The AP Psychology Blog

2012-02-01T15:09:00.002-06:00

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
Today we learned about the motivation at work and how to effectively motivate, hire and appraise employees. Like so many things in psychology, this really applied to my life. When i was interviewed to work at my job, i believe that my boss tried to ask me questions that would measure my strengths rather than just my experiences. However, i do think that he judged with his gut that i would be a great worker and not from testing me. For me, it is very important that I feel like i am appreciated and respected at mt job. I want to be appraised and feel like i am doing something to contribute; this will cause me to be motivated and want to perform well. Of course it is important to be critiqued, which does happen, but it should be done respectfully and not too often. I also feel that i can have a good time with my boss, yet i have the utmost respect for him which i think is an important aspect that must exist in the workforce. All the different ways in order to motivate employees truly exist in my job in one way or another and im glad that i now understand how effective that is.

The Chinese Bamboo

2012-01-30T17:22:00.002-06:00

If you are lost, if you feel empty and as though you have not achieved anything...
Here is a great motivating video (notice that you can also watch it even if you do not feel the above ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU8DBX_0Rvg&feature=player_embedded

questions: It what way was this Rabbi able to modivate the yound troubled man?

Do you think that is a good motivation method?- why?

Side point: Notice that this shows, that we must be careful in life since we do not always realize everything that is going on- especially when it is hidden from our eyes. Furthermore, we must always remember that every action counts and is important, and most importantly matters.

I hope I have motivated you to cherish your life, and live life to it's fullest :)

What really modivates you?

2012-01-30T17:17:00.002-06:00

We have learned about the different things that motivate us, and I have realized that some of those things really are true and apply to me, but is it possible that some people are more motivated by some things while others are motivated by other things?
For example, someone studying for a test, is he motivated since he wants to get a good grade?
or is he modivated because he actually wants to know the material?
Is there a similarity between people? -Such as that teenagers have more similar motivations for doing things, and is there a way to measure this motivation and can it be improved somehow?

Jewish and Skinny

2012-01-29T22:18:00.004-06:00

In chapter 12 we learn a lot about eating disorders. As I was googling eating disorders, a number of articles popped up that had to do with Jewish girls and eating disorders. According to Adrienne Ressler, an eating disorder specialist,"there has been a 500 percent increase in the number of women treated for eating disorders in the United States who identify themselves as Jewish." I found the numbers shocking and I started to think why this is the case. As we are all aware, there are MANY Jewish holidays. The first day back to school after Rosh Hashana everyone is always complaining how much they ate and how they feel absolutely disgusting. Not only are there so many holidays where we eat feast after feast, but every week (shabbos) we take part in multiple course meals where the food seems to be never ending. Some experts argue that the pressure of early marriages within the Jewish community also contributes to a girl’s fears of weight gain and her obsession over her body image. From this we can see that culture certainly does play a role in eating disorders and other motivational behaviors. It is sad truth that needs to be fought.
As a side note I would like to point out the need for sensitivity to this subject. Girls often make sarcastic comments about anorexia, obesity, etc. You often hear comments such as "that's all you're eating for lunch, you're so anorexic!" Although people are only kidding, I believe people need to be more sensitive to this subject especially because it is so prevalent amongst teenage girls.

16 and Pregnant

2012-01-29T20:48:00.002-06:00

Chapter 12 discusses teen pregnancy and how it can occur. The reasons include ingnorance, guilt related to sexual activity, minimal communication about birth control, alcohol use and mass media norms of unprotected sex. Many teens simply do not know about ways to protect themselves from pregnancy or do not think they will become pregnant so they do not take precautions. If you think about it, it is seen as socially acceptable to have children on TV without being married or without a romantic relationship.
It seems crazy to me that girls would not try to protect themselves, if they knew that they might be at risk for becoming pregnant, but I was surprised to find how many people are not aware of ways to protect themselves in the first place.
The show 16 and pregnant came to mind right when I read this part of the chapter because it shows the lives of teen moms throughout their pregnancies and for the first few months of their child's lives. From this show it is easy to see that these girls have difficult lives. They have hardships because of school, their parents and their boyfriends. However, do you think that by putting this show on TV people will be lead to learn from this and stop getting pregnant? Do you think that these TV shows have any influence on people positively or negatively? And, is it possible to make people more aware that they need to use protection or are people just going to continue to get pregnant?
It seems to me that people need to be more educated, so maybe this show, or other shows that try to communicate ways to approach sex and teen pregnancy could possibly have an affect on those who would not learn about it any other way.

Motivation

2012-01-26T17:31:00.004-06:00

The video we watched today with Mrs. Perl was very interesting. It said that people work better when they are given simple, straightforward tasks as opposed to rudimentary cognitive skills. This is true even when the pay is better for the cognitive skill. When people are given simple, staight-forward tasks they do well, but when tasks get more complicated and require conceptual, creative thinking, they don't perform as well.

People perform best under pure, undiluted autonomy. People are more motivated when they feel that they have a purpose. When people are motivated because they have a feeling of purpose, they work better and are much more dedicated.

At first, hearing this was surprising to me. I thought that people worked better when offered a reward, no matter what the task. It certainly seems that way. But when I stopped to think about it, I realized that I actually work harder when I am personally motivated to do something. There have been times when I have worked extremely hard to accomplish something because I was personally dedicated to the project, and wanted to feel the satisfaction felt when one does a job well done. For instance (and I know this a little different) play. At first I wanted to do well because we are expected to put on a performance. But I became much more dedicated after I realized that my motivation for joining the play was because I want to prove to myself that I can accomplish many things and want to know that I can do a good job. I don't even care about how well it goes, as long as I feel I am succeeding in my role. Yes, once I was purposefully motivated, my performance, I think, improved.

Have you ever had this happen? Being motivated to do something for your own reasons, and not because of the reward? Have you ever not been motivated even when money was involved?

