Tips for ACING Your Exams

Since exams are right around the corner and we have also just about finished chapter nine on memory, I would like give "my dear fellow classmates" some study techniques. The first thing you must do is study REPEATEDLY to boost long term recall. When you read a definition: say it to yourself, wait a few seconds and say it again. Another strategy is to make the material personally meaningful. To build a network of retrieval cues, take thorough notes in your OWN words. Give real life examples to help illustrate what you are studying. Mrs. Perl always gives us examples of her kids or things that actually happened to her. This is very helpful because it is a lot more relatable. Psychology is so easy to connect to your life! Also, don't forget to make as many associations as possible. This will make everything come together and not seem so random and out of place. Mnemonic devices are also very helpful in remembering unfamiliar items. For example, use ROY G. BIV to remember the colors of the color spectrum! The best thing to do before you stop studying is to find out what you DON'T know. Do not be overconfident when you recognize information. Test your recall first. Outline sections on a blank page. Define concepts at each chapter's end WITHOUT turning back to their definitions. Take practice tests, look over old tests along with test corrections. You do not want to make the same mistakes again. Also, something I've learned throughout high school is don't just memorize the answers and definitions but UNDERSTAND them.

On that note, I would like wish everyone great success on their upcoming midterms! This class has really been so amazing, and I'm excited to continue on second semester!

Pavlov and Conditioning

We recently learned about Pavlov and his experiment with the dog. Pavlov conditioned a dog to associate a certain noise with getting food, and he tested to see if it worked by only having the noise and watching to see if the dog salivated.

This interested me, and then I realized that something similar had happened with my pet.

I have a cat and, although I did not mean for this to happen, she has associated certain things with getting food. For example, whenever my cat hears my closet door open, she thinks I am feeding her (because I keep her food in the closet and usually I put food in her bowl when I open it). Whenever my dad walks into the kitchen she thinks she is getting food, because he usually gives her food. Even though we might not be feeding her, she thinks that he means food and my closet means food.

Additionally, if I would allow it, we would use positive punishment to train the cat not to sit on the table. Every time she jumps on the table, we spray her with water to teacher her not to jump on.

This week Mrs. Perl sent us an article about a woman who conditioned her husband, which was really funny. That led me to wonder about conditioning children, and then I wanted to know:

Do you think it is better to use reinforcement or punishment with children? Why?

Moods

Hello everyone,
While reading the section of chapter four that discusses how moods affect the retrieval of our memories, I immediately thought of our discussion in chumash class today. (sorry that I have to bring this up, but i ASSOCIATED the two together.) Anyways, I read that moods interpret how we view other people's behavior. This reminded me of how Mrs. Perl was talking about how our bad moods (because of our anger towards the school) affect how we view what she says, even when she does not say something negative. She gave the example that if she comes in and says, "good morning," we would take it as something bad because of our bad moods. I also read that if we are happy, we will recall events that see the world as a happy place, and if we are depressed, we recall sad events which darkens our interpretation of current events. This is very bad! I notice that in our class we complain a lot about everything that is going on before and during exams. We are all in bad moods which causes us to view every situation, like the changes in the exam schedule, as a terrible thing. In this section it also points out that when we recall information with a certain mood, like a happy mood, it will cause the mood to last longer. So, with this in mind, I think that since it is a very stressful time right now for all of us, we should try to bring about a happy mood and a more positive approach to this period of time before break (keeping in mind then when we finish, we have break yay!) If we do this, our happy moods can keep us alive through all this hectic craziness, and reduce our negativity toward the awful situations that we encounter daily in our lives.

Hello my dear fellow classmates,

Mrs. Perl sent us a lovely article this week. It explained why we dreamed and provided an experiment that was made in order to see if their theory was right. In the article they claimed that when we dream we recall our painful and troubling memories in order to soothe them. It was quite interesting and I believe that the scientists might have been right. But I would like to connect this article to something else. We are all familiar with the idea that getting over something painful and sad “takes time.” Some troubling events and memories take longer to heal than others, but hopefully the trauma, horror, sadness, anger of the memory does fade(although it might not be forgotten.) In time, you do get over the guy who broke your heart, that mean girl that called you fat, and that time you’re mom was “being mean” and punished you. Some of the more traumatic things such as the loss of a close friend, family member, the love of your life or a near death experience might take a longer to heal and might require a little help, but in the end(hopefully in most cases) the pain does fade. I always found it remarkable that time makes the pain go away. After having read this article I wondered whether it’s not really time that helps us get past things and let go of them. Is it just the fact that we dream that helps us get past them? However, dreaming only tales place every night and because some events might take longer to process and overcome the pain. So do you think that it was not really time but rather dreaming which takes time that helps us to get over certain things that happen in our life?

Nurture at least as important as Nature

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,716614,00.html

Here is an article that proves that nurture plays just as much importance in intelligence as nature does.

