Developing

This chapter really set into me after going through it completely. Talking about the life and how we develope was pretty interesting. However, it just sunk into me after reading that that i am no longer a child...we as seniors will now be entering the real world and will be soon making a life of our own and becoming less dependant on our family. Before i was always so excited to get out of this town, go to college, and just be living on my own. Then, when i really began to sit down and think about it it really struck me that maybe that isn't what i want after all. Although i may talk big and mighty i know it is not going to be an easy journey. maybe life at home with the parents (as strict as they may be) isn't so bad afterall!

Extra Credit

When i was doing my interview for the extra credit i actually found myself enjoying it. I visited a member at the local nursing home and asked if she would mind talking to me about what it was like back in the day. Turns out she had a lot to say and we shared a few things in common here and there which was pretty cool. She was a victim of the great depression, but in the long run turned her life around and really did well. It was pretty cool to hear how she made it through all of that because kids these days are spoiled rotten and wouldnt have lasted or endured anything like what they had to. At a young age she ran away with the boy she met at the farmers market who stole her heart and from there she settled down, made amends with her family, and then created her own! Her son is active in the air force so it was really exciting to listen to her tell me about that. Overall i think it was just a good experience and i really enjoyed talking with her!

Developing through the life span

This chapter was a lot of review from what we already knew about how we are brought into and out of the life cycle, but it also presented some new and interesting ideas and theories i had never heard of before. The one that most intrigued me were the 3 different types of parenting. I think as students we can all catagorize what type we think our parents are in and it's interesting to know there are different types. I'm sure we as kids either just labled them as cool parents or strict parents. Although it may seem like mine are overly strict i think i could classify mine under the authoritative class.

I also found it interesting when the book talked about stranger anxiety in children. When there is a baby in the room it always seems like everyone wants to hold it and the baby gets passed from person to person. When the baby starts crying everyone assumes its because it is being handled so much when really there is a little psychology in there! The baby sufferes stranger anxiety when it can not put a familiar face or schema to the person holding them and becomes instantly irratable. I found that pretty cool that occurs at such a young age, because even as adults we don't genereally feel comfortable around people we dont know. So i guess it follows you all through life.

The final thing to surprise me was the attachment we make at such a young age. Of course we are going to want to surround ourselves with people we are familiar with and that take care and support us, but that attachment level goes deeper than we think! When it showed the birds flying with the machine because of the familiarity they had with it from before they were born was really a cool thing! It makes you really think. I really enjoyed this chapter even when some of the material was familiar. It caught my attention!

How rewards can back fire!

Reading this article it really intrigued me. It was to determine if people perform better or worse based on an award recieved or not. The article took three different groups and promised one group an expected award, one a surprise award, and one group none at all. Based on the awards they would receive they were told to draw. The study proved that those who were expecting an award drew far less spontaniously and the ones who didn't still just drew simply for fun. This article i thought related to the real world of adults who go to work everyday or so on. Some work harder because they want a bonus. Some already enjoy their jobs and seek no further award. To me that is how it should be becuase clearly according to the results of this article those that werent expecting award continued to put more effort into their projects anyway. I mean i don't swim for the first place medals (even if they are nice!) I swim for the love of the competition. So maybe this article was true, rewards can backfire!

Evolutionary Psychology

After watching the movie on Evolutionary Psychology it really made you think that it all does come from caveman time. It stated that men preferred younger women because they enjoyed being in a relationship with someone that they felt they could dominate. However, women enjoyed being in a relationship with older men because they want someone that is resourceful and can take care of themselves. Although it may not be true in all cases i believe the majority it is. At least i myself tend to find myself falling for the older boys not because i need them to provide for me, but it is a boys maturity level these days. Boys mature much slower than girls do so if they are older it may be equal. I thought the clip made a couple very good points that demonstrated how we have changed a little but the majority of our dating preferences comes from the old age. Sad to say...some things never change!

Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity

This chapter was very intriguing to say the least. I learned a lot more than i thought i would take in in one chapter so i had to go back a couple times to process all of it. I really enjoyed learning about the twins. When asked about fraternal and identical twins to be honest with you i really had no idea, but didn't really care because a twin is a twin. Now when someone asks i will know what they are talking about. I was also shocked to learn about heredity. I knew heredity was responsible for physical things such as looks, height, and all of that, but i also thought that heredity was responsible for how we act as well. People always say that if their parents are outgoing so might there kid. However, it is untrue. The fact that we are outgoing or shy or any of those characteristics come from our culture and environment we live in and not our parents at all! Shocking! I also really liked learning about our culture norms. What is acceptable in one area of the world may be completely inappropriate in another area. I'm considering testing some of them out because i found it pretty interesting.

This chapter had a lot of things that shocked me. The hereditary part of this chapter completely shocked me. Other things shocked me, but i think i was more surprised only because i had a different opinion on them. I didn't agree with the fact that our society depicts males as more dominant, I personally feel that women have equal power, but i know that is not how society depicts it unfortunately. So maybe it was more or less shocked, but i think just opinionated.

This chapter was really good to read being on our senior year when we are getting ready for higher education and being out on our own we really begin to test everything that our parents have either tried teaching us or have passed down by genetics. The nature/nurture issue was very intriguing!

Implicit Association

When i took my implicit association test i was to determine if i was prejudiced against gays or straights. I took this one because i feel very strongly i have no prejudice about gays, i have several gay friends. However, my test scores surprised me in the sense that i in fact was prejudiced. I feel like that test was inaccurate because i dont understand how putting words to one side or the other can determine if you are prejudiced. Apparently i am though, weather that test is wrong or right i won't know. I just wanted to share how shocked i was to reveal my results.