2012-01-26T15:14:00.002-06:00

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
So we just started chapter 12 about motivation today and watched a wonderful video. In the video there was one fact that simply baffled me. The video explained that when we are given a mechanical task, the greater the reward we receive the better our performance due to our motivation. However, for cognitive skills, the greater the reward the lower the performance. Isnt that interesting? why do you think that happens?
Furthermore, this reminds me of an article from the time magazine a while ago. The article spoke about anxiety and that some sort of anxiety is actually a good motivator for our performance. So do you think that perhaps the people mentioned before did so poorly because they were so anxious due to the fact taht there was such internal pressure on them to win that large amount? if so, why did taht not happen to those people who had to do a mechanical task?

What's My Beef?

2012-01-22T22:29:00.003-06:00

"Standardized tests are believed to be one of the most effective tools for predicting student success in college." Whether you believe that or not, it’s a fact that many colleges require either the ACT or SAT before granting your admission to their schools and an impressive score on one of these tests is what ultimately sets you apart from other applicants. Every Wednesday on my dad's radio show, he has "What's your beef Wednesday" where listeners call in to express what is really getting to them. One Wednesday I would love to call in and discuss my beef with standardized tests. Why are they such a big deal? Why do parents pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for their kids to be tutored on the SAT/ACT, for a test!?! Many people say that the best way to study for these tests is to actually KNOW how the test works, not the material. After everything we have learned this week, we've realized that there is actually more to intelligence than just school smarts. You may get straight A's your whole life, but you may have no sense of communicating. I don't care if you are as smart as Albert Einstein, if you cannot have a conversation with someone then you probably won't be successful in life. My mom always tells me that it's so interesting to be a teacher because now that her students have families and are part of the working force, she can really see who is successful. She always tells me that people who were not necessarily the smartest in the class grade wise are now successful in all fields of life. So does it really matter what college you go to? I guess not. As long as you do well, you are bound to find success somewhere. I like hearing Mrs. Tsuna say that each year colleges are caring more about extra curriculars, volunteer work, etc. These are things that you are specifically talented in and colleges want to know that you have talents because grades and scores are not what sets you apart from everyone else. However, these scores are still extremely important, and if you have a low SAT score then you are almost guaranteed to be put into the 'NO' pile. It is a sad truth, but maybe in the near future there will be some other sort of test such as an emotional/creative/social test that can really show how successful you will be in life because colleges ultimately want students who will be successful and make a difference in the world.

Sensing Smells

2012-01-22T19:44:00.002-06:00

Good evening my friends,
As I was reading through chapter 11, I found something funny that reminded me of our school. I find that I, and many other girls, tend to comment on the smells in school. Whenever I walk into a classroom it seems to smell different every time! Whether it is the smell of chulent cooking for mishmar in the halls, or the smell of coffee or dirty socks or anything, I notice the smell! Well, the section that discusses the gender differences mentions that girls are more sensitive to touch, taste and odor, along with many other things. I thought of our school right away and realized that this makes perfect sense! As the chapters go on I continue to find myself learning things that explain why I behave in certain ways.

Intelligence

2012-01-22T16:01:00.002-06:00

Chapter 11 is all about intelligence. Before we started the chapter, Mrs. Perl asked us what we thought intelligence was. I said an IQ test, others said social intelligence and street smarts. After learning the chapter we know that there are different types of intelligence. You can be academically smart, creatively intelligent, etc. However, sometimes we look at someone and we think that they really aren't intelligent, not in the slightest.

Autism is a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by great difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using abstract language and abstract concepts. It is also characterized by restricted and repetitive behavior. To us, it seems that autistic people aren't intelligent in any areas.

The following is a video about a girl who is autistic, and her parents never gave up on trying to help her. For years, it seemed that there would be no improvement, and that she was "stupid." One day she went to a computer and started typing... Watch the video!!

It shows us that intelligence comes in all forms...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg

Psychology at the Zoo

2012-01-22T15:32:00.002-06:00

Last week, I went to the zoo with a family and I realized that everything we learn in psychology pops in our lives. Obviously it does, and I know it does, but it was just so very obvious that I thought I would share my experience with you all.

The family has a daughter who is maybe two, and we were walking along when she asked if she could see the doggies. We went to the giraffes, and she clapped for the doggies. The zebras, elephants, bears and wolves were all doggies as well. She has not yet learned to accommodate the information that tells her not all four-legged animals are dogs.

Then, we went to the seal show, and I noticed that every-time the seal trainer made a certain hand motion, the seal would do something and then get fish. I watched and thought I was so smart because I knew that they had used operant conditioning to train the seal. Then the woman actually told the crowd they used operant conditioning, and she explained what it was.

Don't you think it is interesting how psychology class "lives at the zoo?"

2012-01-19T14:03:00.002-06:00

Hello my dearfellow classmates,
so this week we are leaning about intelligence.
Gardener recently claimed taht intelligence comes in many diffrenet ways. Even if you score low on an IQ test you can still be considered intelligent. Although many people would state that Michael Jordan isnt intelligent unless he scored highly on the IQ test, theyre assumptions are inccorect. According to Gardener Michael jordan is actually highly intelligent, just in a very different way than the intelligent test tests. I am inclined to agree withz him. Michael Jordan is definitely a genius since he can play basketball better than alsmost anyone we know! My question is the following: Why do you think that so many people incorrectly assume that there is only a certain type of intelligence(mostly school intelligence)? Do you think its fair and accurate to emasure someones inteliigence based on an IQ test? If not, why do we do it?

Riddles, Framing...

2012-01-15T12:37:00.002-06:00

Chapter 10 was one of many interesting things. We discussed language, cognition, and problem solving.

I will discuss riddles, ways to solve them, and framing. Here is the riddle: A group of people stumble across a body. After examining the corpse, the group notes that the body is missing internal organs, but maintains that the victim died a natural death. What is the people's occupation, and in what country did they find the body? (answer will be at the bottom of this post)

Now, how would one go about solving this? There are 3 different approaches when it comes to problem solving: Algorithms, Heuristics, and Insight. An algorithm is a methodical, logical rule that guarantees a solution. Would you use an algorithm to try and solve this riddle?

