How Poor Gifts Affect Relationships

In this Psyblog, it talks about how good and bad Christmas gifts may affect relationships. The first study takes men and women who have just known each other for four minutes and asks them to pick out a gift certificate from a list for the other person. Here's the catch, each participant has ranked the gift certificates from their favorite to their least favorite. Well, some of the participants were told that their acquaintance chose the same favorite gift card, while others were told that their acquaintance chose their least favorite gift card. This resulted in people receiving good gifts and bad gifts. The men were the most affected by this, when they got the good gift they were happy and felt like there was a similarity between them and their acquaintance and the opposite when it was bad gift. The women didn't really have a response. They felt the same way given either situation. The second study focused on already established relationships to see what the affect would be. It was the same circumstances with different results. When the men received the good gifts they felt a stronger connection to the person they were in a relationship with and felt the relationship would last longer, however when given the bad gift they didn't feel a connection or as strong of one and therefore thought the relationship wouldn't last. The women felt a strong similarity to their significant other when the gift was good, but when the gift was bad they still felt a connection and still thought the relationship would last. The study shows that women felt threatened by the poor gift and used their defense mechanisms to hold on to their relationship. These results are short term reactions, therefore later on the relationships might end due to a bad gift. So basically, the article states that if you are in relationship, getting the right Christmas gift is important. I found this to be interesting because I had no idea how important getting the right gift could be, and this just puts more stress and pressure to find the perfect gift.

How Other People’s Unspoken Expectations Control Us

I just read a Psyblog about how other people's expectations control our behaviors and vice versa, our expectations control their behaviors. (To an extent) The article talks about a study that was performed where a group of males and a group of females have just met and then are given headsets and microphones to talk to one another. They are given a picture of either a person that is rated an 8 out of 10 for attractiveness or a 2 out of 10 for attractiveness. They are told that the picture of the person they were given is who they are talking to, however it is actually the opposite. The experiment then is supposed to show how we react when we think we are talking to someone we are attracted to or someone we are not, and what our expectations are. Sometimes we assume that because someone is good looking that they are probably, smart, social, and humorous, obviously this is not always the case. The results of the study showed that when females thought they were talking to an attractive male they tended to enjoy the conversation more and talked more animatedly. The men of course went along with it even though they may have been rated a 2 out of 10, so the female had no idea who she was talking to. What the study proves is that we as humans tend to change our behavior to match other people's expectations. The article goes on to say that we are influencing each other constantly and the majority of the time our expectations are based on stereotypes. I found the article interesting because it makes me think whether or not I have ever changed my actions around certain people trying to live up to their expectations.

Not My Type

Attribution:

Attribution deals with explaining as to whether or not a person's behavior is situational or depositional. So if someone is rude to you, you may wonder if it was just the situation , or if that is a personality trait or deposition of their's and they act that way all the time.

According to the book, the fundamental attribution error is, the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of the personal disposition. The book uses the example of a group of students being told that a woman's behavior is situational, but when she acts nice they view her personal disposition as being warm, and when she acts rude they view her personal disposition as being cold. Even though they were told that her behavior is situational.

Stereotyping in Everyday Life:

According to the book, stereotyping is a generalized belief or assumption about a certain group of people. These generalizations are sometimes accurate but are often overgeneralized. A very basic example of stereotyping is to say that blondes are dumb. Obviously, that is an overstatement. There are some blondes that are very smart and well educated, but there may be some blondes that are dumb out there.

Illusory correlations is perceiving a relationship where none exists. Illusory correlations are related to stereotyping because stereotyping may be creating an illusory correlation towards a certain group. For example, on the prejudice worksheets, some people put down that Chinese people all look alike. Well we are creating that relationship, but that is an over generalization because I am sure that people can tell the difference between Chinese people. (That might not be the best example.)

Current Event - #4

Since this chapter was on Personality I will tell a current event about how my personality has changed in the past few weeks.

I used to be extremely particular about my school work. I would stress about it to the point that I made myself sick and would have problems sleeping at times because that is what my focus was on. I would get straight A's which meant a lot to me, and I would get very upset when my papers, homework, or tests were not given A's.

Well, this year I have found myself being more relaxed (extremely relaxed) that I can't focus on homework, tests, or even grades as much as I used to. I feel like I no longer have the drive to get my work done, which bothers me, but I still have trouble bringing myself to do the work. When I think about the factors that may be contributing to the cause of my relaxation towards school in general, I can only come up with a few possible reasons: Senioritis, I don't find school as enjoyable as I used to, and three my boyfriend. (I find myself spending time talking on the phone when I should be putting quality time into my school work.)

This is just one very simple example of how the past few weeks my attitude and personality towards school has changed. I think that these influences to my personality come from the people I am around or talk to the most and to the lack of ambition which may or may not come from the Senioritis. In either case, I hope that I find a balance between my old attitude towards school and this new problem.

Chapter 13- Personality

Things that influence my personality would be my birth order, environment, genes, and friends and family. As an only child I have different experiences than many of my friends. I tend to receive all the attention at home, I don't have anyone else besides myself to look after, and due to things I tend to have a very sheltered lifestyle. (which is not necessarily a bad thing) Genes affect my personality because they help decide what qualities I am going to have. I know there is an adage that you will be exactly like your parents when you're older. Whether this has to do with our genetic make-up or the environment in which we grow up in - I don't know. The environment helps influence my personality. I live in a really rural community, so therefore our values are different from those that live bigger, or urban areas. My friends personalities and values affect my personality. What they think, what they do, and how they say definitely affects my personality. (our ideals happen to be very similar) I think all these things in one way or another affect my personality.

As far as theories of personality go, I would say the theory that I like is Carl Roger's Self Theory. This theory basically deals with our self image, how we as individuals view ourselves, how we would ideally like ourselves to be, how positive feedback is important to us as individuals, and how these things are most likely in a positive, accepting, genuine environment. I would say that this theory does jive with my personality. I tend to assess my personality and compare it what or how I want my personality to be. I would consider myself to be a nice person so I do like it when I am accepted, or I get approval from others because it lets me know that I am making the right decisions. When I am not accepted it tends to hurt because it makes me wonder what it is about my personality that is not acceptable or what I change about it to make it better. It is extremely important to me to receive positive feedback. I would say that this theory does thrive and jive with my personality because the people that I am generally around are positive, empathetic, nice, and accepting.

