think i would. im not gonna lie, i will miss mrs olson and her knowlege of pretty much all music and her love for photography :)

blog post numero doce

A way to decide if something is or isn't a psychological disorder determines on if it is defferent from the person's culture. a psychological disorder according to our book is ongoing patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions that are deviant, distressful, and/or dysfunctional. if someone acts abnormally, it is not considered a psychological disorder unless it in some way messes with a person's natural way of doing things. an example would be of ocd.
my grandmother and my mother have suffered from minor depression, but not major from what i have been told. i know my mother has gone into the hospital to try to get help, but im not too sure about my grandmother. major depressive disorder occurs when at least five signs of depression (including lethargy, feelings of worthlessness, or loss of interest in family, friends and activities) last two or more weeks and are not caused by drugs or a medical condition. i might have had this last year, but im not sure..i went in to see a psychiatrist like every week or so, but i guess it just wore off after a while. the book says its like combining grief with sluggishness. when my mom had depression, i wasnt aware of it, i think she said it was before i was born actually. when i was going in to see that doctor i felt like i didnt want to do anything, not hang out with my friends, not go out for sports, and i didnt care about what was happening to me. it was not something that i like to remember, and i never want to go back to that again.
i thought learning about panic disorders was pretty cool...i didnt realize that it was so common, that 1 in 75 people have it. and how harsh it is on the person! the book says that anxiety suddenly escalates into a terrifying panick attack with hart palpitations, shortness of breath, choking sensations, trembling or dizziness typically happen with it too. and that snokers have at least a double risk because nicotine is a stimulant.

blog post #11

i think i have a very complex personality...im very forgiving, and i let people push me around most of the time, wich could be both a bad and good trait. if someone wants me to do somethign thats good for me, i will probably do it. if someone wants me to do somethign thats bad for me, i will probably do it. im really nice most of the time, wich is probably a good trait. but at other times i just kind of get really really really angry and let everything out. that i think would be a bad trait. two more good traits would be that im respectful and im usually there for people when they need me.
my optimisim is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay low. i dont think very well of myself and i dont think i can do what i set my mind to. i dont know why i do this, but i do. this could be that im a perfectionist and that i have to reach for bigger goals...or i could just not think well of myself at all.
if i was brought up with a new group of people, i would be very respectfull and nice and quiet, but if i was with my friends i would be loud and not so nice and not so respectfull...its like comparing talking to your grandma about what you did this weekend to telling your friends what you did this weekend. i respect people i dont know, but people who know me really wouldnt care, so i say what i want when im with them.

blog post numero nueve

i learned that creativity is the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable. and just because someone is smart, doesnt mean that they can't also be creative. intelligence tests require convergent thinking, while creativity tests require divergent thinking. injury to certain areas of the frontal lobes can leave reading, writing, and arithmetic skills intact but can destroy imagination. there are five components of ceativity, expertise, imaginative thinking skills, a venturesome personality, instrinsic motivation, and a creative envoronment. i guess i can be creative at times, ive sometimes even made up little piano pieces. i think people should be creative, but its not something that needs to be there, our species doesnt really need to be creative to be able to survive. i really think that the different intellegences were really cool, how you could be really smart in music or in math or in art or in sociability.

blog post numero nueve

memory is pretty improtant to who we are. if we didnt remember, we would probably make the same decicions, do the same thing, not care about what would happen, because we wouldnt remember anyway. life would be very...random and kinda scary. you wouldn't be able to learn anything, people would probably get hurt and sick really easily, nobody would know how to do anything (ie. play an instrument, play volleyball or basketball or anything, maybe even talking). we wouldnt be able to learn from past experiences or remember loved ones that have passed away. clive, i think, would be who he is right now, nothing would matter besides what is happening at that moment. it would be hard to be his wife, having to deal with his condition. it would take a lot of patience, im suprised someone can do that. Im glad that we can remember, so we can learn more, like learn from past experiences and how to do certain things (ie. everything before), remember ones we loved that passed away, remember why we dont like certain people and why we love others.
i definently think differently about memory, i thought memory was much more accurate than what it actually is. i do see my memories differently, and i dont trust them completely. in biology 2, we are learning about human evolution and i read that memroy was helping them out with survival, when the early humans found a sort of stone that was good for weapons, they would travel there to get weapons and therefore get more food. not really important to this, but i thought id share anyway =)
the one thing that i thought was really interesting is that memory is not always right, that sometimes we tell ourselves something happen when it actually didnt. i mean, so many people go back to their memories, and it might not even be right, what they saw may be a lie or something that didnt even happen. that is just strange to me. that makes me not really too confident in my memory.

blog post #8

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. One example of classical conditioning is that when the dog goes to the bathroom outside instead of going inside, he gets a treat. The dog will pair getting a treat up with going to the bathroom outside. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if follewed by a punisher. An example of operant conditioning is if a child does somthing wrong and gets spanked, they are less likely to do what they did wrong again.
Positive reinforcement increases behaviors by presenting positive stimuli. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strenghtens the response. negative reinforcement increases behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimulie, such as shock. a negative reinfrocer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. Punishment is an event that decreases the behavior that it follows.

Blog Post #7

1) I would have to describe sense and perception as a way to interact with the world, a way to know more of whats going on. A way the brain can learn more and understand how the body can interact.

2) The most interesting thing I learned in this section was the many ways that we can trick ourselves, how easily it is to make ourselves percieve things and play tricks on our mind. I thought that was really cool and I really like mind tricks, so this was really interesting to me. That kinda made me realize that we have so many different things our brain does automatically, like how we group things.

3) In the PsyBlog thing, I chose the article: Emotion, Learning, Attention and Perception. In this article, they talked about how being pointed at with a gun would trigger different reactions in your body. The example they gave was that you can see the bullets because being in fear puts your visual cortex into overdrive. This made me think about how people always seem to remember what happens to them when they get scared, their perception is probably in overdrive. I thought that was pretty cool, too.