Blog Post #13 - Social Psychology

1) I was not able to view the video due to technological difficulties, but I have developed many thoughts just by reading of the studies in the book. I was surprised at the results of the Asch’s Conformity experiment because the correct answer seemed extremely obvious. If I were to have done this experiment, I believe that I would have internally questioned my answer, but I do not think I would have changed it. Although seemingly obvious, I can see how people conform their answer to what everyone else is saying. It is like the “ask the audience” lifeline on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. Contestants usually choose what the audience suggests because it is what the majority thinks/knows, therefore, it is usually correct. This experiment shows that it is human nature to “go along with the crowd.” This aspect is a part of several species throughout the world because if members of a group do not stick together, they will most likely be killed or die in some other way (starvation, etc.)
I thought that Malgram’s Obedience experiment was shocking! As we saw in class, most of us believe we would not advance very far in the intensity of the shock, especially if we were told that the person being shocked had a heart condition. I can’t believe so many people went all the way on the intensity of the shock! This experiment shows that it is human nature to be obedient to those superior to us, even though we may think what we are doing is wrong or inducing pain upon someone else.
I was also astounded by the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment. I do not think I could do such things as the prison guards did, especially if I knew and had good relationships with the “prisoners.” I thought the most interesting aspect of this experiment was the fact that after it was complete, the “prisoners” had very altered and bad views of the people who played the “prison guards” because of what the “prison guards” did to them, even though the “prisoners” understood that this was merely an experiment. This experiment shows that it is human nature to sooner or later form our attitudes around the roles that we may or must take.

2) Social influence is when someone acts or thinks in a way that is influenced by a group of people (this happens for a variety of reasons: acceptance, information correctness, etc.). I recall, on several accounts, thinking or writing down an answer (whether in school or simple driving directions) that I was almost positive was correct, but when more than one other person disagrees or gets a different answer, I usually question whether my own is correct. I don’t always conform to other’s answers, but I question the correctness of my own. Another example of social influence in my life is when I go to leadership conferences. In the beginning, almost everyone is shy and conceded, but as the conference progresses, people begin to loosen up and become very interactive and outgoing. I try to step outside my box immediately, but it is quite hard when others are not. I find myself “going with the crowd” and becoming increasingly outgoing as the conference progresses. We all seem to feed off of each other.

3) The most interesting thing I learned in this class is everything I learned about the psychological disorder, schizophrenia. Again, as I stated in my previous blog post, my dad’s mother developed schizophrenia when Dad was about 12 years old. As a result of the disorder, Dad did not have many good memories of his mom the last 6 years of her life. Therefore, he did not like to talk about her very much. When I read about schizophrenia when I was up north hunting with Dad, I asked him if his mother showed certain symptoms that the book explained. He really opened up and I learned a lot about the grandma I never knew. I also read some information about the disease to Dad. He liked learning and understanding more about the disorder his mom had developed. Dad opening up to me about his mom was one of the most important things that has happened to me throughout this course. This is one thing that I hold very close to my heart and has ultimately changed my life.

Blog Post #12 - Psychological Disorders

1) Deciding whether something is or is not a psychological disorder can be very difficult because there are many grey areas to consider, such as whether the patient is telling the truth, or simply trying to cover up something he or she did. Although one thing is for certain. According to the book, to be a psychological disorder the person must exhibit “Deviant and distressful behaviors . . . when also judged to be a harmful dysfunction.” This means that the behavior(s) a person exhibits must be different from most other people in one’s culture, must cause the person distress, and must interfere in an obstructive and bad way in all of the person’s daily activities in order to be considered a psychological disorder. The book gives a clear example of a behavior that is dysfunctional, “An intense fear of spiders may be deviant, but if it doesn’t impair your life it is not a disorder.” If someone merely acts “abnormally” they do not have a psychological disorder (unless they exhibit all of the above criteria) because what may be abnormal to some people, cultures, and/or societies, may be quite common and normal to others. This is why more than just deviance is accounted for when it comes to deciding whether someone has a psychological disorder.