The defense mechanisms that I find myself using most often are rationalization and denial. I would say that if I am not sure about a decision that I have just made, I try and justify to myself and possibly others. Denial I would use when I try to overlook something. An example is when I am trying to give a person the benefit of the doubt even though I know that they did what they are being accused of.

In Class Activities - Chapter 13

3 Wishes

1. No hunger/world starvation
2. Happiness
3. Health (for everyone)

I am...
1. Female (P)
2. 17 (P)
3. Short (P)
4. A senior (R)
5. Nice (PS)
6. Talkative (PS)
7. A leader (R)
8. Semi - smart (PS)
9. An only child (R)
10. A good friend (R)
11. Unathletic (P)
12. Social (PS)
13. Fun (PS)
14. Dedicated (PS)
15. Hardworking (PS)
16. Daughter (R)
17. Grand-daughter (R)
18. Determined (PS)
19. Tired (P)
20. Compassionate (PS)

P stands for Physical Trait - 5
R stands for Role - 5
PS stands for Personality Trait - 10

Birth order - Only child

(I had a hard time coming up with pros and cons)
Pros
1. All the attention
2. No favortitism
3. Only yourself to look after

Cons
1. Lonely - sometimes (rarely)
2. Parents are extremely over protective
3. Too much attention at times

Questions:

1. How would you be different if you had the same birth order but were a different sex?
Honestly, I don't know how I would be different. I mean personality wise I would be different because I probably would not be interested in the same things. (clothes - shopping, shoes, purses, etc...) I would hopefully be stronger and more athletic too. I don't think the birth order would really affect me, anymore than it does now, if I were a different sex.

2. How would you be different if you had a different ordinal position?
Well, I would probably be different because I would not receive as much attention as I do now. Which means I would probably either talk less often, be more reserved, and not share my opinions as often. My parents probably would not be as over protective because their focus would be split up amongst all the kids verses just me. It would be really different, I would be really different if my I was not an only child.

3. As a parent I would probably only want between 1 and 3 children; just because I come from a really small family. Also, this way I would allow myself to have more time for each of my children. (Time might be limited with work and other things.)

In Class Activities Chapters 8 and 9

Chapter 8:

11/9/09

Memory Score
1. 1
2. 4
3. 2
4. 4
5. 5
6. 3
7. 5

My Score: 24 Average Memory

Seven Dwarfs
grumpy
sleepy
dopey
doc - I got these four on my own
sneezy
Happy
Bashful

12 Days of Christmas (partiage in a pear tree given)
2 Turtle Doves
3 French Hens
4 Calling Birds
5 Golden Rings - I got to
6 Geese of Laying
7 Swans of Swimming
8 Maids of Miliking
9 Ladies dancing
10 Lords of Leaping
11 Pipers piping
12 Drummers Drumming

11/11/09

First Memory Test (* remembered it)

apple*
pear*
grape*
banana

Bill*
Jon*
Robert*
Charlie

Blue*
Red*
Green*
Yellow*

Nickel*
Quarter*
Dime*
Dollar

East*
South*
West*
North*

17/20

Second Memory Test

Duck*
Big*
Jowel*
Clog*
Pot
Dusk
Wreak
Broom*
Later*
Trout*
Wage
Mayor
Lot
List
Smug*
Job*
Start*
Else
Chap
Tape

Thir Memory Test

Court*
Royal*
Dice*
Dent
Slot*
Hand
Solve
Stoned
House
Mutt
Dirt
Draft
Greet
Stale

Chapter 9

Riddles
1. A coffin
2. A- 14
3. Move the second glass
4. Shortest sentence using every letter of the alphabet
5. Back to Back
6. 100204180
7. every number
8. m
9. a) age 17
b) 6 stations
c) 19 passengers still on
d) 50 people got off
e) 65 people go on
10. same place
11. crunchy dog food eaten by - lady
green dog house - sancho

I thought that these activites were fun and at times challenging. I used to consider myself to have a decent memory but after doing these activities I found out that I don't. My favorite class activity that we did was the riddles.

Chapter Nine- Thinking and Language

Three things that I learned about in this chapter and found interesting were overconfidence, belief perseverance, and intuition.

According to the book, overconfidence is the tendency to be more confident than correct - t overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements. I find this topic interesting because sometimes I find myself struggling with this tendency. (Obviously I do not think that I am infallible or always correct, but the majority of the time I am fairly confident in my answers.) The book gave some really good examples to explain overconfidence too. Such as the one about whether or not absinthe was a liqueur or a precious stone. 60 percent of people answered the question correctly, however 75 percent felt confident in their answer. It also made the point how overconfidence or the inability to notice our potential to make errors can lead to serious consequences. However, there are positives to having overconfidence. People who are overconfident tend to be happier, have an easier time making tough decisions, and seem more credible than those who lack self confidence.

Belief perseverance according to the book is, clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. I find this topic interesting because we all do this at times. This topic deals with our biases. The book gave an example about a controversial topic the death penalty. If you have two people and both sides and show them evidence backing up both claims; each person will only use the evidence that backs up their belief. The more evidence that we find to back up our claims the more we consider them true. In order to change the belief that someone has they will have to see compelling evidence to shatter their belief.

Intuition according to the book, an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning. I found intuition to be fascinating because this allows us to make decisions without evening really thinking about them. The book states how this maybe a good thing or a bad thing depending on the situation. Some perils or reasons as to why intuition maybe wrong are: (pg. 380 Table 9.1) we are influenced by our present moods and by misinformation, we may form false memories, inflated self confidence in one's discernment based on the interview alone, our intuitive self-predictions can often go astray, and intuitively perceiving a relationship where none exists. Evidence of intuition's powers or reasons why it is good are: (pg. 380 Table 9.1) learning how to do something without knowing that ones knows, quick gut feelings that precede moral reasoning, and the sometimes spontaneous appearance of novel and valuable ideas. These are just a few things about intuition.