"Researchers have long overestimated the role our genes play in determining intelligence. As it turns out, cognitive skills do not depend on ethnicity, and are far more malleable than once thought. Targeted encouragement can help children from socially challenged families make better use of their potential."

This is very interesting since it validates what we have learned in class.
"IQ Increases with Each Year Spent in School".."By contrast, IQ increases with every year a child spends at school. During World War II, some children in Holland started school late because of the Nazi occupation -- with momentous consequences. "The average IQ for these children was seven points lower than for children who came of school age after the siege," Nisbett says. "

This will hopefully make you happy and have a positive attitude that you are in school.

Young Wild and Free

This past week as I was driving home from school an extremely vulgar song was playing on the radio. Usually, I don't pay much attention to lyrics of songs but because of our discussion on psychoactive drugs in class, the song Young, Wild, and Free definitely got me thinking.

Here is the chorus: So what we get drunk
So what we smoke weed
We're just having fun
We don't care who sees
So what we go out
That's how its supposed to be
Living young and wild and free

Yes, I know its pretty awful. But through our new knowledge of stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens, we can confidently argue that living young and wild and free is not as fun as Wiz Khalifa seems to think it is. For example, cocaine (a stimulant) is a fifteen minute dump of all neurotransmitters. It results in an intense high, BUT after just thirty minutes a crash of agitated depression occurs as the drug's effect wears off. This, in no way, seems 'fun' to me. Who would want to feel this quick depressive crash? Interesting fact: In national surveys, 5 percent of high school seniors reported having tried cocaine during the past year. This is pretty scary. Alcohol (a depressant) is a major issue, especially for teenagers, because it is considered 'harmless' because it is so easy to get. Alcohol causes a lack of inhibition/awareness. It not only depresses one's pre-frontal cortex but also one's reflexes. One cannot react as quickly and can't judge properly, the reason for many car accidents under the influence of alcohol. The problem is that drunk people think they're okay because they have no inhibition. It's almost like they have no control over themselves which is pretty scary when you think about it. LCD (a hallucinogen) is probably one of the most frightening things that I learned in psychology thus far. The effects of an LCD trip can include seeing weird images and distorted people and feeling the sensation that they're not in in their own body. One also becomes very panicked. They think they can fly and end up either dying or badly injured.
I would like to conclude with the following: As seen in all of these examples, these psychoactive drugs are in no way, shape, or form 'fun' or give you a sense of 'freedom.' When I think of freedom, I do not think of seeing weird images or acting in a crazy way. Freedom is not not being yourself. It should be that you act yourself and feel comfortable with who you are and you are IN CONTROL of yourself. Acting like an idiot does not make me feel free, it makes me feel stupid. Under the influence of these drugs, people THINK they are free (as seen through someone who believes he can fly), but in reality they are overly restrained.

Psychology Survey

I have decided to make a psychology survey :

1. What is the your favorite part that you have learned in psychology until now?

2.Which chapter did you like most?

3.What do think had the most relations to your everyday life?

4.What are you excited to learn?

5.Was that class what you expected?

Noise Cancelling Headphones

Chapter 5 was about sensation, and we discussed how noise and sound are processed in the body. Because we have a test on chapter five next Wednesday, I thought it would be interesting to refresh our memories about something.

Now that we know how sound is transduced: How can headphones "cancel" noise? How is it possible for certain headphones to block out all noises but the music?

Active noise canceling headphones very structures creates a barrier that blocks high frequency sound waves. They also actively erase lower-frequency sound waves. How? They create their own sound waves that mimic the incoming noise in every respect except one: the headphone's sound waves are 180 degrees out of phase with the intruding waves.  (See above picture) The two waves- one coming from the headphones and one coming from the ambient noise- have the same amplitude and frequency, but their crests and troughs are arranged so that the crests of one wave line up with the troughs of the other wave and vica versa. The two waves cancel each other out, a phenomenon known as the destructive interference. In the end, we can listen to the sound we want to hear- the music!

Things for you to comment on so that you may actually comment:

1) Do you think that something like this, if developed further, might help people who are unable to focus on only one stimulus? 

2) Did you realize that something that seems so easy is actually quite cool and miraculous?

3) Do you think that we really need to have noise cancelling headphones? Is it not enough for us to just listen to music and ignore the other stimuli?

4) We also said that after a stimulus keeps going and is not new, you tire of it and tune it out. Do you think that if you played a song on repeat for a while you would stop realizing you were listening to the music?

5) Have you ever fallen asleep while listening to music? Do you find it weird that we cannot remember the songs that were playing and aren't annoyed by the loud music pumping into our ears?

Suggestions for further research: How much do we damage our ears by putting loud music directly into them on a regular basis?

*I found out how noise cancelling works at electronics.howstuffworks.com. 