Heuristics are educated guesses made from experience. Most likely you decided that you wouldn't use an algorithm, so perhaps a heuristic is the way to go. Did you at first try to use an algorithm?

Next we have insight, which is an AHA! moment, where the answer seems to just come to you in a flash of genius. Maybe the answer just came to you?

Think- if you solved the riddle without peaking at the answer, how did you first approach this problem?

The answer is -the people are archaeologists in Egypt who have just found a mummy.

If you didn't get the answer- what stopped you? Were you so focused on it being what you thought, based off other experience, that you couldn't get it?

It is interesting to note that sometimes we try and overcomplicate- we might say that the police found a man who had died in sleep but was missing his kidney or tonsils. Or something. The way this riddle was phrased didn't give anyone reason to think of Egypt and archaeologists- we try and leap to something drastic. It is a dead body! The way we frame riddles, and other things in life, can change the outcome entirely. For instance, the riddle Mrs. Perl gave about the father and son in the crash, and the mother surgeon. She stressed dad and son, and because we already don't tend to think of women as surgeons, we never guessed the mom!

If you tell someone "You're idea is stupid and dumb, I hate it!" they might get mad, but if you say "Maybe we can do something a little different, because I disagree with the idea," the person won't get mad. A doctor should say you have 90% chance of living rather than a 10% chance of dying, because although it is the same thing, how we word things makes a difference!

2012-01-09T15:05:00.002-06:00

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
so today we learned about certain things that will cause us to simply be unable to solve certain problems. One of teh reasons why we are often unable to solve a problem and come to a wrong conclusion is due to teh fact that we tend to stereotype. We tend to only think of certain prototypes in our mind and are therefore unable to come up with the correct answer. Today we were faced with a lovely little riddle and of course nobody was able to come to the simple and what in hindsight seemed like such an obvious answer. I decided to presnt you guys with another riddle that will cause you to try to not think in a stereotypical manner and will cause you to ahve to think outside the box. I think taht now taht its the second riddle you will find teh answer!!! let me know what teh answer is and why you might have been mislead in teh past had you not been exposed to this type of riddle before.
A father and his son enter an airplane. They get to go to teh front of the plain and see the pilot. When the co-pilot sees taht a child has come into the area where only the pilots are allowed to be he asks for an explanation. The pilot explains to the co-pilot:"do not worry, hes supposed to be here, thats my child who just wanted to say bye to me before i fly the plane." How is taht possible?

Problem Solving in SAT and ACT

2012-01-08T16:08:00.003-06:00

In class we learned that there are different things involved with Problem Solving such as either guessing and checking or following a systematic way of doing it. When I used to solve problems such as in the ACT or SAT math, I always followed the steps that we learned it class (not being aware of them). Now that I have thought of it though, I realized that I follow these steps and I therefore think that most people do too( Tel me if I am wrong). Therefore I guess, if someone knows how to solve a problem systematically, he has learned from exerience how to do it, or remembers how to solve something like that since he has done something simliar to that before.
I now do not understand anymore, how the ACT or SAT can measure ones intelligence by looking at their past problem solving skills if that mostly shows if you have done something like that before (Which does not show much, but that you remember that you have done something like that before). Maybe we will learn this in the next chapter, since it speaks about inteligence, but do you guys agree with me, or want to enlighten me about something?

My Grandfather

2012-01-08T15:58:00.003-06:00

Imagine sitting at your shabbos table with all of your friends and family around the table. Someone makes a joke, and everybody bursts in to laughter. Yet, the person at the head of the table sits there silently because he cannot hear. This is my grandfather, or pawpaw. My grandfather wears a hearing aid. When I went to Florida for winter vacation, I started asking my grandparents a lot about pawpaw's hearing loss because of my recent knowledge on this topic from psychology class. I learned that my grandfather has sensorineural hearing loss. This is hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves. Occasionally, disease causes sensorineural hearing loss, but more often biological changes linked with aging and prolonged exposure to ear splitting noise or music that culprits. I learned that my grandfather fought in the Korean War (1950-1953) and the frequent, loud gunshots damaged his cochlea's hair cells. Though I was sad to learn this, I was very pleased when we all went to a movie together and I saw all of the accommodations that are made for the hearing impaired. Listening devices are available at the theater for the hearing impaired, AND there is now a new device where the bottom is put in the cup holder and a black wire juts out with a screen. On the screen, the words of the movie appear. This way my grandfather can read the words and watch the movie at the same time. It was very cool, and he even made a lot of friends because people kept coming up to him and asking him what that weird looking device was!
When I got back home, I researched more on hearing loss caused by war. I found out that hearing loss is now a silent epidemic in U.S. troops. "Hearing damage is the No. 1 disability in the war on terror, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs." The military has responded recently with better and easier-to-use earplugs, greater efforts to educate troops about protecting their hearing, and more testing in the war zone to detect ear injuries. Hopefully through time, this issue will be resolved!

Tips for ACING Your Exams

2011-12-13T19:43:00.002-06:00

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

2011-12-10T18:30:00.002-06:00

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

2011-12-08T21:59:00.002-06:00

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.

2011-12-05T16:22:00.001-06:00

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

2011-12-05T15:08:00.002-06:00

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

2011-12-04T22:38:00.004-06:00

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

2011-12-02T12:34:00.002-06:00

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

2011-12-01T23:29:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-29T20:37:00.002-06:00

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?

2011-11-28T20:42:00.001-06:00

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?

2011-11-20T19:31:00.004-06:00

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

2011-11-17T20:38:00.002-06:00

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!

2011-11-15T21:56:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-15T12:35:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-15T12:27:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-14T16:58:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-13T23:02:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-13T19:24:00.004-06:00

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.

2011-11-10T17:32:00.000-06:00

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!

2011-11-09T19:35:00.002-06:00

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.

2011-11-07T16:48:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-06T20:17:00.003-06:00

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

2011-11-06T20:03:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-06T18:03:00.000-06:00

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...

2011-10-31T21:57:00.002-05:00

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

2011-10-31T00:09:00.003-05:00

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

2011-10-30T22:02:00.000-05:00

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

2011-10-30T15:49:00.001-05:00

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

2011-10-28T14:23:00.002-05:00

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?

