Memory– Option 1

--Original published at Makayla Hockenbrock

When studying, there is definitely stuff I need to improve on and stuff that I think I do fairly well. Some things I believe I do well is using different methods to see the information. I make flash cards, use white boards, make diagrams, and also read the book. I definitely need to start studying ahead of time. I do not cram, I tend to start studying a couple days in advance, however I feel I need to start studying at least a week in advance and study the material every day of that week leading up to the exam.

For the first exam in Psychology, I started studying 3 days ahead of time. I made flash cards for the vocabulary, printed out the study guide and elaborated on all the topics, re-read the chapters, and highlighted in the chapters. I think I did pretty well studying, but there is always room for improvement. For the next exam, I plan to allow 7 or more days of studying leading up the exam instead of 3 days in advance. Also, instead of highlighting I should start writing notes in the margins of the book or my notes. Maybe the more I repeat the material, the more I will retain. Whether or not repetition is the right way to study, it is how I study. I repeatedly write out notes on a white board, consistently go through my flash cards, and notes. I hope to learn more ways to effectively study as this class continues.

Video Games: Good or Bad — Learning

--Original published at Makayla Hockenbrock

Video games are a common extracurricular activity now-a-days. The most popular ones, however, involve violent gestures. This rises a huge discussion between individuals. The ones who play the video games avidly, are the ones who support the game and see no problem in them. Others, who don’t play them see a problem with the violence. I do not play them; therefore, I do see a problem with them. However, I also believe that video games are not the main source of the problem. People who commit shootings cannot be solely blamed on video games, because more than half of the time there is another cause behind it, such as a mental illness. Do I believe that video games are becoming too violent? Yes, I do. Do I believe we are introducing all this violence to kids to young? Yes, I do.

Even though I believe all this, I do not think banning the video games will solve any of the problems at hand. If a child wants to have violence in their lives, they will find a way to have that whether it’s with a video game or something else. So, the reason why people want to ban video games I find invalid.

Best,

Makayla

Parenting Styles: What is the ‘Best’? — Development

--Original published at Makayla Hockenbrock

Parenting is very difficult topic to discuss. There are so many different variables that come into play, as well as, so many different views depending on how you were raised and how much you know about it. If you say one thing, you could offend someone. Parenting styles are all based on personal preference, but I also believe that how you parent is a reflection on how you were raised.

To produce children with who are happy, healthy, and productive members of society, I feel you need to have a blend of parenting styles. If a parent is to strict I feel the children will become sneaky and get themselves into trouble. If parents are don’t set rules, or ‘parent’ at all, then the kids will feel they are invincible and feel they can do whatever they want without having consequences.

So, what’s the best way to parent in my perspective? I think the best way to parent is as follow: set ground rules, be consistent (if you punish one child for something and the other child does it, punish them the same way), don’t have favorites, do not consistently ask questions about their personal life, be a friend sometimes and not a parent, don’t hover over them, do not push them (if they want to come to you about something, they will on their own time). Being a parent is a difficult task, and by no means am I saying that this is the only way to parent. Many other styles of parenting work well. Parents should want their child or children to flourish in the world and in their community. That being said, parents should not let them be a couch potato. They should want them to be active, curious, and excited to learn. They should want their child to try new things, even if they might fail at the task. Parents should help when help is needed. I could go on and on.

I do also believe that the parenting style chosen to be used also needs to be a good fit for the child. If the child is troublesome, then the parenting style should be a little stricter than if the child was very independent, and the parents had no worries about them. Which ever style is chosen, parenting and being a child go hand in hand, and work together in a way, in my opinion. The best option to choose, when and if you become a parent, is which ever style works best for you and your family.

Best,

Makayla

Research Methods — Mythbuster’s mini-myth

--Original published at Makayla Hockenbrock

For my first blog prompt, I chose to critique the mini-myth of “Are Women Better Than Men at Reading Emotions?”, that the Mythbusters performed. The gist of the experiment was the “busters” took pictures of their faces expressing different emotions, then showed only their eyes to the test subjects. The number of emotions answered correctly between the men and the women were recorded and analyzed. After watching the video, I noticed some strengths and weaknesses that were performed throughout the study. I based my strengths and weaknesses off what I already know from psychology and performing experiments.

First let’s discuss the strengths of the experiment that I noticed. The Mythbusters used multiple people to study. They took pictures of more than one person’s emotions. This is a strength because to perform an experiment and receive adequate data, one would need more than one variable. Also, different people show emotions differently. Another strength that I picked up on was they brought in test subjects who did not know the “busters”. This is a strength because the subjects are coming in blind as to who they will be trying to read. This is the first time the subjects are seeing the emotions of the “busters” which is good because the recording is the initial response, not the rehearsed reaction. Keeping track of the subjects guesses and how many each got right is also a strength. This allows the data to be analyzed and kept track of so nothing is lost or forgotten. A points scale was also identified so that everyone was on the same page. After all data was collected the average for each gender was calculated and the myth proved that women are better at reading emotions compared to men. Averaging the data is a strength because this allows all the data collected to be compared with two numbers side by side.

Now let’s look at the weaknesses that I noticed in this experiment. They threw out someone’s pictures because they were all the same. This is a weakness because they are throwing out evidence or a variable from the whole experiment. Another weakness is that they are only showing the eyes for the subjects to determine the emotion. On some people, more than just the eyes show emotion, and sometimes the eyes look the same for two different emotions depending on the person. After data was collected, they showed the insight of the female brain and not the male brain. This does not allow the viewers to see the differences between each genders way of thinking to determine what emotion is being shown. Even though averaging the data is a strength, it is also a weakness. It is a weakness because it is generalizing all the women and all the men into one person. If there is an outlier in each gender, that will bring the average up or down, which can be misleading if that is the only data published for the viewers to see.

So how can these weaknesses be modified so they are better? First, the pictures that were thrown out can be kept, or if they are going to get rid of that person’s emotion, they should add someone else. Instead of only showing the eyes, they could show the whole face. This allows all the aspects of the emotion to be shown. Showing both insights of the two genders brain, will also be an improvement to the weakness of only showing the females way of thinking. Not averaging the data is difficult, but there are ways to change it. Instead of averaging all the data, if there are outliers, one could get rid of them in both genders, and then proceed to average the remaining numbers. Another fix would be to just use no average at all, however, that could become a difficult aspect to get a final answer.

So, there is my critique of the Mythbusters mini-myth on “Are Women Better Than Men at Reading Emotions”.

Best,

Makayla

Introduction of Myself

--Original published at Makayla Hockenbrock

Hey Everyone! My name is Makayla, and I am from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. I am here at Etown majoring in Occupational Therapy with a minor in Psychology. Before this class, I also had AP Psychology in high school, so I already know some information that we will be discussing in class. I chose to take this class because it is required for my major and also my minor. However, I enjoyed the material in high school, so it is also an interesting topic for me.

When I hear the word ‘psychology’, I think of the brain and why people do the things they do and why they act in a certain way. After looking at the syllabus, I think my top three interesting topics would be ‘How to Make Memories’, ‘What is Addiction’, and ‘Mood Disorders & Anxiety’. I picked these because some I already have background knowledge in, and I also know people who have mood disorders and anxiety, so learning more would be helpful. My bottom three topics would be ‘Classical Conditioning’, ‘Operant Conditioning’, and ‘Observational Learning’, again just because I have learned about these before and did not enjoy it as much.

By the end of this class, I hope I know more about the brain and why people are the way are. I also hope to answer the question of “how to handle and deal with anxiety?”. Simple, because it is a more common disorder than people may think.

Have a good one!

Makayla