#2 & #3 (Together)

The most interesting thing I learned in this section is definitely the part in our book about schizophrenia. My dad's mother died when he was only 18 years old from cardiac arrest. When Dad turned about 12 years old, his mother developed schizophrenia. Dad's memories of the last six years with his mother were not very good. Therefore, he doesn't talk about her very much. If you ask, he usually tells you a little bit, but his answers are short and he barely ever goes into detail.

When I realized that this chapter had a part about schizophrenia, I waited to read it until I went up north hunting with Dad (this is my time with Dad and the boys on his side of the family). The hunting shack up north is only a two room, 500 square foot house with no electricity (except when we run the generator) and no plumbing. (We use an outhouse.) Therefore, Dad and I get a lot of quality time together to talk and have fun.

I would read it at the table in the evening and when I would learn a little more about the disease, I would ask Dad if his mom ever showed these signs and acted in certain ways. Dad became very open with me and explained a lot. He told me that the first sign he remembered when she was beginning to get the disease was when one of their kittens ran underneath the fridge. The kitten would be able to get out on its own, but his mom was determined to get the kitten out. She even tried so hard that she cut her arm all up from reaching under the fridge. Dad thought that her actions were quite weird. His mom also had hallucinations (visual and sound) and she was hard to follow when she spoke. In later years, Dad told me that his mom was so drugged up on medications from the disease, that she was very unresponsive and lethargic. I also learned that she was the one who "invented" corn and rice (mixed together). (This is a popular dinner side at my house.)

Learning this information about the grandma I never knew was the most important thing to me. I hardly know anything about Dad's family history and it's nice to find out.

Blog Post #11 - Personality

1) In my opinion, my personality is very complex. In some aspects I do not even know what my personality is. For example, I see myself as an organized person because I hate disorganization. If you would look in my locker at my binders and books, you would say I'm extremely organized, but if you would look at my room . . . well you would think the exact opposite. I love to organize things, but I find I have a lack of time. I sometimes portray opposite personality traits. Sometimes I will be very outgoing, while other times I will not want to talk to anyone. Overall, I believe that these personality traits fit me well:

Positive Traits
- Open-minded: by being open-minded, I am open to experience many new and exciting things! Even if I am a little timid, if I know I will be safe, I push myself to try it, at least once because then I can say that I did it. This gives me a sense of pride.
- Caring/Thoughtful: by being caring and thoughtful, I find that other peoples' attitudes towards are positive. When people have a positive attitude towards you, you end up making more friends, more connections, and in the end, more opportunities. Being caring and thoughtful also makes me feel good because I love helping others.
- Controlled: I can control my actions and words very well. I keep many of my thoughts and feelings to myself, unless I really trust a person. By controlling my actions and my words, I do not get into trouble very often.
- Careful: I take care in everything I do. I am usually very careful in my choice of words and actions, which also keeps me out of trouble. When performing a job or homework I take care in the work I am doing so that it is the best it can be. By doing this, employers and other people trust me with several tasks.
- Leadership: Through the FFA I have learned several leadership skills. I can use these skills throughout my whole life. By being a leader I can successfully drive a group with a common goal to success. I am also very good at listening to peoples' ideas and utilizing each individual's talent(s) to contribute to the final goal.
- Perfectionist: As a perfectionist, I put a lot of time and effort into everything I do, which usually results in outstanding work. This is my most dominate trait (just ask anyone who knows me). People recognize the outstanding work that results from my perfectionism and I am given several opportunities because of it.

Negative Traits
- Moody: When I am moody, I affect all of the people around me in a negative way. I am crabby towards those I love most because I am most comfortable expressing my mood/feelings to them. I do not like being moody. If I become moody, everyone else I care about also becomes sad and moody, which makes me sad and makes the whole situation worse.
- Procrastination: I constantly wait until the last minute to do things. I hate being a procrastinator because it causes me a lot of stress. I have cried and cried and worried over things that I have to get done in a very short period of time. I believe one reason I am like this is because I do not have good time perception at all. When I think to myself that I have a week to do something, that week flies by really fast and there I sit with a ton of work to do in just one day.
- Perfectionist: Perfectionism is my greatest quality, yet it is also one of my worst. As a perfectionist, I take a lot of time to do things; too much time. I always find myself rushing to get things done. My perfectionism also causes me great anxiety because if I don't feel that my work is perfect, I cannot settle with it. I have to keep racking my brain to get the best results.