Physical Punishment

While reading about punishment in my lovely psychology book, I remembered a conversation that we had this shabbos at the Perl's house. We talked about parents hitting their children as a form of punishment. Some of us felt that it is okay to hit their own child (maybe not hurt them, just a little hit) in order to punish them. It seems to be that nowadays this type of punishment is not considered normal, but not too long ago it was used by parents and even teachers in school with their students. And, of course, there are those who continue to use this form of punishment today. I read that physical punishment can lead to aggression, depression and low self-esteem, and will not necessarily be successful. If a parent hits their child every time they swear, the child might stop swearing at home but might continue to do so out of their home. This is very interesting to me. It also upsets me. I definitely do not believe in hitting a child because it does not seem like an effective punishment to me. But, I do believe that maybe a little hit could have some sort of positive effect in some cases. Do you think that this form of punishment is effective?

Hello my dear fellow classmates,

So as we all know we are learning about sleep and dreams this lovely week. I actually discovered something very interesting about a certain person (didn’t want me to blog about that person so we will just call her CLARA) and felt the need to blog about it. Clara has had insomnia (trouble falling asleep) since she was about twelve years old. This happens to many people for many different reasons and is therefore not the thing that fascinates me so much. Clara has the ability to lie down, close her eyes, and go DIRECTLY into REM. She doesn’t have to go through the stages that we must go to in order to reach REM, it happens automatically. Therefore, she can only sleep about two hours a night and not feel tired at all since REM stage is very crucial in order for us to feel rested. I must say that I am very jealous of Clara. I always felt that we waste so much time on sleeping and I hate the fact that we need so much sleep in order to feel rested. I would love to go directly to REM for about two hours every night and then I’ll be able to accomplish so much more throughout the day while feeling completely rested. What do you think about Clara’s situation?

Are You Sleep Deprived?

On page 278 of our textbook there is a table entitled: "Are You Sleep Deprived?" This caught my eye because I often feel very tired. There are fifteen questions that you answer true or false to. It says that if you answer "true" three or more times, you are probably not getting enough sleep. Well, I did the activity and I got true for ten out of the fifteen statements. This is probably really not good. Cornell University psychologist James Maas recommends that you go to bed 15 minutes earlier than usual every night of the week- and continue this practice by adding fifteen more minutes each week- until you wake without an alarm clock and feel alert all day. This led me to my question. Statement number one of the the activity is: "I need an alarm clock in order to wake up at the appropriate time." Obviously, I answered yes to this question, but my main question is why is that important? Why does that tell you if you're sleep deprived. Maybe some people are just really deep sleepers and need a loud noise to wake them up. I always wondered how my mother can just wake up around the same time every morning and why the idea of using an alarm clock never even crosses her mind. Does any one have any ideas? Do you need an alarm clock to wake up?

Fallingggggg

I don't know about you, but I sometimes experience what I think of as dreams where I am falling into nothingness. This is pretty crazy and I often am woken up by this or jump in my sleep! It is very odd, but I always assume that it is just some type of dream and move on with my life. However, while reading about the different stages of sleep, I noticed that the idea of falling or feeling like you are floating was mentioned. Stage one of our sleep does not include dreams. It is the lightest stage of sleep and only last about five minutes. During this time we are able to experience different hallucinations. So, I learned that the sensation of falling that I feel sometimes in my sleep in not a dream, but a hallucination! This seems pretty cool to me. I usually think of hallucinations as something that happens to crazy people, but apparently it happens to many people all the time! Since it is such a light sleep, one might easily wake up with a feeling of confusion and wonder what just happened..Well now you know!

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
So as i was studying for our lovely test for tomorrow i suddenly just had to stop when i got to the sensation of pain because i just needed to blog about it.
I was always very obsessed with the sensation of pain. I am like always in pain because i have so many issues with my body its ridiculous; of course all i do is complain all the time. However, i seem to forget that there is so much worse out there than the pain i experience. I always wondered how people who are tortured can endure that kind of pain for a long period of time. I would just go insane. The book also mentioned people who are able to control their pain-mind over matter. I found that absolutely fascinating. So here a few questions i would like to start with:
1. Do you really think thatthe whole mind over matter thing works?
2. Do you think that we are all born with it or can we become accustomed to it?(Before you answer that consider the following: millions of women are able to give birth and can endure the pain without any previous training. On the other hand, you always see in movies how there are these tough men(like Jack Bauer from 24) who have been exposed to pain so much that they grew accustomed to it) so which one is it?
3. Are there only certain people who can endure intense pain? If yes why?
4. Not all of you might be able to answer this question since you might not know what im talking about but ill pose it anyway: The character Gregory from the show house MD had his muscle thigh removed and is therefore constantly in excruciating pain. He must take very strong pain killers(vicodin) to get through the day. Why cant he "control" his pain?