2011-10-26T16:59:00.002-05:00

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

2011-10-09T23:53:00.001-05:00

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

2011-10-09T21:45:00.002-05:00

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.

2011-10-09T02:48:00.000-05:00

*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

2011-10-07T13:11:00.002-05:00

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

2011-10-04T21:30:00.003-05:00

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.

2011-10-04T18:15:00.002-05:00

*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.

Developmental Psychology Post

2011-10-02T21:56:00.000-05:00

Please watch the following video as a prompt for this week. Briefly outline the salient features of the video and describe three concepts that you learned that you didn't realize before you watched the video.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series138.html?pop=yes&pid=1502

(If you have trouble accessing the link go to www.learner.org, type in "discovering psychology" in the search box, and click on video number 5, "The discovering child")

Organization and Evaluation of Brain Function

2011-09-26T00:31:00.002-05:00

Video one opens up with a clip of a race car driver. There are so many things that come into account in order for the driver to not only win the race but make sure he comes out of there alive! I really liked how the video compared the brain to a team. The brain is like a team that has many different members, and without each of these members, it would not function. For example, with the driver's frontal lobe, he is able to think and plan strategies so that he can win the race. He also uses his sensory cortex as he feels the pressure of his hands on the wheel. No single area of the brain can win the race by itself. They are always in constant contact with each other, even when you are sleeping!

But how do we know all of this??

Thanks to modern day tools, we are able to look inside the brain. Some of these tools include:
1. CAT scan-a machine that shows the location of actual brain tissue. This allows us to see brain structure.
2. PET scan- produces still pictures of the brain's activity . Its colors show which areas are most or least active. It does this by injecting glucose and seeing where the brain is using the most glucose.
3. EEG-the brain's electrical activity is recorded from sites on the scalp.
-They have also started combing neuro-imaging techniques like joining MRI with computer technology. This allows images to be reconstructed into three-dimensional pictures, allowing you to focus on any region of the brain from any angle. Combined images help researchers see the overall affect of a brain injury.

These advancements in neuro-imaging technology are so important because it allows us to see all levels of the brain and brain function. Hopefully, with further advancements, we will invent better treatments so we can understand neurological diseases better.

It is important to recognize that without all of these techniques, we probably wouldn't even have an AP Psychology course because no one would be able to understand the brain and its functions! I think it's really cool to see how the advancement in technology not only changes our lives in school, but everything! This made me very excited for the future, as I anticipate better machinery to investigate the brain.

Organization and Evaluation of Brain Function

2011-09-26T00:06:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone,

After hours of trying to finish watching this video, I finally succeeded! (Two hours after my bed time!) I chose to watch the first video which begins with the description of how the brain works while a racecar driver is in action. How exactly is he able to remember every single turn?! Well, memories are stored in the tissue which lies on top of the brainstem, allowing him to remember his moves. The outer layer of the brain relays what his eyes see. Then there are two "ribbons" on top. The first relays touch, like the feeling of wind on his face or the pressure of his hands on the wheel. The second orchestrates movements, sending information to his hand telling him how to move it. The frontal lobe is necessary in order to think and plan a strategy to win the race.

It is important to note that every single region of the brain is constantly in contact telling the driver what to do. No single area can function by itself.

(This scenario with the driver reminded me of when Mrs. Perl gives us worksheet where we have to define the part of the brain and how it would function in a certain situation.)

The video went on to discuss the different tools to examine the brain. The CAT scan shows the location of the actual brain tissue. The PET scan shows pictures of the brain and which areas are most and least active. He focused mainly on the EEG. This was an amazing discovery because before this, we were not able to see the human brain unless we operated on it. A test was done with a woman whose brain activity was being recorded onto a TV screen. When the color on the screen was lighter it was more positive. The woman was asked to look straight at the screen. Then, the screen was able to show what her brain processed by looking at the screen. First, it showed how her eyes saw the picture and then shows more colors when her brain finally realized what she was looking at. (the picture of her own brain!)

This was very interesting to me. Like we discussed at our lovely review session tonight, shouldn't we already be able to tell what is going on in our own brains?! Well, apparently we can't. But, with the help of the EEG, psychologists were able take the pictures and turn them into 3D pictures and see the entire brain. I did not know this before! It changed human life completely and made much progress in finding new neurological diseases that were never heard of before. It also gave people the ability to see the brain before opperating. How cool! Good night! :)

Language and Speech: Broca's and Wernicke's Areas

2011-09-24T23:20:00.002-05:00

Episode 6 is about Language and Speech: Broca's and Wernicke's Areas.

-The whole brain is involved in communication, but most of what we think of as language happens in the left hemisphere, where things are wired and structed differently than in the same area on the right.
-In 1861, Paul Broca discovered the left hemespehres role in language.

From Tom (the nickname the brain got because that was all he could say) Broca concluded the damaged part of the brain (the left) was in charge of language and therefore it is now called the Broca's area!
-Tom was rediscovered and x-rayed and in the black, on the left where Brocas is, that area was damaged and Broca was right!

Case:
A man who had a stroke and a blood clot which cut off his circulation was able to understand and express language (really slowly though)
When he was asked if an elephant or some other animal can fly he said no, but once he was asked if Zeplin can fly, he failed and simply said yes.
Afterwards, he failed another test since when he was told" a leopard was killed by the lion“ and afterwards asked who was killed, he didn’t know. His problem is that he only understood nouns and words, but was not able to put other things together, therefore not understanding the sentence.

Then, adenoidal areas in left hemisphere that contribute to language were found.
In 1874,German Karl Wernicke identified a 3rd language area in the left hemisphere. Brocas area in front (speech prod, grammer) middle corresponded to movement, and Wenicke's area both had to do with the formation of what is said and comprehension (speech seems fluent but doesn’t make sense). This was also an important discovery.

How speech is produced:
travels as nerve impulses to Wernick's area where its analysis, broca where sounds are assembled into sequences and moter cortex, which directs movement and sends signals to speech muscles.

