The Bio-Psycho-Social and All That

We discussed in class what the Bio-Psycho-Social approach is and why is it significant to get an accurate picture of a person and their situation. This is actually something I always wondered about on my own, and now that we're actually learning about it, so many things have finally "clicked" in my head. I always wondered how people were evaluated, and if they were only evaluated based on a single aspect, i.e. their social characteristics. If this were the case, I thought, then the whole evaluation process would be unfair, biased, inaccurate, and unhelpful. There are so many other significant factors and major aspects that make up a person that by just evaluating them by this alone would not paint a clear picture at all. In fact, only evalutating a person based on one aspect of their lives could even skew the examiner's opinions in the completely wrong direction, and then the evaluation would be more harm than good. In order to really help someone, it is necessary to get a basic, yet thorough grasp of who they are and what makes them that way, and that is only possible through the Bio-Psycho-Social approach.

"WEEEOOOOWEEEOOOO! STOP! HINDSIGHT BIAS!!!"

To my fellow classmates and future psychologists- thank you! Thank you for making me feel like I need to write twelve paragraphs for this blog post. And I will!! 
(Overconfidence, anyone?). 
   
     Our introduction to psychology seemed like way more than an introduction, wouldn't y'all agree? I already feel like I know everything there is to know, but this is far from the truth. There is still an insane amount of information that awaits. And I'm being totally, completely honest when I say that I am super excited to dive in. 
    
     Psychology has always sounded fascinating to me. I want to know why people behave the way they do. I want to understand. I feel like life will suddenly make a whole lot more sense if I do. Obviously psychology can't explain everything, but it can sure help to make a few things clearer. I have said that by taking this AP I'm going to "learn so much about (insert name of complicated person here)!" We shall see whether I understand people more after taking this course. Perhaps I'll be able to address this question in my last blog. 
     
     Shall I get to the facts? Two things in particular that interested me were the ideas of hindsight bias and overconfidence. Hindsight bias is what happens when we look back at something after the fact and believe that it was inevitable. In regard to research findings, hindsight bias can easily occur. When someone is told that something is true based on research, they are likely to believe it. It is easily imaginable, and can even seem like common sense. If you ever hear someone using the phrases "I could have predicted it," or "I knew it all along", cry out, "STOP! HINDSIGHT BIAS!". Trust me, they'll love it.
    
     The second concept we addressed is overconfidence. Overconfidence is natural in humans. We believe that we can easily solve a problem, give the right answer to a question, or behave in a certain way. In reality, often times our expectations for ourselves are too high. Our tendency to overestimate ourselves often affects our sense of judgement.

    These concepts involve forming conclusions based on intuition and personal experience. This can be an issue when tackling a psychological question. Since the tendency to use hindsight bias and overconfidence is incredibly high, formal research is an absolute necessity. 

   Another aspect of psychology that we learned about was the way surveys are conducted. What struck me the most is the fact that the way a question on a survey is worded affects people's answers. The example that was given is the difference between "Are you in support of a woman's right to choose to have an abortion?" and "Do you believe it is right to kill an unborn fetus?" Nobody wants to answer "yes" to the second question, even if they are, indeed, pro-abortion. This just shows how incredibly wary we must be when confronted with statistical evidence. We may not be aware of how a question is worded and how that may have affected, or even mislead the research.

     Okay, so this was a total of eight paragraphs. (And I'll admit, some were pretty short). I mean, duh, I knew it all along that I wouldn't actually write twelve paragraphs. C'mon people.
(Can you say "hindsight bias"?) 

Intro to Psychology

This past week or two we have learned the basics of what psychology is. From the history, to the different sub-fields, it really gave me insight into what psychology is all about what I will be learning about throughout the year. 

We started with the history of psychology dating back all the way to ancient Greece with Pluto and Socrates. They started the era of Pre-Scientific Psychology. Pre-scientific psychology existed all the way through the mid-1800's when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological lab which started the age of Psychology as a Science. People could now experiment with people's behavior and try to find out how the brain works. Up until about the 1960's were were limited, but in 1960 the x-ray was discovered which was a huge bonus in the world of psychological research. People could now look at the brain more closely and see how it works where as before they could only infer from people's behavior. This is what has paved the way for what we define psychology as today, the study of mental processes and observable behavior. 

 Next, we learned about the different subfields of psychology. About every field out there has a psychological element. There are psychologists for for education that test learning disabilities and educational psychologists that come up with different methods of learning for all different types of children. There psychologists who work in the business/corporation field who test different types of marketing based on the population and their thoughts. There are also psychologists who work in the medical field. There are clinical psychologists who work with patients who have mental disorders by using shock therepy and other techniques and then there are psychiatrists who can proscribe medicine for people with mental disorders. 

