Chapter 10 First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this first impression, I chose the option of determining how well I can tell he difference between emotions. Generally, I think that I am pretty good at telling how people are feeling by their facial expressions. I have a friend who is not as good, and he will get into arguments to see which one can pick the right emotion (it is usually me). I have always felt that I could read people’s expressions and be able to help them which is one of the reasons why I wanted to become a nurse.

After taking the quiz, I could see that my prior thoughts were somewhat accurate. I got a 16/20. There a couple of emotions that did trick me up a bit, but there were definitely some easier ones to determine. Some that I got confused on were fear, anger, embarrassment, and contempt. The reason why I was confused with fear was because I thought the person seemed surprised. The difference was the face for fear had a smaller open mouth than the surprised face did. Anger was tricky for me because it almost looked like disgust since they both seem to be similar faces, however, with the angry face you will see that the lips will tighten more and the forehead muscles will contrast. To me, embarrassment looked very close to shame. The test gave the explanation that the embarrassed face will turn their head to the side instead of going straight down like someone who would feel ashamed. Finally, contempt looked very similar to disgust where the only difference was that contempt would have the lips tighten only on one side of the face. Some of the easier expressions to distinguish were happiness, pain, pride, and sadness. These faces all were very obvious reactions that I would think anyone would be able to see.

Overall, I thought that this test may be slightly accurate, but there are some problems with it. I believe that some people have their own facial expressions for their own emotions. I think it can be harder to determine someone’s emotion in real life than it was on this test. I could use this information by taking a closer look at people’s expressions when I am talking to them to see how they really are feeling. This will help so I would not have to ask the person what their facial expression means.

Chapter 3: First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this first impression post, I chose to talk about my own personal sleeping habits. I know that I do not nearly get as much sleep as I should. In high school, I was playing sports year-round. Whether it was three-a-day field hockey sessions all day or early morning lacrosse practices, I was not getting to bed at a time that I know is recommended. After sports games and practices, I would then have to come home and do my homework. Typically, I would work on homework for about an hour to three hours a night. Between the hectic schedule of ending late night games, eating dinner, and finishing homework, there were nights I would not get to bed until midnight or later. After a late night, I would then have to wake up around six in the morning. I know that getting an average of six hours of sleep a night is not healthy for a student or someone who is doing exercises, but unfortunately that was how I had to manage to get through school with sports and other social events.

A realistic goal for me to have for amount of sleep would be about eight hours. To improve my sleeping habits, I could start to put down technology earlier. I know that being on a cell phone or computer can make it harder for you to fall asleep, so cutting back on nighttime technology use could help me get to sleep faster. Another habit I could improve is sticking to a bedtime routine. I could start to come up with a routine in the nighttime to wind down and get myself ready for bed. Finally, I could make a schedule of when to go to sleep and when to wake up. This could help me to get a regulated night of sleep and actually stay asleep through the night. There are more than likely other habits I could improve on, but these are the most realistic for myself to follow through.

Chapter 8: First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this first impression post, I chose to discuss how all memories are not created equal. I can attest to this from personal experience. There are times where I can remember things from years past, but when it comes to things like what happened two or three weeks ago, it becomes difficult to recall events. The example used was that people remember exactly what they were doing on the day of 9/11. Since I was only one year old, I do not have a memory of the tragic events. One event that I remember distinctly was when Hurricane Arthur hit in 2014. My family and I were on vacation with three other families in the Outer Banks when the hurricane started. We had to be evacuated due to the extreme conditions. I will remember that event “like it was yesterday”.

I think that memories become stronger due to the personal connection we have to the event. The more emotions we have about the occasion, the more likely we are to have this strong memory. These emotions can be positive or negative as well, such as stressful, scary, happy, or surprising. To test this theory, we will pull out a certain event during the subject’s lifetime. Once asked about the event, we would determine how well they know the specifics of it. If they can describe very little details, we will do brain imaging to see what the emotions look like in their brain. If they remember many details of the event, we will also do brain imaging to see what emotional attachment there is to the occasion. Once we see the results, we can determine if emotion factors into how strongly we remember something.