Colors

We learned about the different colors and how we can perceive them. We learned that there are the trichromatic colors, and that cones are in charge for colorful colors and rods are in charge of black and white.
How do we know that we all see the same color named "green" since it can be that what I perceive as "green" is actually "red", but I was taught that a certain color is called a certain word. Is it possible that all of our worlds are differently colorful? What do you think?

Stop and Stare..but make sure you don't get caught

Someone told me, that during class when she looks at someone, and the other person looks back, they end up smiling at each other. She said she couldn't help herself and that this always happens.

I believe that they do this because when they look at each other they start feeling a little squish (the new 'in word' for awkward. Therefore it happens that they smile at each other to make that awkward feeling go away.

Having learned about Psychology, reflexes and our culture can we somehow understand this behavior? Tell me what you think!

This brings somethings else to mind. There is this saying which states: "Don't feel bad if the person you look at catches you looking at him since it means that he is looking back".
Do you think that this is true or that we feel when someone is looking at us, or we see it through or peripheral vision and we therefore look at the person looking at us?

Expectations, Apples, and Potatoes

Last week, we discussed in class that if you blindfolded yourself and pinched your nose tightly, you would not be able to taste the difference between a raw potato and an apple. This is because you cannot taste, and the way things smell and look effect how it tastes. This is due to our expectations, which often make a difference in how we perceive something.

So, over shabbos, Rachel E. Tsuna and I decided to experiment. We peeled an apple and a raw potato, and then cut them into similar sizes and shapes. We took turns blindfolding one another, and as one was blindfolded and pinching their nose into nonexistence, the other would pick a piece of apple and a piece of potato for the blindfolded person to eat.

It was so cool- we could not taste the difference between the apple and the potato! However, our apple was to soft and when we ate it we could tell it was an apple and not a potato. Of course, they both tasted the same, as we could not really tell the difference. Rachel had no problem swallowing the potato. However, when I ate the potato, even though it did not taste gross or anything, I had a hard time swallowing once I realized it was potato because just the thought of eating a raw potato was disturbing.
But you really cannot tell the difference! If the apple were harder, we would never have known.

This says a lot about the way our senses work. Seeing and smelling can effect taste, as can our expectations. Try this experiment yourself to see how cool it is.

*i would like to note: Someone thought it would be funny to put hot sauce on the apple/potato slice when I was blindfolded, and I could DEFINITELY taste the hot sauce. Even though I could not see or smell...

Senses

When we learned about smell in class I thought that it was particularly interesting how when we smell something, it can immediately bring back a memory. I can relate to this very much. However, I felt that we could also remember something just as easily by hearing a song or seeing a picture. When we learned that the smells go straight from our noses into our frontal lobe. This makes it a much quicker process for it to enter the brain, unlike vision and hearing which go through long processes. Additionally, I found that the way the senses work is quite fascinating. Nobody really notices how amazing of a process it is just to hear a tiny sound or see a person! And, even though the smelling process is a lot less complicated, it is still incredible. This is an amazing miracle that happens a billion times a day and I personally think that we do not give God enough credit for making us this way.

Color and Depression

I don't know about you, but when I think about color, I think happy. Can you imagine walking in to a garden and not being able to perceive the different color flowers, trees, and bugs? The beauty of the garden is just gone.
When we were looking at the picture of Snow White and the seven dwarves, I came to realize something. Even when a simple picture like that doesn't have color, it still loses everything. It's almost like it's meaningless. This is when I began to wonder if color blindness caused depression. Think about this: Depression is often referred to as "feeling blue", and those who suffer from it are sometimes told to "lighten up". I could be sounding a little negative, but it just makes sense to me. It's almost like those cold, rainy days in school where everyone is in a bad mood. When you look out the window, all you perceive is a dreary day, and all of your negative thoughts come pouring in.
So, I searched the web and read some very interesting articles. I found that, in a way, depression is what leads to color blindness. (the opposite of what I thought) Many studies show that depressed people have reduced sensitivity to contrast, and therefore that they may perceive the world differently from others. Contrast gain is the process by which cells in the retina adapt to variance in the light intensity of a visual scene so that the amount of information extracted from it can be maximized. Neuropsychiatrist Ludger Tebartz van Elst found a significant difference in the contrast gain-related activity between depressed patients and controls. The participants diagnosed with depression displayed a marked reduction in contrast gain when compared with the controls. In conclusion, depressed people may indeed experience the world as being less colorful.

M"ear"acles.

I don't know if the following story is true or not, but I was interested in how the ear magically receives energy signals and turns them into chemical messages and then we can hear. I mean, I understand the process but it is a miracle that it worked out that way, if you think about it. So anyways, I was just looking up ears and I found the following story. I will summarize it and put the link if you want to read it.