The reason why I picked these three points out for this blog is because after reading the chapter it made me think as to whether my judgements, beliefs, or notions were correct. Overall, I found this to be fascinating.

My Head is Spinning Tutorial Questions

I have just completed the My Head is Spinning Tutorial. While I am not sure that I completely understand everything that I just learned; I found the tutorial activities themselves to be interesting.

Conceptual Thinking:
This activity has a candle and the mouse is the match. You are supposed to take the match and light the wick of the candle with it. I didn't really have to think when it came to this activity because it was instinctive.

Cooper & Shepard's Results:
This activity dealt with the letter R and its rotation. The reason why people's reaction times decrease after the rotation of 180 degrees is because they are the same rotations that were made earlier with the smaller degrees. The theory as to why the rate decreases (respond faster to 300 degrees than 240 degrees) is that people treat the rotation of 300 degrees clockwise the same as 60 counter clockwise.

Mental Rotation Experiment:
The pattern of my results for this experiment seemed to match the theory of Cooper's & Shepard's or at least I thought it did until I saw the chart. My chart had two short lines in the upper right hand corner and there chart had a single line rising to 180 degrees and falling from 180 degrees. I don't think that my results were conclusive at all.

Chapter Eight - Memory

Throughout this chapter I have learned the significance of our memory. Memory is extremely important, especially because it helps to define us as individuals. Each individual has different memories that are important and significant. Without those memories we would all be the same. There would nothing that sets us apart from the rest. Memories are experiences in our lives that define us and without those memories life would be boring and challenging.

A perfect example of this is Clive Wearing. Clive had a normal life until he lost his memory. Now his memory lasts for approximately 20 seconds at a time. Every two minutes he writes down that he has just woke up. He doesn't remember the foods he eats, people he knows or has met, the fact that he is married, and he doesn't remember writing things down in his diary; even though he recognizes his own handwriting. He feels that the things written down before either he has written unconsciously or someone else wrote them in his handwriting. I could not imagine having a life like this. Doing the same things everyday and not realizing it. (Life definitely was not meant to be so repetitious.)

As far as memory itself goes, I do see how it works differently. For example, some people like Clive Wearing can only have a short term memory, others only have a long term memory, and there are people that have both but remember one clearer than the other. Also, age has a great deal to do with memory. For example when you are younger, you will most likely have a greater or better memory than those who are older. Before this chapter, I considered myself to have a very good memory, but when we did that in class experiment I found myself to have an average memory. I would say that this simple experiment or quiz definetly made me change my perspective of my memory. I now recongize how often I forget to do simple tasks or can't remember if I turned a light off or locked the house door. I find myself being like mother and asking people questions twice or double checking myself constantly. I do however, still trust my memories. I feel like the things that I do remember are very accurate and lucid.

A concept that I learned in this chapter is the theory of repression. I find it interesting that we as individuals can repress memories. Although, the book stated that this is a rare thing because, often the memories that we try to repress are emotional which makes it nearly impossible to repress them. This is especially true, if the memory is very traumatic. Information that may easily be repressed is neutral material.

The Case of Clive Wearing

I watched the movie the case of Clive Wearing. Clive Wearing reminded me (as others have stated) of 10 second Tom from the Movie, Fifty First Dates.

Clive Wearing lost his memory and can only remember the day to day things that are ingrained in his memory, such as; getting dressed, eating, playing music, playing patience, writing, and the fact that he loves his wife, Deborah. Clive has no idea that Deborah is his wife, in fact each time he sees her, he thinks that he is seeing her for the first time. She then points out to him that he has seen her before and writes down his love for her in his diary. He doesn't remember writing it down so he assumes that he was unconscious when he wrote that and continues to claim that he has never seen her before. When he is writing in his diary, he will almost every 2 minutes or so write that he is awake for the first time that day. When he is playing music, he claims that he has never played before, but he plays, directs, and sings wonderfully. His wife, Deborah, cites his ability to do this similar to the act of us riding a bike.

I could not imagine having a complete memory one day and then having a memory like Clive's the next day. The struggles that he has to go through (because he can think clearly or is lucid), not remembering things that he writes down, or not remembering that you are married even though you can remember that you love that person. I also could not imagine being Deborah and having to see her husband go through that day after day. Just knowing that he doesn't remember simple day to day things like when he woke up, what he has written down, things he has eaten, or the fact that he is married; must be extremely difficult to go through.

Applied Cognition - Five Activities

I completed the five activities on the Applied Cognition website. I found them to be interesting and challenging at the same time.

The first activity that I completed was Recognition. In Recoginition they had an array of pennies and the goal was to chose the real penny from the rest. After looking at the pennies for quite awhile I finally just guessed and to my surprise I guessed correctly on the first try.

The second activity that I completed was The Mnemonicizer. This was to show how mnemonic devices can help us to remember miscellaneous information. Examples of mnemonic devices include: All Cow's Eat Grass (for treble clef on the piano) or PEMDAS (parentheses, exponents, multiply, divide, add, subtract) for the order of operations in math. I tried to make a mnemonic device to remember the nine planets (technically eight because apparently Pluto isn't one... I guess). I failed miserably at this task and ended up with the sentence: Moneys voted elaborate meals just so unicorns nibble pleasantly.

The third activity that I completed was Human Memory. This involved hearing twenty words and then you had to write down all the ones you recalled. This is very similar to the in class activities that we did on Wednesday. I did all right on this, but definitely not as well as I did on the in class activities.

The fourth activity that I completed was Interference. This activity involved hearing a list of seven numbers and remembering them. Then each time they gave you a new list of seven numbers with interference to try and hinder your ability of remembering the numbers. I did well on the first list getting all seven numbers but the other two times I did not do so well.

The fifth and final activity that I completed was Short Term Memory. The activity first gives seven pictures and you have to try and remember them. I did well and remembered all seven. The activity then gives you seven words to try and remember. I got all but two. Then the third time they give you seven new words to try and remember. I got five the next time too

Current Event #3

Since our chapter discusses learning, I thought it would be fitting to share one of my learning experiences.