2) I do not know if I would call myself an optimist, but I want to and I try to be optimistic. In all situations, I try really hard to find the silver lining, but sometimes trying to be optimistic is so overwhelming. Sometimes I cannot find or accept the silver lining. I find my life is a lot easier when I am passive and optimistic, but the process of pushing myself to find and accept the silver lining is sometimes exhausting and causes me to become even more upset and tired. I want to be optimistic so bad, but some people tell me I am a pessimist. I really don't know what I am. I guess it just depends on the situation. For example, when I am angry over something simple, such as getting one bad grade or fussing over something little that bothered me, I always try to tell myself that getting upset and angry is stupid. I tell myself that my life is so much better than most people. Would I rather be living in a third world country with very little food, water, and shelter? I can also think of an example of my pessimism. I was extremely excited for hunting season this year because it is the one time out of the year I get to see Dad's side of the family (most of them live in Milwaukee), but when I learned that none of them were coming, my excitement dropped to depression. Don't get me wrong, I love hunting and spending time with Dad, but I really wanted to see my family, plus now we won't have enough people to make drives, which are my favorite part of hunting. I had a good time hunting for this first weekend because two of our friends that have a cabin two miles down the road from us stopped by everyday, but they are leaving Tuesday. I don't know what is to come for the rest of the week. My heart aches just thinking about it.

3) Sometimes I am outgoing, while other times I am very conceded. When I am in a good mood and I am with people who are also outgoing and talkative, I have no problem being outgoing myself, but when I am in a group of crabby and quiet people, I find it very hard to leave my comfort zone. Even if I try to be sociable and outgoing, I usually feel like I fail when I cannot influence others to talk back and do the same. This benefits me because it allows me to express my true self and feelings to those people who care. I do not always express my feelings or opinions unless I know and trust the people I am telling it to.
Most of the time I have a good attitude, but sometimes I have a horrible temper. I only get a temper when I am around the people I trust and love the most because they are the only ones I feel comfortable expressing everything to. I also only get a temper when something sets me off. The trigger is usually a single statement, which I blow up at. This is not a trait that I would call good, but it does benefit me because it allows me to just let go of all of the horrible feelings that were building up inside of me. When I blow up, After I sleep and wake up in the morning, I feel so much better than the day before and I can talk about the situation more calmly.


4)Reaction formation: A defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. I used to be terrified of large carnival rides (mainly because I am afraid of heights), but one time my cousin got me to ride on one. I absolutely loved it. From then on, even if I was afraid of a ride that I had never gone on before, I tell myself that I am not afraid. When I am freaking out inside, while climbing the steep hill of a roller coaster, I tell myself that I am not afraid of heights. Then, I divert my attention to talking excessively and admiring the wonderful view.
Projection: A defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. My boyfriend constantly bugs me about my procrastination and it bothers me. Therefore, the second I see him even think about procrastinating about something, I am quick to jump on it an confront him.
Displacement: A defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person. I express this defense mechanism a lot when I am having a bad day. I usually end up taking it out on my parents or my boyfriend by snapping at them and being quick to judge them for any little thing they do. I hate doing this and I don't even know why I do it. I always feel horrible when I do do this.

Blog Post #9 - Memory

Our memory is like our life story in our heads (kind of like a huge scrapbook, photo album, or video album of our lives). We are defined by past events or memories because those experiences have shaped up to form who we are today. Life without memory would be extremely hard to imagine. You would have no recollection of who you are, where you are, what you are doing, and who you are with. Even when watching the video of Clive Wearing, I could not comprehend how he could not remember things. I was surprised that he recognized his wife, yet thought he had not seen her in several years. I am also surprised that he is still a great musician and conductor! If I were Clive's wife, I would become extremely frustrated because living a normal life with my husbad would be extremely difficult. I would have to do almost everything. Despite this, I would stay with my husband because I pledged my love to him and he is really the same person, just with no memory. I can't even imagine what I would do in a situation like this. After watching the video, I feel very fortunate to have memory. As I think back to all of my life experiences, plus what I have learned, I feel that my memory capability is extremely huge! I can't believe a person could store a lifetime of information in one little spot!