Joshua Bull was born almost deaf and without ears, and doctors restored his hearing and gave him artificial ears. He was born with small misshapen flaps of skin for ears, as well as blocked ear canals which meant he could hardly hear a thing. Surgeons inserted one bone-anchored hearing aid to his skull, bypassing the blocked ear canal and enabling him to hear. Then they fitted him with ears that he can just take on and off like glasses.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-563391/How-boy-born-ears-hear--beat-bullies--thanks-artificial-ears.html

So, we should appreciate our ears every day and also appreciate the miracle of hearing and medical science. This little boy was 7, I believe, when he could hear, and he was delighted.

Isn't this nice and inspiring?

Don't you think that everything we learn about is a miracle? Our bodies can do these amazing things automatically... it's unbelievable.

2 is better than one, even with ears!

Today, in class we were learning about how our ear works and how we hear different things. We then spoke about how we can detect where sound comes from, since we have two ears, and we can then "measure" where the energy waves are coming from. It was very strange, since yesterday when I was looking for my phone I was angling my body in different directions in order to maybe hear the phone. Now I know the exact idea behind this and I am amazed how so many things in our body are perfect like that we have two ears for a reason.

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
So this week we learned about perception and sensation. It is just so amazing to me that we sense things continuously throughout our day without even noticing it. When you really pay attention, tehre is SO MUCH going on around you and it is just shocking that our mind doesnt go crazy from the overwhelming amount of things we can sense. Excluding those who have ADD or ADHD, most of us can block out the things that we sense and dont want to focus on. Here is my question though: Whenever we are taking a test, i strictly remember that Alexa(probably among other people as well) would never be able to focus if there was noise around us, even if it wasnt severe. However, Rory from Gilmore Girls was able to focus on reading her book even though a fire alarm went off right next to her and a boy fainted five feet from her. How come some people can perceive things without any distraction to a much deeper extent than others?
In addition, i would like to bring up another question. So you know how some teachers like Mr. Vaughn or Mr. Perl were able to write something on the board while a student asks a completely different question? How can they focus on both things at the same time whereas other teachers need to stop writing to listen to the question and be able to focus? I am unable to liaten to soemone tell em a story while texting another friend, or listen to music while i study. Yet Sade, for example, can text someone while i tell her a story and while she is listening to music and reading wall post on facebook? How come she can multitask and perceive so many things while i can only perceive one thing at a time?

Basketball and Psychology

Basketball is definitely my favorite sport. I watch and play a lot of basketball. Now, what does this have to do with Psychology?
As I watched Dwayne Wade dribble down the court, I had a feeling what he was going to do with the ball. I saw Lebron James look at Wade and cut towards the basket as Wade instantaneously threw the ball. James caught it and scored two points for the Miami Heat. When I'm playing defense on someone, I sometimes give my opponent some space. There are many reasons for this. One reason is because I'm looking at the point guard, and I perceive from her face and body contact that she is desperately wanting to pass to my opponent. Therefore, I give my opponent some space to make the point guard think she is open. Once the point guard sees that I am no longer "on top of" my opponent, she instantly passes to her and I cut in to steal the pass. This all happens in about 5 seconds. This seems pretty simple, but it's not. How is our brain able to perceive these things so quickly?
Psychologist David Perret identified nerve cells that specialize in responding to a specific gaze, head angle, posture, or body movement. Other supercell clusters integrate this information and fire only when the cues collectively indicate the direction of someone's attention and approach. This instant analysis helps a soccer goalie to anticipate the direction of an impending kick. This also explains how I stole the ball in my earlier example!

Art and Psychology

As many of you know, I love art. I am very into drawing, and I often doodle designs in my notebooks at school. When I draw these pictures I never stop and think about the psychology behind the ways we view different aspects of art, like shading, and the illusions that are created by overlapping images. However, while reading about the different monocular cues in the section about depth perception, I found that I could understand the different types of cues, like interposition- when one object blocks the view of another object so it is perceived to be larger. Even while painting, there are certain things that are taken into consideration, like how light or dark the picture will be. Artists use all of these methods to help convey certain messages and express their feelings through their paintings. It is really cool to me how we can connect psychology to everything that we do, even something as simple as drawing a picture.

Tuning in to Everything

This week we discussed sensation and perception. There are thousands of things that we sense, so why don't we go crazy? We are constantly being bombarded by sensations. What do we pay attention to? If we are sitting at the table doing homework, we are not focused on the phone. But when the phone rings or buzzes we turn immediately to get it. Although we are constantly sensing things, the brain can get rid of information that's not important and you perceive only what is important.

But what happens when during class, as the teacher  gives over important information, a light begins to flicker and buzz quietly? You would tune out the buzzing and light flicking. But what if you cannot? What if your attention jumps from the teacher to the light, and from the light to the hum of the computer, and then back to the teacher, and then the light, and then the computer again?

Imagine how hard it would be if you could not filter what you do or do not perceive. I just wanted to let you think about how hard that would be...never able to focus on one single thing. Imagine trying to take a test, or take notes...