Learning about the different types of psychologists and the history of psychology made me think of whether or not I want to go into the psychological field. I have always found the subject very interesting and I can't wait to learn more about psychology and the elements around it. I hope that by the end of the year it will confirm whether or not I want to go into psychology. 

Mrs. Perl's Famous Tree-Killing Packets and Hindsight Bias

          This week in AP Psychology, we began learning about different research methods that are used to actually do psychological research. While simultaneously stressing over our first big assignment, we began one of Mrs. Perl's famous tree-killing packets. Before actually studying different research methods, we had to find out why they were needed at all. The answer was one that shall stay with us and annoy everyone else forevermore- hindsight bias. 

   

           Hindsight bias, also known as the "I-knew-it-along phenomenon", is the mistake that is made when trying to form our own conclusions. For instance, if I am walking down the street and someone says, "I hope it doesn't rain," to which I reply, "It won't," but it begins to rain, I'll say, "Oh actually, I knew it was going to rain the whole time". This situation is put under the heading BAD. To help explain this idea, hindsight bias is paired with another problem- overconfidence. We believe that our ideas and memories of events are accurate when in fact they are completely false. We think that we are correct more often than we actually are. So, to recap, I knew the whole time that it was going to rain because I am secretly training to be a meteorologist and I know everything there is to know about weather because I once knew the name of a cloud. This is an example of both hindsight bias and overconfidence. 

           Moving on from my atrocious run-on sentence, we proceeded to learn about the scientific method. This method is used to actually form questions and answer them. In around 6-7 steps, most scientific questions can be asked, experimented, and answered. The scientific method is really used to observe the world and ask questions. A theory is produced based on questioning and background research and a hypothesis with measured definitions is formed. Research is conducted and a conclusion is formed. One of the most important aspects of such a process is to remember that it must be able to be replicated.

          After learning the scientific method, we strolled on over to descriptive research methods. The first method we learned was the case study. This type of research method is used to study an unusual situation and ask further questions. However, when using a case study, you cannot draw conclusions. The next type of research method we learned was the survey. This is a more popular research method because conclusions can be drawn from the results. Surveys use statistical techniques to gather information from a representative group of people that can show the attitudes and behaviors of the entire population. 

    

        Surveys use sampling, which can be dangerous when trying to generalize something for an entire population. The first important rule of sampling is that every person must have an equal chance of being chosen. This type of sampling is random sampling. The second type of sampling is stratified sampling. People are divided into subgroups and then put through random sampling to increase the likelihood that the results will be more representative. Another rule to remember is that word choice matters. The way a question is phrased can have a huge impact on the result. We had a live example of sampling by examining M & M's. By studying the different colors in different packages, we learned that you need a large enough sample to get a more accurate representation. 

        When trying to figure out how I could connect what we learned in class to something in the world, I received a text from an out-of-town friend that said, "Did you see Miley Cyrus at the VMA's?". This gave me inspiration for this portion of the blog. During the VMA's, Miley Cyrus performed her song "We Can't Stop" is an extremely inappropriate way. This has been in the news ever since she performed and people are giving different opinions of it. Personally, I think she has been having a bit of a downward spiral. She started out as Hannah Montana and was a huge sensation for many years. After the show ended, she began drastically changing- not only her style but her music as well. This has been ongoing for many years, now resulting in her revolting performance at the VMA's. 

         When it comes to celebrities, people can be very annoying. One of the ways people show their apparent expertise on everything famous is by predicting who will fall and who will rise. I am certain that many people have been saying that they knew all along that Miley was going to fall. That is exactly what my friend texted me, to which I responded, "hindsight bias!". She was very confused and, unbeknownst to her, very helpful. People believe that they knew all along that Miley Cyrus would come out of Disney with a downward spiral, which I now know is called hindsight bias.

I Knew It, I Knew It!

In this week's Psychology class, we completed our timeline of events that led up to the modern definition of Psychology. From philosophical discussions about the interaction between the mind and the body that occurred in the pre-scientific Psychology stage, to the first psychological laboratory and experiment in Leipzig, Germany, we culminated with the following definition: Psychological science is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Now that we had sorted out this definition, we began to study the Bio-psycho-social approach to Psychology. Each perspective, whether it be Biological or Cognitive, offers a different vantage point to view certain aspects or situations in Psychology. From there, we proceeded further to learn about basic research, applied research, and finally, conducting successful experiments.