Chapter 7: First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this chapter I chose to respond to Skinner’s answer on free will. When looking at his experiment, I would agree with him that we do not really have any free will. When Skinner is asked the question of whether we do have free will, he discussed the issue of people believing in free will because we know about our behaviors, but we do not know about its causes. BF Skinner showed in his pigeon experiment that the pigeons learned behaviors in order to get rewarded. The pigeon’s behavior was being shaped by controlling its environment. Skinner kept the pigeons lighter than the average size so that they would always be hungry. Since the pigeons were hungry, a food reward was used to attempt to control behavior. The pigeon was kept in a box where it would could peck at a red dot. The pigeon learned that when it would peck at the dot, it would gain its food reward. Skinner also changed the timing of the food rewards to measure the impact on the pigeon’s behavior. For example, sometimes the reward would be released every minute while at other times, the food would only be released every tenth time that the pigeon pecked at the dot. Skinner experimented with the timing of the reinforcement to determine if the pigeons would change behavior. His research showed that once a pigeon learned that a reward would be delivered at some point after pecking at the red dot, the pigeon would continue to do so until they received their food. Skinner correlated that the variable ratio scheduling of the reward did not change the pigeon’s determination to peck the red dot. He compared this type of behavior to that of humans with gambling at a slot machine. Just as their pigeon pecking for their food, humans gamble for the schedule of reinforcement. At some point a gambler knows that the slot machine will pay out, but they just don’t know when. So, a gambler will continue to play until the payout occurs or they run out of resources. I believe that people want to think that we have the power of free will, but I do not believe that we actually have free will. A lot of our own behaviors are learned behaviors that we have been taught from a young age. Also, similar to the pigeon, humans look for rewards based on the things they do. Skinner used the example of gambling as receiving a reward. An example that I know from personal experience is doing something nice for someone in school to get a “green card”. I learned that I needed to be a good person and be nice towards others in order to get rewarded at the end of each week. While developing kindness is a great trait, the system used to develop those behaviors was built on a reward system. I think that, as humans, we have our own choices, but we make these choices based on behaviors that we have either learned or have experienced previously.

Chapter 2: First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this week’s first impression post I chose to watch the “Exploring the Mind of a Serial Killer” TED talk. I chose this video because it addresses the question I had when I first came into this course. I wanted to know why some people are serial killers.

In this video, Jim Fallon discussed how people became killers. To find this information, he looked at about 70 different brain scans of people. He did not know which brain he was looking at the time, either a serial killer’s or a regular person’s. He found that how you end up a psychopath or killer depends on the precise timing of when the brain was damaged. He also found a pattern that every killer he looked at had damage in their orbital cortex. There was a pattern in all of them, but the damage was a little different. This depended on the MAO-A gene. He went on to say that it is a sex-linked chromosome located on the X chromosome which is how it is passed from mother to son. Fallon had then found some of these genes in his family pool, so he looked at everyone’s brain in his family. Luckily, the gene has not shown up yet, but he jokes that somewhere down the line there will be some bad news.

I thought it was most interesting to hear that there is a pattern in all the serial killers’ brains. Also, I thought it was interesting that the gene is a sex-linked X chromosome and as Fallon says, that is probably why we see more male killers than female killers. Another thing that was fascinating was that it has to do with too much serotonin in the brain which is weird because serotonin is supposed to make you feel calmer. If your brain is bathed in it, it causes your brain to become insensitive to the serotonin meaning it will not work later in your life.

In addition to the gene abnormality, most psychopathic killers also were involved in a significant traumatic event during childhood. This event occurs before puberty and has a dire impact on the child’s development. As Fallon states, there are several factors (genetics, brain damage and environment) which contribute to a person becoming psychopathic.

I would believe that Jim Fallon is a trustworthy source because he is a neuroscientist and has been studying behavior for 35 years. He is a professor at the University of California as well. In his research, Fallon studied 70 different brains to base his conclusions to the audience. Through his test subjects were known killers, Fallon was able to study the brain structure of his family members to determine if the latent psychopathic gene or brain damage was present. Given his background and years of study, I believe that Jim Fallon is a trustworthy source.

While Fallon’s research studies the anomalies of a psychopath’s brain, I would be interested to investigate whether the traits mentioned in his study can be a predictor of future violent behavior. Since one of the common factors in Fallon’s conclusion is genetic, research participants could be divided into groups based on the MAO-A gene. These groups would be a control environment. Since Fallon’s conclusion is based on the timing of the damage to the brain, the participants can be monitored during childhood through puberty to identify any potential significant traumatic events (such as exposure to violence, physical altercations or abuse). With a detailed study, a correlation may more fully develop between heredity and environment. If a strong correlation is found, would this allow societies to screen children and isolate those that are more prone to violent and psychopathic behaviors?

Chapter 4: First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this first impression, I will be taking a look into different parenting styles. There are three different parenting styles that I have become familiar; “tiger moms”, “jellyfish dads”, and “helicopter parents”. A quick definition for a “tiger mom” is someone who parents their child in a strict manner and put pressure on them to do well academically. A “jellyfish dad” is someone who allows their children do what they want and spoils their child. The “helicopter parents” are probably most known to people and are the parents who want to be involved in every aspect of their child’s life including picking things out for them that should be chosen by the child.

Among these parenting styles, I feel if you combine the tiger style and the jellyfish style that it could create a good way to parent children. There are some positives and negatives in all of these styles of parenting. Playing a sport really showed that helicopter parenting does not work in the real world. We had parents try to talk to coaches about playing time for their children, and it never got the kids what they wanted. I believe that there is a point where you, as a parent, can be involved in your child’s life, but there is a time when it is overbearing. With tiger parents, it is important for a child to know that she should try her best academically to be able to live up to her full potential and not regret anything she did or did not do in high school or college. If a parent becomes too obsessed with grades and making sure the child is in the top of the class, then it puts a lot of pressure on the child. The child may become too stressed and lead an unhealthy lifestyle while trying to be the best in her parent’s eye.