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
Although this is the Psychology Blog im going to be super Jewish and bring some Judaism into this!
So we learned that many adolescence are confused about who they really are and experiment a lot with who they really are, etc.
Here come the golden question- Do you think that children raised in Orthodox Judaism have an easier time with this role confusion because they were raised with a sense of strong Jewish identity and because they know what their purpose is in life due to their religion(assuming you are a believer and got a good Jewish education from your parents and school, etc)?
Or is it the exact opposite- do Orthodox Jewish teenagers feel even more confused because they arent really part of the rest of the world in many areas due to their religion? Will they be confused about who they are because they are different? Do they feel secluded and a need to break out because they havent experimented and experienced the world like other adolescence have since they live a more secluded life?

Parenting Styles

For some reason I am always EXTRA interested when we learn about parents and the influences they have on their children. (Well, maybe it is because I'm obsessed with being a parent, but that's besides the point.) This is why I really enjoyed our lesson on the three different parenting styles: Authoritarian, Permissive, and Authoritative.
I believe the overall consensus in class was that authoritative parents are the best and that all parents should strive to fit that model. Authoritative parents are parents who have structure and rules, but there is an explanation and an approach of why a child must do something. I definitely think this is a great way of parenting but maybe, depending on the needs and personality of each child, authoritarian parenting should be thrown into the mix at times (CERTAINLY NOT ALWAYS). For example, sometimes children need a little bit of authoritarian parenting. They need to learn that sometimes they have to do something even if they don't know why. Furthermore, there are definitely some instances where a parent needs to be strict and firm with their child. I think this very important for teenagers because they can get wild and do dangerous things, which can be very scary for a parent. Sometimes being strict can let some stress off of a parent, and ensure them that their child is safe. However, being strict needs to be done in the right way. There is absolutely no need for yelling or getting physical. That will only make the situation worse.

Identity in a changing world

We learned about the Identity vs Role Confusion Stage, and I have recently been thinking that it is possible that in this day and age, it is an even bigger problem than 100 years ago. There are so many distractions in life now, that it may be harder for us to figure out who we are. We receive all types of messages, some very different from one another. Society is inconsistent about who people should be, and about what is acceptable or not. One day it is cool to have crocs, and the next day you are the biggest dork if you wear them. In today's rapidly changing world, I think that identity crisis are probably more common, difficult, and last longer.


I was wondering what everyone else thought. Do you think that it has become harder for us to form an identity?  Or possibly it has become easier because there is such a wide range of "socially accepted" things?

Little women article

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2097388,00.html

Hello classmates,
read this article. It is very interesting and related to what we discussed in class. Tell me what you think! Enjoy!

Gender develompent

Today in class we talked about genders and their differences. We discussed how nature and nurture both play significant roles in each gender. For example, there is a socially acceptable way for everything to be, like boys wearing blue and girls wearing pink. Boys will play with cars and girls will play with dolls. Children develop all of this and put it into schemas of how they are supposed live their lives according to what they see in the world around them. We also talked about how some girls might have more testosterone than they should, so they have male characteristics. They might be strong and therefore, they play sports because they are good at them. They might become tomboyish because they play sports and realize that they are good at them, or they might have the desire to play sports, even if they are noit so tomboyish, and become that way by hanging out with their friends who play sports with them. Some people are born with these traits and some acquire them from their environments.

I know a girl who is a transgender, so she is now a boy. She felt that she was born a man stuck in a woman's body, and that was not what she was mean to be. Does this mean she was born with a lot of testosterone and was meant to be a man? She says that she was born this way, so I believe that it is not something she inherited from the environment, but there are those who might. For example, gay people might not be born gay, rather, they see that it is a trend in society and begin to feel that they are gay. Do you think all people who feel that they are meant to be the opposite gender or gay are born this way, or do they inherit it from their environment? Or, do you think it could be the effect of both?

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
I must say i truly missed blogging over this break and am very excited to jump right back in and blog!
Anyway, so today in our awesome class we did one of our little personal survey thingies. I must admit that usually i hate those surveys; however, today i actually found it quite interesting because i realized something new about my life. Upon completing the survey that showed whether we trust or mistrust people, i scored the lowest in our class(6 out of 12)making me a very mistrusting person, whereas Sharon scored much higher(i think she was the second most trusting). Additionally, the second part of the survey tried to demonstrate whether we are well adjusted and independent or doubtful and insecure. Again,i got the lowest score(3 out of 12) proving that i must be a doubtful person and insecure about the decisions i make and Sharon yet again got a very high score. Now i do not question whether the surveys were correct or not-lets just assume that they were. Mrs. Perl found it very interesting, of course, that our results varied and after a bit of pondering, so did i. Therefore, i have a few questions that i would like you guys to think about as well
Why is it that Sharon and i have such completely different scores? We basically grew up in teh sam environemnt because we're only 14 months apart so what could have caused this difference? What do you think is our parents role in this?What is our friends' role in this? Do genes have anything to do with it? Anything else you want to comment on?
It might be a little awkward for you guys to comment on this because its about the psychological development of me and my dearest Sharon which is kind of personal but you should give it a try and give your honest opinion. I wont take offense(maybe sharon will.. hahaha)