This shows how important these three areas are for language and speech, and how when one is damaged, difficulty comes to understanding fully, expressing and others.

I think this was very interesting since I did not know Broca and Wernick's area were named after the people who discovered it, but more importantly it was very interesting to see how a patient was tested after he had damaged his broca area and the things he was still able or unable to do.

Video 5: The Divided Brain

2011-09-23T15:54:00.003-05:00

Video 5 is about split brain patients. The cortex is the wrinkly thing that we usually picture when we think about the brain. The cortex orchestrates talents and skills, and is made up of millions of networks of nerve cells.
The brain has two halves- the right and the left. They look the same, but really they aren't. They are asymmetrical. The two sides have different skills and abilities, and each side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body. For example, if you move your left hand it is because of processes and functions happening in the right side of the brain. However, both sides communicate with each other through the corpus collosum, which attaches the two hemispheres.
Sometimes doctors cut the corpus collosum to control seizures in epileptics. We can study split brain people to understand the functions of the two hemispheres.
One patient, Vicky, was tested, and we are shown a video of her testing. Pictures were flashed to her right and left visual fields, and she had to say what the pictures were. When flashed to the right she could identify it, but when flashed to the left she could not (this was a picture of a woman on the phone). She could say a woman, but she could not say phone. When they had her write, with her left hand and her eyes closed, what she saw, she wrote telephone. The image was sent to the right side of her brain beforehand, and so she could only say that she saw a woman. But she wrote out telephone. Then when she saw what she had written, and both hemispheres go the message, the left hemisphere could finally say, "phone."

I hadn't known that she would even be able to say woman. I thought she shouldn't have been able to say woman or phone, but she might be able to write both of them out. I was wrong though. You learn something new everyday.

2011-09-21T00:49:00.001-05:00

Hello my dear fellow classmates (and of course my dear Mrs. Perl-you will like this one!)

This week we are learning about the details of the brain. I must say it is VERY interesting to see what each part of the brain is responsible even though it is super hard! Anyway, one part of the brain really fascinated me-the cerebellum. The cerebellum is the “wrinkly” part on top of the brain stem and it sticks out a little. The function of the cerebellum is to process input from other areas of the brain, spinal cord and sensory receptors to provide precise timing for coordinated, smooth movements of the skeletal muscular system. Have you ever seen another girl and with complete jealousy just thought: God she moves with such graceful coordination?!?! Or when you see a famous performer, like Usher or Chris Brown, dance in such an elegant manner that it just leaves you breathless?!? I often wondered to myself: Why am I such a klutz who falls, trips, drops things and knocks into what seem to be the sharpest objects? Why does Mrs. Perl throw dry erase markers around the room throughout the entire class? Does it just simply mean that our cerebellum isn’t as developed or stimulated enough practice? This topic simply fascinates me and I would like to know what you think!

Prompt for the week of 9/ 20

2011-09-19T11:18:00.000-05:00

This week I would like you to view a video on the following site http://www.learner.org/resources/series142.html and then write a post describing the main points in the video and responding to something new that you learned through watching the video. You should choose from episode 1,5, or 6 for this assignment.

Did someone say something?!

2011-09-18T22:40:00.002-05:00

When I read about how sounds are processed in the auditory part of the temporal lobe in the brain, I read that sometimes we hear things that aren't actually real. These are referred to as auditory hallucinations. I found this to be quite weird! There are always times when I think I hear someone calling my name, or I think somebody said something when they really didn't. I think that this means that I have auditory hallucinations A LOT.

So, firstly I would like to know if anybody else has these "hallucinations" all the time too. (calling them hallucinations just makes it seem like I am crazy or something!)

I also think that when we "hear" someone calling our names, it could be that we subconsciously want somebody to be calling our names for some reason, or we just think we hear something because many people are talking at once. When it is a situation that a person is in a big place with a lot of people talking, it is easy to think they are hearing something that isn't real. This doesn't seem so weird. However, if a person is just talking to somebody else and thinks they hear the other person saying something when the other person did not say anything, it could become quite strange! what do you think?!

Parents vs. Peers

2011-09-17T22:54:00.003-05:00

As I was reading through chapter three in our book, I was intrigued by the section "How Much Credit (or Blame) Do Parents Deserve." Usually when we come across a crazy child, we tend to blame his/her parents for not disciplining their children. However, in reality this is not so accurate. One of the factors that plays into shaping a child's personality is peer influence. Depending on who a child hangs out with, will influence their behavior. This connects back to the drug conversations/posts that we have been having. If a child is around drugs, he is very likely to use drugs! Therefore, who a child is hanging around has a HUGE impact on what the child will become. A quote from the book: "Direct parental influences on smoking are less important than many people suppose. Rather, teens who start smoking typically have friends who model smoking, who suggest its pleasures, and who offer cigarettes." This is why who you hang out with is so crucial. It also explains why there could be a family where there are children who keep shabbos and children who don't. It usually has to do with who their children's friends are.
Take the feather fad for example. Someone comes into school with a feather in their hair, and within two weeks almost half the school has feathers in their hair! It's almost like everything is a competition between peers. We mimic our peers because their 'cool' or because we can't let them 'get ahead of us.' She has one feather in her hair, so I'm going to get five in mine. This can be very dangerous and can ultimately lead to total irrational thoughts.
Just something to think about! :)

Agonist and Antagonist

2011-09-16T12:05:00.002-05:00

We learned about agonist and antagonists today and it really struck me how hard it actually is to make the medicine that will either block or mimic neurotransmitters. How hard must it be to create something like that? To make the perfect dosage and neurotransmitters so that the body will function correctly!

I just cannot believe how technology and medication has improved so much. If I would have lived years before this was created, I would have never believed that this could be done.

Is anyone else also as intrigued as me of this matter?!