Jellyfish parents are almost too laid back and give their kids what they want. If a parent does this for the child’s entire life, the child will think that everything in life should just be handed to him and does not consider the amount of hard work and effort involved nor consequences of his actions.

I believe that a tiger mom who becomes a little softer like the jellyfish dad could help a child learn to do things on her own. She would learn herself that she needs to keep her grades up to become successful. She could learn that she can do things in her life, but not without consequence whether good or bad. The freedoms given to a child help to develop her own sense of the world and what she should do with her life, but overbearing rules or expectations do need to be put into place at the same time. Overall, I believe the best parenting style for a child to grow up in would be a mix of both the tiger mom and jellyfish dad. This combined parenting style can teach a child to have lofty goals and direction but to also understand that hard work and setbacks are part of life and maturation.

Chapter 1: First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For the first impression post I chose to watch the Myth Busters video. The prompt I chose to watch was “does weaving through traffic actually get you to destination faster?” I thought this was an interesting question because I have always been told by my parents to stay in one lane while stuck in a traffic jam because changing lanes will not matter in the end.

In this experiment, they had two different cars go through the same traffic route. This experiment had a constant of going on the same California freeway to go to the same destination. Another constant was that they both left at the same time of 7:30 in the morning. The difference between the cars was that one stayed in a single lane and the other was weaving in and out of the lanes. The results showed that the car that had been changing lanes actually was behind the car that stayed in one lane. They had changed lanes 17 times in 15 minutes and the car that had been in the same lane the whole time ended up passing them. This experiment answered the Myth Busters question only for one day.

There are both strengths and weaknesses to this experiment. Some strengths are that the team kept some constants between the two cars. They kept the same start time and the same route constant throughout the experiment. There are some weaknesses as well in this particular experiment. One weakness is that they only did one test. The more tests you have, the more accurate your results will be. Anything can happen in the short run, but to determine an answer to a question, you have to look at the long run. Another weakness is that different vehicles could have different results. If you have a larger vehicle, changing lanes may be harder to do than in a smaller SUV. You would need a greater distance between cars in order to change lanes multiple times. A third weakness I noticed was that there are different traffic flows on different times of the day and different traffic patterns. There could be a difference in traveling in the morning rush hour or the afternoon rush hour. Overall, I felt that this was a good question to create an experiment around, but the answer is not as simple as the question itself.

Introduction to Psychology

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

Hi! My name is Katie Miller and I will be an incoming freshman; however, I will be attending Drexel University in the fall. I plan to be a nursing major which is one of the reasons that I will be going to school in Philadelphia. I wanted to start my college courses early, and I am currently finishing another online class while starting this course. I chose to take classes from Elizabethtown because my dad is a professor here. I took this class because I knew I needed to have a psychology class for my major. I have always found psychology to be very interesting, at least from the little knowledge I have of the subject.

I have a little bit of psychology background. I took a class in my senior year of high school, but I am excited to go more in-depth with different topics. In high school, we learned about a lot of different psychologists and their studies. We also discussed a lot about isolation in people and what it does to the mind. My teacher liked to show videos of what we were learning, so we watched some Skinner’s experiments. We also watched a film on “Genie” while we were talking about isolation. I think my teacher did a nice job with the timeline he was given, but I am excited to learn more at the college level. When I hear the word “psychology”, I think of the study of how people behave and why people are the way they are. I also think of how the brain itself works, different emotions and feelings, and some mental disorders. From what I have learned in my psychology class, a couple of psychologists come to mind as well, including Freud and Skinner, and their different theories.

Looking over the course schedule, I found some topics that I thought would be very interesting to go deeper into learning. Memory and how to improve memory is something that I would like to more about. I think this topic would be interesting because everyone has different memories and things that could jog their memory. It is intriguing when I talk to my family and my brother will recall one thing from a vacation that I have no recollection of or vice versa. I would love to learn about how and why some memories can come to the front of your mind while others are buried deeper. Another topic that I find interesting is coping and understanding stress. I think that at one time or another everyone feels stressed. It would be cool to go deeper into stress and see why it happens to certain people while others can stay cool under pressure or under a deadline. Only going into my freshman year, I know that college will be nothing like high school, so learning some coping methods for stress could help when I have those late nights of writing papers or studying. A final topic that I find to be interesting is mental illness and mood disorders. I think it is fascinating to study because there are so many people with illnesses or disorders that need help. As I am looking to enter the nursing field, I will be working with patients that have mental illness or disorders and would like to be able to better address their needs.

Some topics that may not be the most intriguing to me is neuro imaging, the brain and why research design matters. I am not a huge fan of taking a look at the brain and seeing what it is. I am more interested in why the brain thinks the way it does, or why certain people think and at the way they do.

I think the only question I really have that I hope could be answered by the end of this class would be “what causes some people to become murderers and why do their brains think that way?” I have always been curious as to why people such as Ted Bundy did the things he did, or, a topic more recently, why a California couple who had 13 children left them isolated and neglected.