I look at the way we interpret memories very differently than I did before. I now find the concept of memory much more complex and extravagant. Such that by making links between familiar things to new things, the new things are much easier to remember, as was demostrated in the first memory exercise I performed. I do not see my memories differently, but I think about them a lot more. For example, a few years ago I lost a very special necklace. I had given it to my gym teacher to hold on for me because I was afraid it was going to get broken during class. I forgot to get it back from her after class. A few days later, I asked if I could have it back, but she told me that she had already given it back to me. At that time I knew that she didn't, but as the months and years went by I constantly question if she actually did and I'm the one who lost it.

One significant concept that I learned in this chapter was forgetting. I forget a lot of things. I easily lose train of thought and forget what I was even going to say or do. In this chapter I learned that forgetting can actually be a good thing: A way to rid your memory of "junk." This is important to me because I now find myself appreciating my forgetfulness because I would not want to be like the Russian memory whiz S, and remember everything! I would be much for frustrated with that problem. I can apply this to my life by realizing I must forget things to be able to retain more important information. In this sense I have become much more understanding of myself.

Blog Post 8

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. For example, if you have a cat and feed the cat soft cat food out of a can the cat soon learns that every time they hear a can opener or the seal of a can broken, they are going to get fed. The cat links the sound of the can opening to being fed. Therefore, when the cat hears the can opening, he or she runs to the kitchen and begins to meow and create a fuss. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. For example, while teaching a dog to sit, you give him the command and help him or her to sit. After the dog sits, you reward him with praise, a favorite toy, or a treat. After several repetitions of this process, the dog will realize that every time you say the command and he responds by sitting, he will get a reward; therefore he continues the behavior. Classical conditioning forms associations between stimuli and involves respondent behavior (actions that are automatic responses to a stimulus), while operant conditioning teaches an action by using reinforcement. Both of these types of learning and conditioning greatly apply to my life because I train (teach) equines, canines, and felines. I find it very interesting that I use these concepts everyday when I train animals. I feel that I can relate and understand this chapter more than any of the other chapters we have read so far because of my strong personal connection to it.

Positive reinforcements strengthen a response by presenting a typically pleasurable stimulus after a response. Negative reinforcements strengthens a response by reducing or removing something undesirable or unpleasant. Punishment is a consequence that decreases the behavior that it follows.

Positive Reinforcement: I have always received good grades. I believe the main reason why I receive good grades is because when my parents would get my report card and see excellent grades on it, they would become extremely happy. I would get hugs and Mom and Dad would tell me how proud of me they were. It made me feel extremely good. Sometimes they would even buy me something that I really wanted, just because I got good grades on a report card. Therefore, I always work hard on my schoolwork to achieve that moment, when my parents get to see what my work has done.

Negative Reinforcement: This event did not happen to me, but to my dog. He got into a fight with a porcupine and afterwards, his face was full of quills. It was quite painful for him. My dad tried to pull them out. Our dog was fidgeting a lot for the first few quills, but as my dad kept pulling them out, he realized that after the quill was pulled out, the pain wasn't nearly as bad. Therefore, our dog stood very still the rest of the time. After that day, if anything was physically hurting him, he would always go to Dad and let Dad help him.

Punishment: A few years ago I was training a miniature stallion. His training was going very well, until I tried to separate him from "his mare." As I was leading him away, he bit me. I let go of him in shock. He then turned around and kicked me and ran back to "his mare." After that his biting and kicking increased in severity. Everyone was afraid of him. One day, after he was gelded, I was sick and tired of his severe behavior. I took him out of the field and simply walked him around in a circle. I watched his muzzle very closely and every time he tried to bite me or even held his ears back I whacked him across the nose with the end of the lead rope because biting is a VERY VERY UNACCEPTABLE behavior. Let me tell you, he stopped biting and kicking real fast. He has not bitten or kicked anyone since then and is now an excellent miniature pony, who has won all blue ribbons in his performance classes!

I thought that everything in this chapter was interesting! I especially liked learning more about operant conditioning because I use it all the time, every day when I train animals. I also liked learning the different ways operant conditioning can be used. I can use this information to more effectively teach others during Food for America, Safety Day, and the other presentations that I put on throughout the year. I can also subconsciously use this information while trying to recruit people to participate in an activity and "training" boyfriends (JUST KIDDING!).