One of the topics that held my attention was the question of why it is necessary to conduct formal research. The answer was something that one just wants to cry out: hindsight bias! Hindsight bias, or the "I knew it all along phenomenon," is used to describe the tendency people have to view events as more predictable than they actually are. In retrospect, people believe they could have predicted or even known the outcome. For example, in 1991, researchers Martin Bolt and John Brink asked college students to predict how the U.S. Senate would vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Before the Senate vote, 58-percent of the participants predicted that he would be confirmed. When students were polled again after Thomas was confirmed, 78-percent of the students concluded that they had thought Thomas would be approved. 

Hindsight bias, combined with overconfidence, or thinking highly of oneself and our ideas, believing that our methods of actions and recollections are exactly correct, lead us to think that all we need is intuition. This is entirely inaccurate; we think we are correct more often than we actually are. Intuition is necessary to immediately look both sides before crossing a street, but should not and cannot be used to make important decisions. This is why it is imperative that we conduct formal research. Our facts cannot be determined based on our own thoughts; these are not facts. We need to ask questions, study, conduct research, and derive facts from data. 

I think this idea carries immense importance. From studying for a test and overestimating what we know, to clouding our decisions, hindsight bias and overconfidence are extremely dangerous. 

The concept of overconfidence especially applies to the upcoming new year. Oftentimes, when asked to self-evaluate, especially before Rosh Hashanah, we tend to glaze over the significant things we need to change about ourselves, and deem them trivial because we believe they do not need to be improved. However, this cannot be the case. We need to try to examine ourselves further, and not let overconfidence stand in our way of becoming better people.

The "I Knew It All Along" Phenomenon

This week we focused on an introduction to psychology. We went through some of the history of psychology and how the definition of psychology changed throughout the years. We talked about the mind-body debate which centers around the question of whether the body and mind are separate or connected. Socrates and Plato are both dualists, which mean they believe that the mind and body are separate entities so even when the body dies, the mind can continue. Aristotle, however, despite being a student of Plato's, is a monist, meaning he believes that the mind and the body are the same. We talked about Locke's idea of man being born as a clean slate and Bacon's idea of scientific theory. We went through different types of psychologists from personality psychologists to industrial-organizational psychologists. My favorite idea that we discussed this week, however, was hindsight bias mixed with overconfidence. Mrs. Perl explained hindsight bias as the "I knew it all along" phenomenon which is a pretty accurate description when you think about it. Hindsight bias is basically the idea of people thinking that they have predicted a certain outcome accurately after finding out the true outcome of a situation. Overconfidence is the belief that our opinion, thoughts, and opinions are correct. When you put these two concepts together, we are able to conclude that in general, we tend to think that we are correct more often than we actually are.

I remember learning this term over the summer when I was doing the summer work and thinking about how often this occurs in our daily life. This term actually is what made me so interested to learn about psychology. At first when thinking about psychology it sounds like an abstract kind of science about the mind and all these "out there" concepts that would be hard to understand. After reading about the concept of hindsight bias I realized that psychology was more about the "why we do what we do" in the daily lives of humans. Sometime after learning about hindsight bias and overconfidence, I attended Bridge Builders which is basically a program in which you do activities/challenges that teach you about leadership and teamwork while working with a diverse group of peers. At the end of each activity, the group has a discussion about what they think went well, what could have been better, and their overall thoughts about the activity/challenge. At each discussion there would be at least one person, if not ten who would say something like, "It was clearly not going to work because no one was listening to each other and someone was trying to take over...bla bla bla.." Every time this happened I wanted to say, "Hindsight bias!" like we do during classes when these types of situations occur. Of course I didn't though, because then I'd have to explain what it was and I'd get that look that all white kids get during these discussions when they say something about their academic achievements or anything that sounds "too intellectual."

Basically, learning about the phenomenons of hindsight bias and overconfidence changed my outlook on psychology. Before learning about it, I had never given a second thought to it when people make these kinds of comments. Now that I know what it is I notice it all the time and marvel at how psychologists were able to notice this common theme in human behavior. I look forward to learning even more about human behavior and the little things that people do that I hadn't even noticed enough to ask questions about.

Introduction Post

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hoping to Learn

In the past two weeks we have been introduced to psychology. We started off talking about how the definition of "psychology" came into being. Starting from 400 BCE where it was: psychology is the study of mental processes and ending with 1960 CE: psychology is the scientific study of mental processes and observable behavior. You can see how specific and detailed psychology is just by learning the evolution of its definition.

We then learned about Bio-psycho-social psychology. Where there are subdivisions of psychology, but without all three working together you wouldn't have the full product. We then moved into all the different types of psychology that apply to all situations. We then learned the difference of clinical psychologists and  psychiatrists. Psychologists give mental treatment, and psychiatrists give physical treatment. We then learned how scientific psychology really is by learning the scientific method and seeing how psychology uses it. We then learned about case studies and surveys-how psychologists get their conclusions and how effective it really is. 