So recently I went ice skating for the first time with my friend. I was excited but also nervous to go ice skating because I am extremely uncoordinated to say the least. My friend who plays hockey was aware of this and attempted to teach me how to skate. He tried his best to teach me but he did not get very far.

When I stepped onto the ice (unconditioned stimulus) in skates for the first time I became really nervous (unconditioned response). Then when I fell (conditioned stimulus) on the ice (unconditioned stimulus) I became extremely nervous (unconditioned response) of falling again. This led me to be nervous (conditioned response) of falling (conditioned stimulus) again.

This is just a really basic example of how my ice skating experience ties into the chapter. Needless to say I only fell twice within a two hour span. Granted I wasn't going very fast.

How Beliefs and Values Influence What Tastes Good

I saw this article on Psyblog discussing how our values help to determine our tastes. For example if people think eating meat is murder to animals, than very few people will eat meat products.

The article discusses various studies that prove the theory as to whether or not our beliefs or values help us to determine what is okay to eat. The studies ranged from people eating sausage rolls that were made from beef to eating sausage rolls that were made from artificial meat (vegetarian meat). The study switched the labels of the two meats. The study showed that those who consumed the meat labeled vegetarian thought it was tastier even though the vegetarian meat was really beef meat. Therefore confirming the fact that our social values help us to determine the types of food that we consume. This study was performed with Pepsi verses Coca Cola. Pepsi is known for using slogans that discuss youthfulness and generation. However when the labels were switched the majority of the testers preferred Coca Cola to Pepsi.

The article goes on to discuss organic foods, marketing values, and beer. The point the article makes is that marketing or psychology helps influence whether people eat organic food or non organic and the same thing for beer. Many people claim that organic food is healthier for you and tastes better; therefore organic producers are hoping for people to buy into the psychology of the items. Beer is more of a social marketing strategy. For example if a person were to drink beer on their own; they would most likely find the taste repulsive, but when around a group of people they drink it because others are drinking it. Thus, each situation is playing off your values.

I agree with some of the points in this article. With that being said, I know personally that I am one of the most finicky eaters. I severely dislike certain foods and it has nothing to do with my values. Ever since I was little I have hated fish and seafood. My friends like fish and the majority of family likes fish. My values do not dictate my dislike in food because for lent we are to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays. (most people eat fish during this time). I absolutely hate fish and seafood. For this reason alone, I question the accuracy of these studies.

I was wondering if what you think of this article and whether or not you find it to be accurate.

Chapter 7- Learning

This chapter had some interesting topics in it. I particularally found sections on conditioning and punishments to be interesting.

According to the book, classical conditioning is a type of learning in which one learns how to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. This involves an unconditioned response, an unconditioned stimulus, a neutral stimulus, a conditioned response, and a conditioned stimulus. A very simple example of this would be a dog sees food (unconditioned stimulus) and its mouth starts to water (unconditioned response). The same dog later hears a sound (neutral stimulus) and its mouth remains normal (no response). Later the dog hears the same sound (neutral stimulus) at the same time the food (unconditioned stimulus) is brought out; which causes the dog's mouth to water (unconditioned response). Even later, the sound is created and the dog's mouth waters because it now associates that sound with food. Therefore, making the sound a conditioned stimulus and the mouth watering a conditioned response. This same technique can be modified to real life situations such as to get drug addicts to stop their addiction to basically just about everything.

Weather Has Little Effect on Mood

I read an older Psyblog about how weather affects people's moods. I found this article to be interesting because previous to reading this article I thought that the weather did affect people's attitudes. To put it plainly; I was wrong.

The article states that through a number of studies that were performed the weather has a very small impact on people's moods. The studies focused on both good weather and bad weather and found that people on average were just as likely to be upset on a good weathered day than on a dreary one. In fact, the study showed that weather has such a minute impact on our attitudes that it really cannot be considered a factor. With that being said, the weather does have an effect on negativity. If a person is already being negative and the weather is dreary or nasty outside than they are more likely going to think more negatively. (The article did cite however that the majority of us have very indoor lives; so this may have had an effect on the study itself.) Overall, weather does not have a significant impact on a person's mood.

The article also briefly discussed Seasonal Affective Disorder also known as SAD. This disorder causes certain individuals to get depressed during the seasons. The seasons can vary from person to person. Typically when you think of this disorder it is associated that winter= sad and summer = happiness (this is not the case for everyone). This disorder is not caused by the weather but by the seasons and therefore does not fall into the data previously stated above. The vast majority of people do not suffer from this condition.

I liked this article. While I find the results of the studies to be accurate; I wish the participants would have spent more time outdoors to see if the weather (or the time spent outside) truly had a factor on a person's mood. I also liked the point in the article stating that bad weather has the ability to increase a person negative thinking (this happens to me during the winter).

Please, let me know what your opinions are on whether weather affects people's moods or is it just a coincidence.

Chapter Six- Sensation and Perception

In this chapter I learned about thresholds, color vision, and how we form perceptions. I will admit that I did not find this chapter as interesting compared to some of our previous chapters.

Absolute thresholds are the minimum stimulation needed to defect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. These thresholds are illustrated through faint stimuli seeing things from a distance such as a light tower or feeling a bug land on us. Absolute thresholds help us to detect particular sounds, pressures, lights, taste and odors. Our absolute thresholds vary with age. This means that as we age we might be less sensitive to a smell or sound than we were at a younger age.

Color vision is what helps us to define a red tomato or green grass. However, these objects really are not those colors. What I am referring to is that all objects have pigments and it is through reflected light that we are able to see those pigments. So for a tomato the light reflects the color red and for most grass the light reflects the color green. Colors can be created through combining waves of light which consist of three primary colors: red, blue, and green. This is where the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory comes in, which implies that the cones in our eyes work in groups of three. The retina has three color receptors which is sensitive to a color. This theory makes sense because the retina receptors are red, green, and blue. This means that we are more sensitive to red, green, and blue things. Color deficient people lack red and green cones(which when combined are sensitive to yellow) have problems seeing certain reflected colors. One out of fifty people are "color blind"(color blind is the incorrect terminology for this situation) or color deficient. (These people are usually male and this trait is usually genetically linked through gender.)

