Introduction Post

Hello Classmates!
I don't know about you all, but I am genuinely so excited for this class! I have always had ideas about psychology and have been fascinated by the subject, and I am super psyched (ha- I just got that) to see how many of my theories about how people were true and how many of them.. not so much. Of course, I'll probably think something like "I knew it all along" (#hindsightbias), but I probably did know it all along because, let's face it-I did (#overconfidence). 

One of my favorite discussions to have with people is that of nature v. nurture. 

I mean, you didn't need to have taken the first few classes of AP Psych to have been able to sit down with somebody (or stand up, whichever you prefer at the time) and have this debate. As a matter of fact, this very discussion was the first I had with any Bronfmanite (my summer program)-it's a great conversation starter. We can all be our own Aristotles and Platos, which I think is great. How much of who we are is decided by genetics- something out of our reach- and how much of our lives are we in control of? We all like to think we create our own destinies- but to what extent do we and to what extent is it left to chance? On basically that same note- how many things about people transcend cultures and gender? How much of gender differences are influenced by culture and how much is inborn? As much as I'd love to have a whole nature v. nurture debate here and now by myself, it's way more fun having it in person. So I'll move on.

Something similar (to me, at least) to nature v. nurture is the very idea of psychology- science v. philosophy. Obviously psychology is (now) a science- there's no real argument about that. But, depending on the branch of psychology, a lot of it does get mixed into philosophy. Which is why I find psychology so enthralling. This class is going to be so much fun. Yippee hooray. There's so much to learn. I don't know about ya'll, but AP Psych is only the beginning!

I'm going to add a little more substance to this post just in case (I don't have a feel for how much information needs to be here, excuse me), so I'll just put a few opinions on some other matters brought up in class.

• Case studies: You learn a lot about that one individual case, and it might be really informative in that situation, but, unfortunately, no conclusions can be drawn from it.
• Surveys: These ones are tricky. I feel like as a whole these days, we're always looking for statistics on things. And we very easily trust those statistics without really thinking about it too much. However, it's imperative that we do know more about a survey before we buy into it right away, because a lot of factors go into making a good survey, and surveys can often be manipulated or made to satisfy the surveyor's opinion, whether or not it is the truth.