The Developing Child

The video discusses the develop of babies over time. We see that at each stage of infancy, new abilities develop. This is where the nature-nurture debate comes in. Is it nature that determines the development of infants or is it nurture and experience. John Locke believed that a baby is like a blank tablet devoid of any knowledge and skills and that experience determines who they will become. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that people are born with all the skills and qualities that make them who they are. In 1800 the debate was sharpened by the discovery of a wild 12 year old child, a naked, savage boy who had grown up in the wild alone. He was a child with no experience to human nurturing at all, only nature. A doctor tried to civilize him, and at first it seemed to be working. But after 5 years nothing changed. He died at the age of 40, not able to speak or behave like a normal person. This case seems to favor the nature debate, but others still believed that we are more the products of our environment. So how do heredity and environment affect the development of a child?
Because of the new technology and scientific discoveries, we now know that babies come into the world with much more abilities than we originally thought. Right after birth, a baby can turn in the direction of a voice and reach out its hand. Babies are also born with likes and dislikes. For example, they love the taste of vanilla. They also immediately recognize their mother’s speech.
Something very interesting that I learned from watching this video was that children are born legally blind. The reason is because they do not have enough cone cells in their retina nor are there enough connections among the neurons in the visual cortex. However, both develop VERY rapidly. At three months, a baby can detect differences in facial expressions. All of this shows that babies are actually a lot less helpless than we once thought them to be. In fact, they are meeting the three basic tasks of infancy: getting sustenance, defending against harmful stimulations, and making social contact.
Infants also prefer novelty over familiarity. They will get bored of doing the same thing over and over again. This is an example of habituation. They also prefer complex shapes with various colors. We can study this by taking the baby’s heart rate or examining their visual contact with the object.
Scientists also discovered something called object permanence which was something new I learned. Object permanence is the idea that objects will continue to exist even when hidden. At first babies think that when something is hidden it doesn’t exist anymore. It is not until 3.5 months that a baby will learn that just because the object is hidden doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist anymore.
The video showed a very interesting experiment regarding how children understand symbols. A 2.5 year old child does not understand that the place where the toy is hidden in the small model, is hidden in the same place in the large model. However, a three old would be able to. It’s amazing to see how much children develop in such small increments of time! This also was something new that I learned. Who knew that 2.5 year old would not be able to understand where the toy is hidden in the big model, but only 6 months later, the child can understand the concept and put the pieces together.
We learned that biology nor experience individually are our destinies. Rather, it is both nature and nurture working together. A baby might be born shy, but the environment, such as how his parents raise him can modify that shyness, allowing him to later become one of the most outgoing, lively ones in the class!

The Developing Child

The video begins with the discussion between nature and nurture. This has always been a question over time. However, as we learned, nature and nurture work together.

-children are born with certain senses that allow them to get what they need. Although they cannot really see when they are born, their eyes and bodies will shift in the direction of a woman's voice, preferably that of the infant's mother.

-Watson saw infants as "flesh with few responses." This proves that babies are born with certain senses.

-William James saw babies as a great blooming, buzzing confusion.

-babies are born with dislikes as well as certain hearing functions, so they can hear their mother's voices

- interestingly, babies will also fall asleep to the sound of a heartbeat. (This is probably because they are more comfortable being close to their mother's body.)

-I also found it interesting that when babies are born they are legally blind!

-at birth, neural connections are not formed, but they form rapidly as the child gets older.

- we can tell the babies' preferences by what they look at the longest and even by their heart rate.

-habituation is when the child becomes used to the same thing (they might lose interest quickly.) but when they encounter something new, they are able to understand that it is new to them. This is known as dishabituation.

-Piaget used demonstrations to show that a child's mind is different than that of an adults, which was not known before his time. He looked at their perception of change and discovered unsuspected differences between them.

- In other research it was found that infants, as young as three months old, will understand that when an object "disappears" it is not actually gone.

- studies were also done on children and how they understand symbols. A child of two and a half will not easily be able to find a large model of a toy snoopy after being shown the same toy in a smaller version being placed in the exact same spot, but a child a little bit older will be able to do so.

- It was also found that when babies begin to crawl they have a fear of heights.

- We learned that children are born with certain biological character traits, such as shyness, which can be changed over time due to learning and environment. This brings us back to the debate of nature vs. nurture and how they are intertwined.

I found it very interesting how quickly children grow and change over the course of a few months and years. They develop so much from the time they are born to the time they are seven etc! It is also very cool to me that babies are born with certain senses and abilities that we do not even notice because all we think they do is cry. However, we learn that this is what helps them get what they need to grow and develop.

*This very long video is explains how children develop over time.