Form perception is another thing I learned in this chapter. This section talked about figure-ground and grouping principles. Figure ground is the organization of the visual fields into objects that stand out from their surroundings. Examples of this would include; face detection, recognizing voices, and or other objects. Grouping is the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. This allows us to organize our figure-ground data and put it into groups. The principles that follow this idea are: Proximity, Similarity, Continuity, Connectedness, and Closure. Proximity refers to figures being together or near one another. Similarity is where we take similar or like objects and group them together. Continuity is where we perceive smooth, continuous patterns. Connectedness is where items are grouped together because they are uniform and linked. Closure is where we piece everything together and create a whole object. (See figures on page 265 in our text book for specific examples.)

Illusions

These are some of the optical illusions that I enjoyed looking at for this assignment:
~Contrast Constancy
~Spiral Aftereffect
~Muller-Lyer Illusion
~Munker-White Illusion
~Pyramid Illusion
~Scintillating Illusion
~Hermann Grid, Curving
~Lilac Chaser

These illusions were very interesting. I never realized how many tricks our eyes play on us until I was going through the illusions for this assignment. I learned that our perceptions may not always be what we might think. For example, in one of the illusions there was picture of a girl sitting in a chair looking out at the night sky. In the sky was the image of a moon. The moon was drawn bigger because that is how we perceive the moon being; however, in actuality the moon was a third or half the size drawn.

I think what surprised me the most when looking at these optical illusions was the vastness or variety of optical illusions. A specific optical illusion that surprised me was the optical illusion called Muller-Lyer Illusion. In this illusion there was a line with a line segment. The goal was to affix the line segment in the center of the line. Well, obviously my perception of the center was completely off from the exact center of the line. So when I clicked ruler I could plainly see that my mark was off by at least an inch.

I don't know if these illusions have really changed my perception of the world; however, it does make think whether or not I am seeing the full picture.

I believe that these experiences affect my everyday life through encouraging me to think more. For example, are those two objects really the same length, are they different colors or are they the same but the shadow makes them look different, or is that really center or in the center? I think these questions will certainly be present more often than they would have been if I had not seen the optical illusions.

Chapter Five- Developing Through the Life Span

This chapter covered development from prenatal to adulthood and parenting styles. Three things I learned in this chapter are the parenting styles, social identity, and intelligence. I also found the information on autism and dementia interesting because I know people personally who have struggled with them.

The parenting styles I found interesting because I had always thought that parenting styles were unique and different. However, the majority of parenting styles can be split up into three categories; authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Authoritarian parenting puts a strong emphasis on strict obedience and leaves no room for interpretation. These types of parents require everything they ask to be completed and right the first time. Permissive parents are the exact opposite. They are more laid back and the children are pretty much in control of the entire situation. The parents will grant their every desires and make very few demands. The last parenting style authoritative is a hybrid of the last two parenting styles. This style combines structure with discussion. The boundaries are set, enforced, rules are explained with reasoning, and everything is open to discussion. This last type of parenting style is the one my parent's use.

I also learned about social identity in this chapter. I found this topic to be interesting because we as individuals tend to base our sense of self around group membership. For example several people adopt their clothing style to match of particular group in an effort to be associated with the group or feel apart of it. (goth, geek, preps, jocks) In addition to clothing we often wonder why we exist, or wish that we were somebody else because we perceive them to be. Several adolecenants are content with their identity while others ponder the previous ideals. Some factors of our social identity include; thoughts and feelings, appearance, and relationships with friends and family. This section made me wonder whether I am really content with the person I am or if I am still searching for my purpose in life (why do I exist).

How to Avoid Procrastination: Think Concrete

I found this article on Psyblog about Procrastination. I thought this article was so fitting since lately, I have been struggling with this particular problem. I have never really had this problem before until this year. So I thought I would read and blog about this article in case anyone else is currently struggling with this dilemma as well.

The article talks about the history of procrastination and how it has been around since the time of the industrial revolution. The article also mentions that while some people procrastinate once in awhile; there are others that have "chronic procrastination". You may be wondering how big is the scope of this problem. Well, for starters approximately 50 percent of college students have cited their procrastination habits to problematic. This is not just a problem for college students, approximately 15-20 percent of adults also identify themselves as having problematic or chronic procrastination.

Now that we have identified the problem: procrastination, let's look at the ways to help avoid or solve the problem psychologically. The article cites a study that was performed to see how much procrastination was affected by how we construe it. The study looked at two aspects; abstract (imaginary, fanatical) construal and concrete (realistic) construal. In the study participants are split up into two groups. Each group looks at painting involving pointilism. One group sees the full painting and told it was neo-impressionism (example of abstract construal). The group sees a section of the painting; seeing the techinque of pointilism (example of concrete construal). Both groups are then told to fill out a questionaire. The answers on the questionaire are irrelevant, because the purpose is to see how long the participants take in completing the questionaire. The results showed that participants were more likely to return their questionaire in sooner when it was a concrete construal example verses that of an abstract construal.

Now that we know what types of things in life cause procrastination how do we avoid them. Here are some tips the article gives. First of all use self-imposed deadlines and focus on details. Second stick to a task, once it has been started, while still keeping the abstract goal in mind. Third evaluate your progress on hard tasks, and stay focused even if the chance or likely hood of failure is high. Finally, once you have focused and the end of the task is in sight, it makes it easier to focus again on the "psychological choice to choose".

Some simplier ways I found to somewhat cope with my procrasination; is to make to-do lists, use a planner to keep dates straight, and to avoid all possible distractions. I would like to know if anyone else has any tips with how they cope with their procrasination (if they have a problem that is).

Leaders Emerge by Talking First and Most Often

I found this article on Psyblog about explaining what we as individuals perceive as "leaders" and how they usually emerge. The question, or main point, was what is it about these individuals that set them apart from the others in the group; which in turn gives them the privilege of being the leader (head of the group)?