Blog Post #7

I would explain sensation and perception by saying that sensation is how we obtain information: through our senses. Perception is how we interpret and feel about those thing that we sense.

The most interesting this I learned in this section was by far the fact that pain can be treated both physically and psychologically. I found it extremely interesting that by just making people in pain believe that they were given pain-relieving medication decreased their pain. I also thought it was interesting that pain can be reduced by simply distracting the mind to think about something else other than the pain. This makes me perceive pain in a different way. Pain is not just physically felt, but mentally enhanced. Pain becomes worse the more we think about how much it hurts. I believe that this will greatly help me in my everyday life because now I know what makes pain worse (thinking about it). Whenever I am in pain or if someone else is in pain, I will try to distract myself or the other person to help. By doing this, that pain and overall stress will be reduced.

I read the article "Is Sacrifice in Relationships Related to Commitment and Functioning?" This article was about the two different ways sacrifice is perceived in a relationship. Sacrifice can either be perceived as a good thing, a way to show your commitment, while the "feminist" perception of sacrifice is that sacrifice is something you do no matter what, therefore does not show commitment. Research suggest healthy relationships are not by how much a couple sacrifices for each other, but rather how the sacrifice is perceived. I though that this was a very interesting point. This changes the way I view a healthy relationship. I key concept to a healthy relationship is simply mindset and how you perceive things. This will help me in my everyday life because I will be more sensitive to how I perceive my sacrifices in my own relationships. I may also be able to recognize other's sacrifice perception in their own relationships and may possibly be able to help them.

Blog Post #6

My interview with my grandpa was very interesting. I learned so much about his past and life as a teenager. I also learned how life was as a teenager sixty years ago, which is quite different from our teenage life today. I was very surprised when my grandfather told me that he completed two grades in one year! Now I definitely know where our family's "smart gene" came from! In terms of physical labor, my life as a teenager was so much easier than my grandfather's. His mother died when he was nine and therefore had to do all the chores and had no time for extracurriculars. There was one aspect, though, that was exactly the same: my grandfather never got enough sleep because he was up all night doing homework! He was always low on sleep, which is not good on a person's body. I have the exact same problem! I believe I could have been a teenager at the time because I don't mind physical labor, but I do not think that I would like it as much as I like my own life now.



I believe the "Parenting and Adolescence" video makes some extremely good points dealing with adolescents. I found it interesting how Donna Gaines perceived adolescents as poor people, who have no rights, no civil liberties, and are controlled by adults because I believe that this is how a lot of "rebellious" teenagers see themselves as this, while parents and other adults simply see teenagers as younger who still need guidance before they are able to become 100% responsible for themselves. I believe this is a huge factor in adult-teenager conflictions. I really like the advice the video gives to parents to protect and guide their teenager, but to let them express themselves and do things (as long as it does not conflict harm, or serious results) that they want.





My time as an adolescent has been amazing! My teenage years has been a great roller coaster ride, with several ups and downs, but I would not change it for the world. Overall, my experiences have been filled with fun and memorable times, but I am still thankful for all of the bad experiences and choices that I made. All of my mistakes and bad times have helped me and made me stronger. I've learned several things over my teenage years, which will stay with me as I become an adult. I believe that is exactly what adolescence is all about: make choices and have experiences (as long as they do not cause harm or damage). This is the time to make mistakes, while we still have a structured life at home. As we grow older, we look back at our adolescent days and realize how stupid we were for the things we did, but how would we know they were stupid if we never did them?



In chapter 4 I learned that an enriched environment and experiences contributes to enriching our brain cells to have a heavier and thicker cortex. I thought this was really interesting because if you think about older people, they are wise and have more knowledge because they have so many more experiences than younger people. I can apply this in my everyday life by realizing that I need to experience as many things as possible to be wiser and to have "better brain cells."

In chapter 5 I learned what the stages of cognitive development are. I find these very helpful in my life because I never really knew what should happen when in a child's development. With this knowledge I can observe and realize what stage a child is on and whether they should be on that stage. By doing this one may also be able to identify problems in a child if they are greatly ahead or behind the correct stage(s) for their age.