First Impression Chapter 8

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Memories are made through every person’s lifetime, all are unique and possess a different meaning for each person. Though, like the prompt says, some of the memories are stronger than others, making some feel as though it just happened yesterday when it could have happened over fifteen years ago. I think that some memories are stronger than others because they contain so many strong emotions. For example, those that remember what they were doing when 9/11 occurred. The emotions that were probably occurring at the moment were strong, a strong sense of fear, a strong sense of loss, and a strong sense of anger. These emotions occurred so strongly that the memory that contained those emotions will be just as strong, making it something that they are able to recall nearly perfectly.

I believe that a way that we could study, if the reasoning for the strong memories is because of the strong emotions, is to gather a group of volunteers ranging in multiple ages, and randomly assign those people to two groups. One of the groups will be told about an event that may have had some significance to them, that would cause strong emotions, for example 9/11 or the Boston marathon bombing in 2013, and will be asked to describe the event, what they were doing when they found out about the event, what did they feel at the moment. The second group would be given less intense moments that won’t include as strong set of emotions. Such as a family members graduation or playing on the jungle gym in the fourth grade. They would then be asked to explain the moment, to give the emotions that they were feeling. The intensity of both groups would be ranged on a scale of 1(not vivid) to 10(extremely vivid).

Then, the results would be compared after the study. Comparing the mean scores of the two groups, which in return would give a good explanation on which group had a stronger memory and give a reliable conclusion that the stronger the emotions, the stronger the memory.

1st Impression Post

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Violence in video games has become more vivid and graphic. I, however, do not believe that the increase in violence in video games is the sole reason for the increase of violence in reality. Throughout history, violence has always been a part of society in some way or another. Though, one of the most prominent examples can be war, when it comes to things in society, you could also put a blame on movies or even adult figures in a child’s life. Movies have always included some kind of violence, whether it was the three stooges poking each other in the eyes or watching Wild West movies with cowboys and bandits shooting at each other. The years have gone on, violence is still incorporated into movies in a more vivid manner, just as they are in video games. This being said how was it the increase in violence only blames on the video games when they are other methods of which violence can be expressed to a child? Violent video games can be seen by many different perspectives, though most negative, there is at least one positive that I can think of, children are able to see what some people go through in a war zone, in the military, and hopefully that game will increase the amount of support that is given to those in service.

Family members can also speak in a violent manner, making a child believe that violence is not a bad thing, but rather a good thing. If parents are expressing violence, why can’t the child? Therefore, I do not believe that you can explicitly blame video games for the increase in violence as there are many different aspects that can produce the increase in violence in todays society. I do not believe that the banning of video games is going to help to issue of violence in todays society so I disagree with them being permanently banned.

Chapter 4-First Impression Post

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Parenting is something that everybody has there own opinion on when it comes to how it is supposed to be gone about. Though, there are ideal ways that parenting should be dealt with. From my point of view the ideal way of parenting should include freedom to make mistakes but also be there to guide them through life changing events and hard times.

A child starting at a young age needs to learn to make decisions on their own, though these decisions should not be detrimental to the child’s safety or well-being. This can start with them choosing what they would like to have for lunch, for example, do they want a PB&J or a cheese sandwich. However, as they get older the decisions that the child must make is going to become increasing more difficult and may even have a effect on the rest of their lives. This could include going to a late night party which could have a negative impact on the child’s live if there is alcohol involved. However, at some point in the child’s late teenage year they should make that decision on their own. If they make a mistake they will learn from it, if they don’t make their own mistakes how are they supposed to learn how to survive in society or in life itself. However, when a child makes a mistake, parents should not only discipline the child but also guide them in the right direction so they do not make the mistake again. Every child will respond to events differently but it the the parents place to raise them through guidance and understanding as well as through teaching and discipline.

Miguel Case Study: Extra Credit Post

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Miguel has been struggling with his coursework lately. He has felt very tired in recent weeks and has found it difficult to focus on his studies. Even though he is always tired, he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommate. He is a bit of a perfectionist and gets mad at himself when he makes even tiny mistakes. It’s gotten to the point where he doubts his ability to do anything right.