Two studies were performed to test that theory. The first of the two studies observed how "dominant" individuals were perceived by their peers (in the group). The findings showed that being seen as both competent and an equal is very important. If a person is competent, but not seen as an equal with their peers within the group; they will not obtain a leadership role. Also, study found that there is a huge gap between actual competence or qualifications and what others perceive or tend to think. In the second study they focused on problems with competition. This was done through video-taping participants behaviors within the groups. The observations proved that those individuals that were dominant and outspoken were more often than not seen as being competent. This was true when they would make suggestions to the group and behaviors. So, those who spoke most often and first were usually considered competent. In essence, this study shows that those who make a greater verbal contribution usually are viewed as the leaders within a particular group. (This is because others within the group tend to think that those who speak the most will lead them to success.)

In spite of what these two studies show, the article goes on to state, that in reality world leaders and CEO's of corporations tend to have those positions more due to money and power; instead of outspokenness and perceived competence. The studies, however, apply more too informal everyday life situations verses prestigious leadership positions.

While I thought this article had several good points; I found myself differing in opinion on a few things. I consider myself to be somewhat of a leader. I hold various officer positions at school and I don't think that I obtained any of them by being the loudest or by constantly talking. I personally believe that I was elected to those positions; because of my credentials, hard work, and dedication. I would be interested in hearing what you think about this article, along with whether the people you know get informal leadership roles by being outspoken or if they truly deserved them.

Chapter Four - Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity

This chapter was very in depth and I learned so much. I think the three things that have stuck with me the most throughout reading the chapter and working on the assignments are: information on twin studies, nature verses nurture, and genetic environmental influences. The majority of the information in this chapter I had never heard of before or just never really paid that much attention to before now.

Twin studies I found to be intriguing. I had always assumed that twins that looked exactly alike were identical and the twins that looked different were fraternal. However, I was wrong. Although it is true that identical twins usually look alike; fraternal twins can as well. I also learned that identical twins usually have mirror traits. For example in a pair of identical twins; it would not be unlikely for one to be right handed and the other to be left handed. I also found it interesting how people who had been raised as fraternal twins later found out that they were indeed identical and that their bond strengthened based off that information alone. The one thing that I didn't understand is how this correlates to those of us who are not twins, or do not have siblings? I understand that some of this information can transfer especially on the genetics end of things. The studies that I read lean more towards the idea that our genetics are more influential than our environment. (which probably is true) I also wondered if twins have the mirrored qualities what about identical triplets or other multiples? Overall I enjoyed learning about this stuff.

Nature verses nurture fascinates me. I knew that our genes had accounted for our looks and some of our traits but I had no idea to what extent. When working on the activity about this; at times I found myself going back and forth as to whether or not I truly felt that nature played a bigger role or nurture -our parents. I read several articles that claim both have an influence or an affect on your behaviors, traits, and overall self. (they are inter-related) I liked this section of the chapter because it made me think about the influences in my life and what extent comes from my genes and from the influences in my environment. (basically heritability) This would tie in with the genetic environmental influences. I read in an article that they did a study on whether poverty, illiterate parents or mental retardation affected a child's IQ. They found that while it didn't directly affect; that it did have some affect on a child and consequently lower IQ scores. So in that case I guess the environmental factors affected the children more than the genes.

Live Happy with New iPhone Application

I came across this article on the Psyblog website mixed in with older posts. It caught my attention when I saw the words live happy and iphone. The article talks about how happiness is influenced by three factors: genes, our circumstances or situations, and our actions/reactions we choose everyday. The first two factors cannot be changed. I mean you can try to avoid certain circumstances or situations but you will always have circumstances in your life. (genes obviously cannot be changed .... unless there is some scientific method to do that which I am unaware of) The only factor that can be changed is the third. You can change how you act/react towards situations.

There has been recent psychological research done that proves certain or particular types of activities can increase a person's happiness levels. The happiness levels can be improved for long and short periods of time. However, it may be a struggle to continue or keep up the activities that make a person happy. So here is where the iphone and ipod touch comes in. Signal Patterns, in conjunction with Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, have created an application for your iphone and ipod touch called Live Happy which uses positive research to help brighten people's days. The application allows people to set goals, evaluate them, and keep track of them; directly express gratitude; keep a gratitude journal; reminisce back to happy days, picture yourself at your best or the best you can be; remember acts of kindness; and it also has questions that you can ask Dr. Lyubomirsky.

I think this is an interesting way to use technology. I would never have thought that by downloading an application or acting on some of the simple things listed above would improve a person's level of happiness.

How Rewards Can Backfire and Reduce Motivation

I read this article on psyblog about how rewards can sometimes backfire or reduce motivation. Two people from the University of Michigan did a study with 51 preschoolers between the ages of 4 and 3. These ages were chosen because this is usually the age where parents are most likely to bribe their child to get them to do a desired task.

The preschoolers were divided into three groups: 1)expected a certificate for drawing, 2)surprised with a reward which was a certificate for drawing, and 3) no reward. For this study to be successful it was imperative that the children like to draw. The students were told to draw for six minutes and then depending on what group they were in received a reward or not. Over the next few days they observed the children through one way mirrors to see if they would have the motivation to draw on their own and if the promised reward would be an incentive to draw, or would they neglect drawing all together.

The study showed that approximately 5% of the children in group one had the motivation to draw. So promised rewards might not be very motivating. Approximately 15% of the students from group three that did not receive a reward took the initiative to draw. Surprisingly 20% of the students from group two were more motivated to draw with a surprise reward. According to the article the same results were true in a different study with smokers trying to quit.

The article goes on to discuss what happens when you add another variable into the situation. The variable they are talking about is money. The article explains that often when we use rewards we give them out for people who have completed a hard, painful, or even somewhat tedious task. An example of this would be work ... even though we need money to pay for food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities in order to survive. What the article is referring to is when you pay people to do something that they enjoy they tend to lose interest for it because subconsciously or psychologically we tend to associate rewards for accomplishing tedious, painful, or hard things. I found it interesting because I personally have never associated rewards in that sense before.