Plasticity

2011-09-15T13:35:00.001-05:00

Plasticity is something very interesting that we have read in the book and will learn with Mrs. Perl next week. Plasticity is the brains capacity for modification. Meaning, after damages, the brain can reorganize itself. Neurons that are cut off will not regenerate, but neural tissue can reorganize after damage.
So, when a body part is amputated, the sensory fibers adjacent to the sensory cortex can invade the brain tissue that isn't receiving sensory input anymore. The hand's sensory cortex region is between the face and the arm's. So when someone has had their hand removed, if you stroke their face, the person will say that feel it in his/her fingers too. This shows us that the brain can reprogram itself after time, and is not set in stone. When one area is damaged, the other areas in the brain can reorganize themselves and take over its functions.

Questions:
Why do you think this is important?
Is this true in all cases (if you cut of your ear will your body take over its functions)?
Research the phantom ghost syndrome- why do people think that they still feel their amputated body parts once they are gone? Is it painful?

2011-09-14T16:10:00.000-05:00

Hello my dear fellow classmates,

My dear friend Zahava posted about drugs, ranting about how unbelievably stupid she thinks it is that people do drugs. This reminded me about something I would like to share with you that I have heard so many times from so many different people, some of whom were actually creditable (Mrs. Perl!!!). I even researched if this theory was actually true and now I would like to hear what you lovely people have to say. Research shows that in a family in which the parents and children have dinner every night, the percentage of them abusing drugs is slimmer than families who do not have dinner every night. (For those of you who don’t have dinner with your parents I’m not implying anything, I promise!)

Left Handedness

2011-09-11T23:40:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you but whenever I come across a left handed person I get excited! Left handedness seems so different and exciting! However, in reality, there isn't much of a difference between lefties and righties. Left- handers are more numerous than usual among those with reading disabilities, allergies, and migraine headaches. However left-handedness is also more common among musicians, mathematicians, professional athletes, architects, and artists. As you can see, in the end, it all balances out!
Another thing that interests me is how people use their left hand for some activities/tasks and their right hand for other activities/tasks. For example, some people may shoot a basketball with their right hand but write and eat with their left hand. Why do you think that is? It is hard for me to fathom because my left hand is so much weaker than my right hand. I can't imagine using both successfully. This also gets me thinking on another topic. Why do we tend to chew on a specific side of our mouths. I chew on the right side of my mouth, and I use my right hand. Do you think there is a relationship between the two? Let me know what you think!

2011-09-11T21:21:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone!

First of all, I would love to mention once again how I'm loving how this class relates to some of my other classes. As I started my questions for chapter two this past week, I realized that it began with neurotransmitters, which is something that I am familiar with from last year's anatomy class. It was nice to refresh my memory on some ideas that we covered in class last year and also connect what we previously learned with something new.

As I began to read about the affects of drugs on the brain, I started to think how interesting it truly is. I read about the natural opiates that our brains make as pain killers for whatever pain we feel. Then, when I read how drugs destroy these opiates and bring in unnatural opiates, I thought that it was pretty much stupid. After stopping drug use, the body just feels more pain due to the lack of natural opiates. The body was just fine without the drugs in the first place! So, I think that it is very sad and unfortunate how little people really know on the subject of how drugs affect them before using drugs. The thought crossed my mind that if more people knew about this, there would be less drug use in the world. But, then i realized that no matter how much knowledge people have on the matter, drug use is addicting and would most likely not lessen that much. This just makes me very sad.

Nature vs Nurture

2011-09-11T01:26:00.002-05:00

I know we have only breafly discussed the debate between nature vers nurture, but I wanted to ask you what your thoughts are on that debate before we are going to learn it. After we have learned it you might come back to your comment and see how your view point has changed, and how much knowledge you gained.

To what extend does nature or nurture affect us in our everyday lives, and which one is the reason for our actions?

Do not be scared to state your opinion because every opinion has a value :)

2011-09-06T20:51:00.001-05:00

Hello my dear fellow classmates,

So I actually went on line and found a really interesting article that I felt like sharing. I am convinced that this will be a great topic to discuss amongst ourselves since it is a debate that is going on to this day. We all learned that a psychologist is a little different from a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are doctors and have the ability to prescribe medication to their patients. Many people feel highly uncomfortable with the fact that psychiatrists have the ability to prescribe us with medication. Obviously, the article brought forth numerous examples of psychiatrists who sometimes prescribed patients with an unnecessary or sometimes even incorrect medication. Now here are my questions: Do you think that psychiatrists should have the right to prescribe medication to patients (since many don’t even consider them real doctors)? Do you think that should only be a doctor’s job (although they make mistakes as well)? Let me know what you think!

What We Have Left Will Still Be Right

2011-09-06T17:05:00.003-05:00

The brain is split into two hemispheres- the right and the left one. It used to be that people thought the left hemisphere was the dominant one and that the right one was just kind of there. We now know that the right hemisphere isn't as limited as we once thought. In 1961, Philip Vogel and Joseph Bogen thought that major seizures were caused by an amplification of abnormal brain activity between the two hemispheres. They thought that they could reduce seizures if they cut the corpus callosum, which would mean cutting the connection between the two hemispheres.

This procedure was done, and indeed, the seizures were reduced. But there was even more to be discovered. After the procedure, people with "split brains" were left with brains that still functioned, and although they worked a bit differently, they were still right. Something very interesting occurred after the procedure. Both hemispheres functioned but no longer worked together. Here is one example:
When people who had gone through the surgery were shown a picture of a spoon via the right hemisphere, they could not say what they had seen. However, when feeling different objects they could identify the spoon as the object they had been shown.

Your assignment: Pick a question and go!
1) Give other examples of what else happened to patients who had split brain surgery?
2) Has anything else been recently discovered about this procedure?
3) Why do you think this was/is important for the world?
4) Explain why splitting the two hemispheres has an affect and changes certain things?