To me, it was really interesting to learn about how there are so many different categories of psychology. Every little detail of our behavior is covered in a different type of psychology. Also, there are so many different types of psychologists that study the different behaviors and thought processes. 

Many times I have been surrounded by people whose actions I just don't understand. There are things they say and do that I just don't understand what makes them want to say that or do something like that. Many times, I just want to understand what makes them want to do that. I hope to learn this year about people's actions and why they would want to do certain things that just don't seem right to me. Also I would like to learn why it bothers me so much when someone does something I don't understand. Is it because I don't like that I don't understand? Or is it because their actions just fit with what I believe is right? 

Psychology and Autism

For the past two weeks, we have been learning the basic history of psychology. We learned about how psychology's definition has changed over time, from the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle up through modern psychologists. We also discussed whether psychology is a science or not and what forms of data gathering can be used in psychology and for what purpose they can be used.

For the project on Chapter 3a, Mrs. Perl asked us to find an outside source to discuss in our presentations. I immediately researched autism. As most all of you know, autism is particularly close to my heart because my brother was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe autism at the age of three. He is now almost thirteen. As a result of simply living in the same house as him, I probably know more about this psychological disorder and  the treatments than the average person. From a young age, my brother and I were both exposed to the world of various supplements, treatments and pills, each of which had a different purpose. Now, at the age of almost thirteen, my brother is taking anti-depressants among other medications. Why does he take these medications? What is autism?

Simply put, autism is a psychological disorder of unknown cause that causes an imbalance of chemicals, or neurotransmitters, in the brain. Every manifestation of autism is unique to the person it effects. However, common to most cases of autism is the imbalance of the chemical serotonin. As we all know, neurons communicate with each other by releasing neurotransmitters from one neuron and receiving those neurotransmitters in the next neuron. Serotonin, whose functions/messages include balancing mood and maintaining stable bodily functions, has been found in much lower (than normal) levels in autistic children. Normal children should have serotonin levels that are much higher than the average adult's levels. Autistic children between the ages of 3 and 8 were found to have only 1% more serotonin than adults. During a clinical study, autistic children were given a drug containing the extra serotonin that they were lacking. By the end of the study, the scientists found that the children's aggression was measurably reduced. This finding may lead scientists closer to finding the causes of autism as well as help them control the symptoms.

Right from the start of my study of psychology, I was intrigued by psychology's application to everyday life. Until I did this assignment, I had no idea that psychology would be so close to home. I look forward to learning more about the disorder that effects my brother and gaining a better understanding of what autism actually does to the mind. On a side note, I am grateful that scientists have created and tested drugs that can help balance the serotonin levels in my brother's brain so that he is not in a constant state of aggression and can enjoy his life.

Welcome to AP Psychology 2013-2014

Welcome to AP Psychology 2013-2014! 

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.

You will be graded according to the following rubric:

BLOG REFLECTION RUBRIC

OUTCOME ASSESSED	Beginning	Developing	Proficient		Strong	WEIGHT	VALUE
	1	7	9	10
Overall Use of Blogs	Blog entries are few and generally simple retellings of personal events. No comments are made on blogs of others.	Almost all required blog entries and comments have been completed.	A blog entry and comment is submitted, though not all of them may give evidence of a substantial contribution.	A blog entry and comment is submitted, both of which are substantial. Beyond the required post, your blog includes many more reflections.		40%
Intellectual Engagement with Key Concepts	Blog entries make no reference to issues raised through readings and/or class activities.	Blog entries make some reference to issues raised through readings and/or class activities.	Blog entries demonstrate awareness of most of the key issues raised through readings and/or class activities.	Blog entries demonstrate engagement with the important issues raised through readings and/or class activities.		25%
Personal Response to Key Concepts	Blog entries show no personal response is made to the issues/concepts raised in the readings/activities.	Blog entries convey little evidence of a personal response to the issues/concepts raised in the readings/activities.	Blog entries convey evidence of a personal response to the issues raised in the readings/ activities, and demonstrate that the author is capable of reflecting on learning, technology, and society.	Blog entries convey extensive evidence of a personal response to the issues raised in the readings/ activities, and demonstrate the author's growth through reflection on learning, technology and society.		25%
Engaged Writing	Blog entries use incorrect grammar and syntax consistently, making it difficult for others to follow.	Blog entries demonstrate some evidence of correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. Audience will have little trouble reading your blog.	Blog entries show a good command of Standard English. No problems for your audience.	Blog entries show a very good command of Standard English and have some flair and originality.		10%