Current Event # 2

Since our current events are supposed to coincide with the chapter. For this week I am going to talk about one of the dreams that I have off and on for about a year and half.

Something you should know before I tell you about this dream is that I am deathly afraid of heights.

In my dream I am wondering through a forest which I have never seen before and I come upon a tiny bridge that is quite a distance up without any railings on it. It is a nice day out but the area where this bridge is located in a heavily dense forest with a pond underneath it. At first when I approach the bridge I contemplate on whether I should cross it or turn around. I always choose to cross the bridge. As I am crossing the bridge I notice that I can see my reflection in the water below and stop to peer at myself. In doing so, I get too close, lose my balance and start free falling head first towards the water below. Just before impact however the water turns into sharp, jagged rocks. I have no idea how the dream ends; whether I die or survive the treacherous fall. I usually wake up screaming, kicking, and on some occasions I have fallen off my bed. When I fall back to sleep I dream about something else.

My friend took this class last year and received a packet of things that are common to appear in dreams and tried to interpret or translate my dream for me. This resulted in her saying that I am at a crossroads in my life and near an early death. I don't think there is a lot of merit to this dream; however the ironic thing is that since this dream has started I have had two surgeries. Obviously this is a coincidence, but I would like to know if anyone thinks that our dreams tell us something or if they are just affected by things that happen throughout our day?

Chapter Three - Consciousness and The Two Track Mind

This chapter discussed consciousness, how consciousness and the brain are related, the four stages of sleep, affects of sleep loss and sleep disorders, dreams, hypnosis, addictions, and near death experiences. The importance of knowing about our consciousness so that we as individuals are able to be aware of our environment.

So far this has been my favorite chapter to study. I enjoyed reading about selective attention, sleep stages, sleep loss, sleep disorders, dreams and theories that coincide with them, along with the information on addictions. After reading this chapter, I finally have an explanation as to why I am so "blind". This true especially when I am focused on one particular task that needs to get done. I try to multitask and I am usually fairly decent at it, but occassionally if I am multitasking and have several things going on at once I tend to overlook or not notice something that is important. This would associate with what the text book refers to as change blindness and inattentional blindness. The book also refers to a video where a group of teenagers is playing basketball and a man in a gorilla costume comes in and starts to play. When I saw this video in driver's education I was told to focus on the basketball. Due to my concentration I completely failed to see the person in the gorilla costume. My instructor's point was that you need to be paying attention at all times and cannot afford to be focused on just one thing but several. (I guess this would be a real life example of how change blindness and inattentive blindness could be used0

I had never realized that there are four stages of sleep. I always assumed that once you feel asleep that a person immediately was in REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement). I also never realized that when you are sleeping you move from one stage to another and then back to the stage of sleep you were at before. Also, I learned that each individual is different when it comes ot the number of hours of sleep a person needs. For example I might need 9 or more but someone else might only 6. I also never realized that through sleep depervation a person can gain weight, feel stressed, depressed, and lowers immunity. I found the sleep disorders to be interesting. I had no idea that nightmares could be caused from sleep apnea. I always had associated them with a trick of the imagination.

The dream portion I found interesting but also confusing because there wasn't a validation as to which theory is the cause or source of our dreams. Some of the theories that I read seemed plausable but it doesn't sound like there is a concrete reason for them.

Overall I found the chapter interesting and learned some very interesting things.

Are you a Liar?

I recently found this article on PsychBlog asking the question "Do really lie 3 times within 10 minutes of meeting someone new?" I found this study to be interesting because usually within the first seven steps, seven words, and seven seconds people have already formed an opinion about the new person they met. So this got me thinking what if the new people that we are meeting are not telling us the truth about themselves; hence we are forming incorrect conclusions or judgments about them. Also, what types of lies are these people telling or why are they telling these lies in the first place?

The article refers to a study that was conducted. The study is composed of 121 participants broken down into three groups. These people were told to have a conversation with someone they had never met before for 10 minutes. Each group was given a task or a goal that they were supposed to convey while conversing with this new person. Group 1 was supposed to convey the image that they were competent. Group 2 was supposed to convey the image that they were likeable or outgoing. The last group, Group 3, was supposed to be themselves. They did not have to convey a special message or image. They were video taped while doing this and after the 10 minutes were told to watch the tape and write down how many times they lied and what they lied about . When the study was concluded the results came back that 40% of the participants that were involved in this test had lied in some way or another. The other 60% claim that they did not lie. The approximate number of lies in 10 minutes was just under 3 which is close to the article's key question. Gender also did not play a factor; putting the old adage that men lie more than women to rest.

The lies were catagorized into five groups: feelings, achievements, plans, explanations, and facts. The study showed that lies were generally associated or linked to feelings. Women however were more likely to tell lies about being competent and Men told more lies trying to appear likeable.

The article then talked about the infamous white lie. The key question was is it morally acceptable to tell a white a lie in pro-social environments. Generally when people think of lies they associate them with malicious or harmful things. What about the lies we tell when someone asks us how we're doing and we reply with fine. We automatically say this because we know that the person asking generally doesn't care how we are doing but it is common courtesy to ask. The article later went on to say that without these tiny white lies our social lives would more painful. They also frequently referenced the show House about a doctor who searches for the truth to save his patients lives.

Overall I found this article fascinating and wonder how many times I have been lied to when meeting new people. Or vice versa if I have ever over-exagerated or plain lied to seem more competent or likeable. It is weird how it is acceptable or almost encouraged to lie when it is for a social reason but not acceptable at all for something malicious or bad (for lack of a better word).

Serendip Activities

The activities that I completed were: Seeing more than your Eye Does, The Free will Problem, Voyage to Serendip, and Prisoner's Dilemma.

I learned that our eyes have blind spots; I never realized how big the blind spots were until I completed the Seeing more than your Eye Does activity. I also learned that there are two or more ways to look at a situation and our perspective is usually based off former experiences. I didn't really notice that there were two sets of arrows until I read the description and looked at the picture from a different perspective. Hopefully that is a transferable skill; so that I look at various situations from both perspectives before making judgements. I will also be checking my blind spots more often while driving. I wouldn't say that this changes the way I view the world or my outlook on life. I think hopefully I will just be more aware of my surroundings.