Based on psychodynamics, Miguel is not irritated about his homework or really upset with his roommates. He is have a conflict from within. This is probably a conflict that Miguel is not even aware of as it is in his unconscious. It could be a event that happened to him as a young child, that involved school in someway.
Based on behavioral psychology, we are only able to conclude that his is irritable, is picking fights with his roommate and has a difficult time falling asleep. He may be getting these behaviors from watching someone else around him acting the same way.
Based on humanistic psychology, due to Miguel’s struggle he may feel like he has no worth. That because he is struggling with his course work he doesn’t deserve the love and positivity from others around him. This could be the reason that he is trying to start fights with his roommate.
Based on cognitive psychology, Miguel may be maladaptive. He is unable to adapt to the situation that is at hand when it comes to his homework. He is lashing out at his roommate. and he venting his anger and frustration on unhealthy ways.
Based on neuroscience, Miguel could have gotten these behaviors through his genes. His mother or father may have passed some of the genes on to him that is making him so irritable and stressed the way he is about his course work.
Based on cultural psychology, he my have been brought up in a community that pressured their youth to do well in there coursework, which may also explain his perfectionism. His community may have disapproved of his difficulties he is having. His parents may have also had a part in it, and acted similar then he is acting when they were frustrated or struggling with something.

First Impression-Chapter 1

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

The topic that I would choose to create a research study on would be dreams. Dreams are something that I am curious about, as it seems to be something that everyone has. Some dreams, almost every person seems to come into encounter with, like falling from or off of something. While some dreams are individualized and only the individual dreams about the scenario.

My research question would be, what dreams occur the most and what are the situations that may cause that dream to occur? My hypothesis would be that someone who is more stressed or lacking sleep will have a more disturbing or violent dream than someone that is relaxed and is always well rested. Someone who is stressed will most likely have more on there mind when falling asleep about everything that is going wrong or is causing them so much stress. That then will carry over to their dreams. Someone who is relaxed and not worried may have a more relaxed and simple dream.

My procedure would start by recruiting participants. I would go around to students on my college campus and ask them if they would be wiling to participate in my study. I would then have a meeting with them and ask them some question about their sleeping habits, amount of stress they are under, eating habits before bed, the time that they normal go to sleep. This will allow me to assess the different variables that may be included in this study and group together those that would be the best participants in my study, allowing there to be the least amount of variation so that my study will be accurate and not skewed due to different habits. I would ask the chosen participants to then record the amount of sleep they got each night as well as there stress level before going to bed, what they consumed up to an hour before going to bed, and if they dreamed or not. If they did dream I would ask them to express what went on their dream. This would allow me to see the different outside aspects that could have effected there dreams. I would have them do this for about a month so I have multiple statistics to go off of for my evidence.

Introduction

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

Hello! My name is Rachel. I am the oldest of 6 kids and I am so excited for the start of this semester. I am going to approach this course with positivity and organizational skills. I am going to take in-depth notes and read the textbook while also taking notes through it as will. I am excited to start this course and get to know more people.

I didn’t choose to take Psychology 105 as I am a first year and was placed into this course. I am however, very excited as I was wanting to take psychology all through high school but was never given the opportunity to be enrolled in the course. That being said, I do not have any background in psychology. When I hear the word psychology I think the brain or just the mind in general, how the mind works and why it works the way that it does.

As I look through the schedule for this class I am most interesting in learning about how to improve memory, mechanics of sleep, and coping with stress. These three topics I feel as though relate to my current life as a college student. I want to be able to improve my memory so I can store all of the new information that I am going to be learning in my classes. I want to learn more about the mechanics of sleep because even though the semester has just started I feel as though I am lacking sleep. Finally, coping with stress because I know as a college student or just a person in this competitive society I will need to learn how to better cope with stress.

Though I am interested in all the topics the three topics that I am the least interested in learning about are classical conditioning, how to choose a therapist, and personality and culture. Classical conditioning is something that I am not interested in more for the fact that I am not someone who does not listen to classical music and I am also not interested in it. The topic of how to choose a therapist, and personality and culture, is something that I am more unsure about what it is going to involve during the course of this topic. Therefore, I am unsure if these three are topics I will enjoy or not so they are the topics that I am least interested in.

The question about psychology that I would like to be answered before the end of this class is why do some dreams feel so really and sometimes go into reality after waking up?

Can not wait for next class!

Rachel Barnhill