* In the 1800 a young boy was found and they soon discovered that he had lived in the wild his entire life. He was named Victor and was taught how to become a civilized man. At first the teachings worked, however, after five years nothing changed and when he died at the age of forty he was still unable to speak or behave like other civilized human beings.

*A few minutes after a baby is born its exes will turn to the direction of a voice and their head will turn toward the direction of a face. They will try to move their hands towards something they can touch.

*Experiment shows that babies are very much aware of what is going on around them and respond to stimulus. When something grabs their attention they react my looking at it for a longer time. As soon as they get bored, they look away from the object.

*another experiment showed that a two year old couldn’t find a snoopy that was hidden in a big room although it was previously shown to her in a small model room. However, a three year old was able to find snoopy in the big room after shown to her where it was hidden in the model room.

*I didn’t know that babies are basically blind when they are born with 20/500 vision. This is because they don’t have enough cone cells in their retinas and they don’t have enough connections among the neurons and visual cortex to process visual information fully.

*I didn’t know that babies like contours objects over plain ones, complex over simple ones and whole faces rather than pieces of faces.

* I didn’t realize that children actually have to think so much more than we do because they have so much more that they have to figure out.

The Developing Child

This video discusses how babies develop over time and what their abilities are. There was, of course, the nature and nurture debate- are babies born as noble savages corrupted by society, or are they blank tablets upon which nurture writes?

In 1800 something weird happened. People found a little savage boy who had grown up in the wild, and was around the age of 12. A doctor names him Victor and tried to civilize him, and at first it worked. But after 5 years nothing changed, and when he died at the age of 40, he could not speak or behave like a normal person.

This leads to the question: What are we born with and what do we learn?

Now we know babies come into the world able to perform all sorts of feats. A few minutes after birth, a newborns eyes turns in the direction of a voice. His/her hand reaches out to make contact, and the head moves to face a face. They even have likes and dislikes- they smile at the smell of bananas.

*Interesting sidenote- when babies are born they are legally blind because they don't have enough cone cells in the retinas and there aren't enough connections between neurons.

Babies can comprehend the world around them because they react to stimulus. They prefer complex shapes, can see new colors, and get tired of objects quickly.

through tests people could see that in a year, from 7 to 8, a person could understand more.

*The test with the liquids being poured.

3 things I found interesting:

1) At first babies think that when something is hidden it ceases to exist. If I understand this correctly, it could be why babies love peekaboo. When Sharon and I were at Dollar Tree and the baby was laughing like a maniac when Sharon played peekabo, maybe it is because the baby is so shocked to see the face/object reappear. It is amazing and delightful to them.

2) Situation: A model room of an actual room- same setup and same colors. Little snoopy is hidden, big snoopy is hidden. Can child find big snoopy after seeing little snoopy hidden in same spot? A 2 year old could not, but a 3 year old could. I wonder why? And it is so interesting that within 12 months we can just develop like that.

3) Monkey's can be shy. That's adorable. They cling to their moms like we cling to our moms when we are babies!

Discovering Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and of their mental processes

Psychologists use reearch to predict and sometimes control behavior, the solutions for the practical problems then sometimes help individuals and society.

Study mental processing because:
-facinating and challening
-Improve education
-Reduce stress
-Promote peace
-some obseve behavior in specially arranged conditions measuring and testing it

reason to study behavior is because its a window to the workings of the human mind.
Some study the wide varity of different organism (to only humans).
Even small behavious can give us clues to our behavior

Psychological behavior watch teenage girls students as they meet their new young male teacher.
They laugh once he is because they might be: nervous,excited,to show how cool they were, because of anicipation, arousal, self concious or the most common one: typical reaction of adolessant girls.

I always wondered why girls laugh and scream after something exciting happends like they talked to a boy, but this really explains it and helps me look at the word in a psychological way.

*Cortex-wrinkly thing made up of millions of networks of nerve cells.

*Orchestrates talents and skills- music, solving mathematical problems, face recognition, etc.

*Two halves of the brain- are asymmetrical but each has different skills and abilities.

*Left brain controls right side of body and right brain controls left side of body.

*Corpus collosum-carries impulses to and from each halve of the brain.

*Corpus collosum is sometimes cut in order to avoid seizures in some epileptics.

*Allows us to study the different properties of the two hemispheres. *Vicky saw a picture of a girl on the telephone in her left visual field. It was perceived by both eyes but then brought into the right hemisphere. Even though she understood the full picture, she was only able to say woman and was unable to fully express what the picture was. The reason for this was because the left hemisphere is responsible for language expression and since the information was in the right hemisphere she couldn’t say it. However, her right hemisphere enabled her left hand to write what she understood in the picture.

* I mostly knew all of this because Mrs. Perl taught us so well. However, I didn’t know that in the end once she wrote the word telephone she’d be able to say it and that her brain hemispheres do communicate, in a way. I thought that that was very interesting.