Miscellaneous things that I learned in this chapter was that there are parts in the brain that control our emotions, thoughts, actions, and interactions with people. I knew that our brain controlled these to an extent but I never realized how big of a role it played until I read this chapter. I definately learned more about the central nervous system, the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and the advantages and disadvantages to "handedness". Overall this was a very interesting chapter.

Chapter Two- The Biology of the Mind

This chapter discusses the brain, its functions, and how they affect people's lives. This is important because without this organ you would not be able to survive. Also every part of the brain has a significant impact on how a person thinks, acts, feels, remembers, or interacts with others around them. If one part is not functioning properly than it will affect other parts of your body such as your muscle movements or your speech.

I learned so much from this chapter. I found it interesting how each part of our brain has a purpose and if one part is not functioning correctly it could affect the parts of the brain. An example of this would be the man with two brains. It was intriguing to see how he can draw separate shapes with each hand. I also took for granted how complex our brain really is. As humans we have more association areas we have compared to those of a mice, cats, and chimpanzees. I also never realized how if the frontal lobe of the brain were to get damaged it could change your outlook on life or become less inhibited and act on our impulses instead. Look at Phineas Gage who was kind and soft spoken before his accident and then he became irritable and dishonest. I also found it interesting that our brain shape is not necessarily determined by genes but also by our experiences. This is through brain plasticity which allows the shape of the brain to modify itself when some types of damage occur or through experiences that a person has. These changes especially take place during childhood. However some parts of the brain are not able to adapt such as the temporal lobes which are used for facial recognition. However in a blind or deaf person the brain makes space for other senses that would have normally been used for sight or sound. These are just a few out of the numerous things that I learned in this chapter.

Current Event

Currently in my life, I have been feeling very stressed out and overwhelmed. The majority of my stress comes from schoolwork, grades, ACT scores, college applications, volunteer hours for National Honor Society, and being an officer to National Honor Society, Future Business Leaders of America, Spanish Club, and Senior Class.

I think the reason why this seems so overwhelming to me right now is that I have been procrastinating more than usual. (Which I used to never do. I have no idea why I have fallen into this bad habit.) Also I tend to put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself which causes me to worry and stress about these minor things all the time. I have problems sleeping at night because I am so worried about my grades and school work. I also have major anxiety issues before taking tests and quizzes. This is something I am currently working on overcoming.

I think that if I could get my stress under control, stop procrastinating, and no longer have test taking anxiety than I would be able to manage things a little bit better.

Chapter One- Thinking Critically

Research in Psychology is important because it is evidence that helps support the theories about behaviors, thought processes, habits, moods, responses, and expressions of people. If the research or the data does not support a theory than it will revised or simply rejected. Without research we would not have knowledge that we do today to make professional diagnoses and evaluations on patients. (Professionalism which we as a society have come to expect and depend upon.)



An example of how research is relevant to my life would be: Within the last year I have had two benign tumors removed. I had several tests and scans done before they could properly diagnosis me. The type of tumors that I had were extremely rare and they had to research through medical books in order to diagnosis me, surgically remove them, and test them for cancer/other diseases. Without research I may not be as healthy as I am today. This is just one simple example out of many as to how research is relevant to my life.


I learned various things in this chapter. I found in particular the research part to be fascinating because I always wondered how psychiatrists knew how to diagnosis patients correctly considering this subject seemed so subjective. Another thing I found to be interesting was the section on wording effects. I never realized how much emphasis people put on words until I read that section. I also learned about the correlations and illusory correlations. I never realized that people are more likely to recall or notice things when they believe a relationship exists.

Prologue Blog

Before reading the prologue I thought that Psychology encompassed the thoughts, behaviors, and emotions of a person. After reading the prologue I found out that differs because Psychology is so much more than that. Psychology encompasses functions off the mind and puts people's actions into seven perspectives. The perspectives are Neuroscience, Evolutionary, Behavior Genetics, Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive, and Social-Cultural.

Psychology affects my life everyday because based off my genes, information/data, and memory I would not be able to function whatsoever. Psychology explains all my phobias/repulsions of heights, bugs, worms, and fish/seafood. It also explains my emotional responses, perceptions, influences, moods, and habits.

I think what I learned most from reading the prologue was that every thought, perception, response, mood, and/or habit can for the most part be explained. I found this to be intriguing because now I might have an explanation for my responses, habits, and/or moods that I did not have before. I also never knew that there were seven perspectives of Psychology to describe aspects of our day to day life. Overall I found this prologue to be a very insightful look as to what to expect to learn about Psychology.

Sit Up Straight! Be Confident!

I read this article recently on PsychBlog which discussed the results of a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology about posture when sitting. The study took 71 students and divided them into four groups. The first group was a group of students that were sitting up straight and writing three positive things about themselves. The second group was a group of students that were sitting up straight but writing three negative things about themselves. The third group was a group of students that were slouching and writing three positive things about themselves. The last group of students were slouching and writing three negative things about themselves. The point of the study was to see if your posture had anything to do with self-esteem. The results showed that the students who were sitting up straight were more likely to believe the three positive things that they said about themselves verses the students who were slouching and did not believe the positive things that they wrote down about themselves.

I found this article interesting because I find when I am slouching that I tend to have problems paying attention and tend to think negatively about things I have to get done. However when I am sitting up straight I tend to be more productive. I doubt that this study applies to everyone but I still find it fascinating how the little irrelevant things can impact a person's attitude or whole outlook on the day along with their self-esteem.

About Me

Hello,
My name is Jessica Treml. I am a seventeen year old and a senior at Edgar High School.

I believe my friends and family have helped shape my life and help to make the person I am today. I believe this because if they were not around and different people were there to influence me I may not be the same person I am today.

Studying Psychology is important because it will help me better understand others around me and because it affects every aspect of my life. This will help me be more compassionate towards others and help me not make preconceived notions of others before meeting them first.

I believe Psychology is the study of the thoughts, expressions, and behaviors through human reactions to our environment.