Poor Lucy

2011-09-04T23:52:00.003-05:00

As I was reading through chapter one in our book, I came across a cute comic entitled "Peanuts" on page 45. In this comic, a boy and a girl are playing baseball together, and the boy is disgusted by the terrible baseball skills Lucy has. The boy says, "Lucy, you're the worst player in the history of the game!" In all seriousness, Lucy probably isn't the worst player in the history of the game of baseball and the boy's statement had no proof (as Lucy pointed out). This is a cute cartoon, but it also sheds light unto our own lives. There are probably many times in a day where you make a complete generalization and exaggeration. For example, think about how many times you've said, "That's the funniest thing I've ever heard." If you really think about it, all of this is part of our every day lives. We are always saying these strong statements about the tiniest things. I also think this has something to do with overconfidence and 'underconfidence.' Someone's confidence or boldness will stir them to make these huge statements. Usually when you say these short yet powerful sayings, you feel very sure of yourself, and if anyone were to argue you would have justification right at the tip of your tongue. To conclude, I think we should all try to work on how much we make these generalizations and exaggerations because they can come to hurt someone's feelings like poor Lucy who doesn't know how to play baseball very well. They can also come back to bite you in the future.

Drugs-REPOST

2011-09-02T15:27:00.000-05:00

hope it works this time!

We are currently working on questions in chapter for homework, and the answer to question 3 interested me. The question was about drugs and how they affect neuro-transmissions, and about agonists and antagonists.
The book explained that we don’t want to use to many chemicals to boost our endorphins, because when flooded with opiate drugs the brain might stop making its own natural opiates. And then once the drug is not used anymore, the brain will have no opiate.
Basically you are messing up your brain. So why do people who are perfectly happy and are just hanging out with their friends at a party use drugs? You know you are only causing harm to yourself. And why do people let their friends do it? You're only being a horrible, horrible friend. And when you push other people to do it- that's also a terrible (if not worse) friend. People need to stop acting like when you're young you should have fun and experience with drugs.
Does it not disturb you?

Overconfidence or Underconfidence

2011-08-30T20:00:00.003-05:00

We learned in class about hinsight bias, and that we are just overconfident and overjudging what we know, or think we know.

I was asking myself then, what about those people who are known to be underconfident? I am not sure if they would behave the same way in those kind of situations since they will underestimate themselves. Mrs. Perl asked us that we should guess what grade we would get in history, and depending on certain factors we would make a decision. But if one is underestimating themselves, he most likely will say a number lower than he will get and therefore will not fit with the concept of hinsight bias. Is there a concept for such a thing too, or is there something about that person who underestimates himself?(Maybe he just tries to underestimate himself so he won't be dissappointed or is it really just a pure underestimation since he does not have confidence?)

Drugs

2011-08-30T18:52:00.002-05:00

Hunger

2011-08-30T16:49:00.002-05:00

Today in psychology, we learned about five different steps included in the scientific method. I found the example that Mrs. Perl used to describe the fifth step, operational definitions, to be extremely interesting because in my science class today, we had to come up with an experiment using the scientific method, and my experiment was a lot like the example she gave. I chose to focus on the topic of hunger, which I tested out by measuring how many times my stomach growled during the day depending on whether or not I had a snack in between breakfast and lunch. This is why I found Mrs. Perl's example kind of funny when she explained that we need to define something like hunger by either hearing our stomach's growling or by saying that we feel hungry. I was able to relate the information that I had previously learned in science to what we were being taught in psychology. I just thought this was an interesting comparison between the two classes!

Statistics

2011-08-29T16:10:00.000-05:00

Hello my dear fellow classmates,

Statistics is often used in psychology in order to prove certain behaviors and conditions by collecting data. I just wanted to share a quick thought about statistics that really started to bother me. Often statistics are used in order to prove something about people in our society. Nevertheless, these statistics may often be wrong and don’t really show the true results. The results can be manipulated in order to make them seem correct. The idea that that is possible really disturbed me

For example, I recently learned that according to statistics most criminals are African American. However, what statistics did not show was that most of the crimes the African Americans committed were very minor. The Whites are actually the ones that commit the dreaded crimes such as murder and rape. Nevertheless, because of the results of the statistics, most people will simply automatically believe that the Blacks are the ones that commit most crimes and will begin to form opinions and ideas that are actually false.

Another way through which statistics can be controlled is when the person conducting the research for the data only chooses subjects who will respond to his survey as he wants. For example, if one is trying to make a serve about how many people like chocolate ice cream out of 100 people, he will specifically choose 89 people about whom he is certain will like chocolate ice cream (I know it’s a dumb example but I was trying to give an easy one so bear with me).Therefore, it will look in his survey like most people like chocolate ice cream although there is no way of knowing if that is really the case.

It is troublesome that we cannot really rely on statistics all the time. Although there are ways to determine when statistics are “wrong” not everyone knows how o do some and will therefore base their opinions on incorrect ideas.

For Good or for Evil?!

2011-08-28T23:02:00.003-05:00

After reading about psychology being a potential danger, I realized that there is so much good that psychologists are able to do for people. They assist people with some of their greatest problems whether they are family or relationship issues or other world problems such as crime and war. I, personally, would never think of psychology as trying to deceive anybody because of all of the good that comes out of it. However, it is still possible that psychology, like all knowledge can be used for evil as well. It says in the book that Nuclear power has been used to light up cities and also to destroy them. So, it seems kind of frightening to think about it. If we see much of psychology as common sense, can't psychologists or researches use this to their advantage to manipulate us?

Surveys

2011-08-28T20:28:00.003-05:00

After just one week of being in AP statistics and AP Psychology, I have learned that everything you read is not always so accurate. All over the internet, you see surveys and huge signs that read "95 percent of the people in your area have switched from Sprint to Verizon." Our initial reaction is "Wow! Maybe I should look into switching to Verizon." However, don't fall into that trap. You don't know how the survey was worded or who the people who were given the survey were. Maybe the survey was intentionally given to two hundred people in the area who have recently made derogatory comments about Sprint on their facebook page. Also, sometimes the way in which questions are worded can be interpreted in different ways. As we know, people look at things differently and make their own ideas about something. This is why on a test we are so inclined to always ask the teacher what exactly he/she is expecting for each question. Also, on a survey that is multiple choice, there might not be a choice that is exactly what you feel but if it is close enough, you'll 'check' it anyways. So, that is not really indicating your true belief. With that said, why are we always told to include statistics in our essays. Yes, they do add excitement and depth to our topic, but are they reliable?