Are You a Liar

I recently read the article "Are You a Liar?" and found it very interesting. It claimed that people lie an average of 3 times within 10 minutes of meeting someone new. Find that shocking? They put it to the test with their own experiment and found the results to match the myth, slightly like mythbusters! It was true indeed. As astounding as it sounds you can never just trust someone. All the people tested lied easily 3 times or more in a 10 minute conversation with someone new. Althought men had the tendancy to lie the most (real shocker there ladies) women lied as well. Men lied about feelings in hopes to be more likeable to the woman they were talking to and women lied more about their feelings to seem more competant to the man they were speaking to. So just when you think you are begining to like someone think again, they just might be lying their way to win your heart. It was a very good article and i suggest anyone who wanted to know more should go check it out!

Conscienceness and the two track mind

In this chapter i really enjoyed learning about the 5 sleep cycles we go through in 90 minutes. I was able to visualize all the stages. The ones where we aren't so asleep to the heavy sleep stage. It was also neat learning that the body had sleep cycles according to light and we regularily mess that up. I know this applies to me a lot because some nights i will turn in early to get good rest for a swim meet and other nights i'm up til the late late hours trying to study for something. After reading the effects that had on the body i know i want to try and find a regular sleep cycle from now on reguardless of what i have to get done.
It really surprised me, even though it may not be quite appropriate, the dreams we have. I was surprised to see that we do not have as many sexual dreams, especially guys. That a guys so called "morning erection" does not come from the type of dream he is having, but from his last REM period of sleep. That really struck me as surprising!
In this chapter it is obvious to say, because i'm sure we are all talking from personal experience, that a good nights sleep does the body wonders. I agree with that much because i know when my body doesn't get the sleep it needs, it starts to shut down and i can not perform the way i can when i have a good nights sleep. However, i disagree with Freud when he talks about the importance of dreams and how they are just revealing our deepest desires and such. If that were so, then Freud is saying my deepest desires at night is to be chased down by a crazy person with the potential of being killed? I think not. And i have had the dream where i am being chased, it is not pleasant and i know for a fact it is not at all what i desire. So where it may be true in some cases he can not claim that it is true for all. Yes, we do need a good nights sleep to perform well, but no, dreams do not express what we deeply desire.

Current Events

This whole week has been extremely crazy for me. Between school, homecoming, swimming, and all the assignments i have to stay on top of i'm really beginning to get run down. Just the stress of college applications, scholarships, and wanting to do my best in everything is tearing me apart. Then come to find to my luck of it all, the day after homecoming when i can attempt to catch up on rest i get extremely sick. That was leading my curiosity to one thing currently, is it possible that being over stressed can cause you to get sick?

After all, when i'm stressed out i don't feel good about myself, i dont have an appetite, and i can barely get sleep. The three of those alone make the possibility of it all seem true, but is it more a mental thing than anything? Do we trick our minds to thinking that being that low on life forces us to get sick or is it that we actually do catch a virus and there for dont feel well? Someone let me know what you think!

The Man With Two Brains

I really enjoyed hearing about the man with two brains. It was very interesting and ignited alot of emotions in me. I felt bad for him, but in the same sense was excited for him that there could be such a thing to overcome and he has been doing exactly just that. I mean it probably would not be so fun that on one side he can process things normally and on the other it takes quite a while. For me i would find that frustrating, but he doesn't seem to be too poorly affected by it.

I really thought it was cool when it came to the part of drawing two different pictures. I tried to do that myself and came out with nothing but a bunch of scribbles on one side and a very poor picture on the other. But, since he can see two seperate things on both sides it was easier for him. I bet he makes quite the good multitasker!

I hope all their experiments done on him come out with even more good news and he can live just like everyone else. It must be exciting to say you dont just have one brain, but two! This was a very enlightening subject to learn!

The Brain and Behavior

This chapter i played the four games The three door, Ambiquous figures, Ant colonies, and Prisoners dilemma. The one i found exceptionally interesting was the Prisoners Dilemma. It asked you to pick between cooperating or competing against another prisoner. You could choose to work together and get 3 coins or possibly compete against him to get 5 coins. Although it is everyones instinct to want to have a one up on the other person and compete i found i won more coins by cooperating. That really made me think that that could apply to everyday life for many cases.

I was in many cases surprised by alot of things in this chapter. I thought there was only one system to control what happened in your body to send messages and what not but here there are multiple that all have a specific function. That was really cool to learn how they all did their own thing, but linked together for one main goal of helping out our body.

As far as applying things to my everyday life i think i would refer to the game more than i would the book. The book was very factual this chapter, but that game really made me think. The majority of us are greedy and will do all the competing we can to get a leg up, but if you do choose to cooperate it can benefit the both of you rather than just one of you. That was really neat to me when i thought about this world and how everyone is all about themselves.

I really think after that i have a new outlook on it. It really was a wake up to see that instead of being greedy and selfish you should want to cooperate as best as you possibly can. I think i'm going to give it a good try. This chapter had alot of really interesting things to think about, i really enjoyed it.

In this chapter i really enjoyed reading about the amygdala, the part of the brain that triggers aggression. I always wondered what part of the brain it was or what triggered such an emotion and it comes from two tiny bean-sized clusters. I think it would be more interesting to learn why some people have more aggression that others however, something for me to research into. The second thing i really enjoyed was learning the structure of the brain in itself. When you witness something on your left side it goes to your brains right side. That was very interesting. I also really enojyed learning about the brain and how it can manage to fix itself. Say a person is blind or deaf, it allows the unused areas of the brain to adapt or learn other helpful information. For examlple, if someone is blind their other senses really kick in such as touch, smell, and so on. That was very enlightening and empowering.