Over Confidence and Hindsight Bias

2011-08-23T21:56:00.002-05:00

The beginning of chapter one in the psychology book introduces us to "the hindsight bias." This is also known as the I knew it all along phenomenon. Essentially, it is a tendency to think events are more predictable than they really are. For example, you are at a Grizzlies game and you are sure they are going to win. They've been on fire and you know that they are motivated to win. You cheer the whole game and tell people that there is no chance the Grizzlies will lose. Three hours later, the Grizzlies have lost and you confidently tell your friend, "I knew that they would lose. It was obvious once he missed that shot right at the beginning."

You act as though all along you knew what would happen.

Question:
1. Why do you think that we pretend we knew all along what was really going to happen?

Which brings me to my next point and question:
Overconfidence. We tend to think we know more than we do. You make assumptions that you think are right, and even when you are proven wrong you tend to stick to your first assumption.

1. Why are we so unwilling to accept we are wrong?
2. How does overconfidence affect hindsight bias and vice versa?

Things to ponder:
How much of what we assume about other people is true? If you decide that you don't like a certain person because they are a snob, will you continue to think that even if the person proves they aren't truly snobby? And do we initially make these assumptions because we are overconfident?

2011-08-23T20:40:00.000-05:00

Hello my dear fellow classmates,

I have been thinking a lot about the debate about nature versus nurture. I found it quite interesting actually that that theme was indirectly mentioned in a book that I read this previous summer. I thought that by explaining how the book brought forth this debate I might be able to add on to the mystery of whether we are born with certain characteristics or if the exposure to our environment will change us completely. I also used this book as a source to support my opinion about the subject (although I am certain the book can be used to argue against my opinion as well).

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an allegorical novel that takes place during WWII on a deserted island. A group of young boys crash on the deserted island and are left with no adult figure for numerous weeks. Immediately, the protagonist of the story, Ralph, seeks to establish an organized community with rules, morals and the value of good. Ralph is then voted as chief and together the boys create a peaceful society. However, a few weeks later, the antagonist, Jack, overthrows Ralph and influences the boys to become savages and to act violently and in a barbaric manner. This novel demonstrates that every human being is born with an inner savagery and the desire to live without rules and restrictions. This novel is trying to prove that because these young boys were isolated from their community at home, they felt no need to establish a civilization controlled by rules and a system by working together. Instead they gave in to their inner savagery because it seems much easier, effortless and undemanding.

Most of us do not give in to our savagery preexisting in us. We are raised and nurtured to suppress that desire and to instead yearn for an organized life with a system and regulations. Our environment has a great impact on our behavior and influences us to overcome our inner nature. It is only when the factor that nurtures us is taken away from us that our nature comes forth and takes over.

Ponder with Imagination

2011-08-23T20:16:00.001-05:00

Imagine you were born in the time of Socrates in 470 B.C.E

Socrates and many other very wise philosophers had different and sometimes untrue ideas about psychology.

If you would not have any scientific proof, and you did not have this knowledge about the things that are true and untrue about psychology, how would you answer these following questions and why?

Are mind and body related, why do you think so?
Do you think nature shapes us more than nurture?
Are ideas inborn or are you born with a blank slate?

Question to ponder about: Socrates and Plato both believed that their mind continues existing after their death. Why do you think did they believe so, and don’t we have a similar belief with our soul? What does this mean?

Welcome to the AP Psychology Blog!

2011-08-14T13:42:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the AP Psychology Blog!
In an effort to encourage collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking, each week you will be responsible to write one new blog post and to respond to two blog posts from your classmates. In order to hold you accountable, you will be graded on these posts!

If there is a prompt on the blog, you will be required to respond to that particular prompt in your post (the prompt could be a video, article, question, cartoon etc.). If there is no prompt, you can be creative in your post and can bring in your own thoughts or resources concerning the topic that we are studying during that particular week.

I look forward to using this blog as a means to share ideas and reflections as we embark on our study of psychology.

Midterm Review

2010-01-08T10:10:00.003-06:00

A great way to review the terms for the midterm is to go to www.quizlet.com and to click on "find flashcards" for AP Psychology. You can arrange the terms by chapter, refamiliarize yourself with them, test yourself on them, and even "play games" with them. Enjoy!

Videos on Consciousness

2009-11-15T20:10:00.003-06:00

Please watch the following video and email me a response by 11/18 that indicates how it compares to the coverage of the material in chapter 7 of our book.

The Mind Awake and asleep at http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=1510

[If you are interested in watching a second video that goes into drugs and hypnosis-watch this one as well- The Mind Hidden and Divided at http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=1511 ]

Specifically, your email should include the following information:

1. What theories overlap with the theories presented in our book?

2. What new theories are presented?

3. How did watching the video enhance your understanding of the various states of consciousness?

Nature/Nurture Project and chapters 5-11

2009-10-12T12:05:00.002-05:00

In place of a test there will be a small project on the nature/nurture debate. Please view the assignment by clicking on this link:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ad3wqDq6xohmZGc5dDloNWNfMTVmc3FyY3pjcQ&hl=en

The calendar and assignments for chapters 5-11 can be viewed by clicking on this link:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ad3wqDq6xohmZGc5dDloNWNfMTRndHpueHBkNA&hl=en

Biological Bases of Behavior

2009-09-01T14:05:00.002-05:00

Check out this website to gain some insight into the influence of the brain on behavior:
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/

Welcome to AP Psychology!

2009-08-21T10:26:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the AP Psychology blog. We will use this as a forum to exchange ideas, view and respond to psychology video clips, and stay up-to-date on assignments.

Click on this link if you need a copy of the s yllabus: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ad3wqDq6xohmZGc5dDloNWNfOGY2bmdxM2Zr&hl=en

and this link if you need a copy of the reading assignment for the prologue-chapter 4. http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ad3wqDq6xohmZGc5dDloNWNfN2hxZzQ1dDJq&hl=en