Chapter 3: Drugs

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

While dealing with addiction, there are two different approaches one may choose. The abstinence model looks to diminish the addiction and promotes obriety as the goal. This model uses programs such as AA to aid in the process. Another model that could possibly be used is the harm reduction model. This model, instead of eliminating the addiction, attempts to prevent harmful effects and presents a safer way to continue the addiction. An example of this are clean needle programs who attempt to prevent further spreading of diseases.

Personally, I believe that the better approach would be the abstinence model and I would recommend this approach to a loved one needing help with an addiction. I believe this is the better approach because unlike the harm reduction model, it diminishes the addiction and promotes sobriety. While I believe the harm reduction model may be helpful to some, if the goal is to be free of the addiction, this model will not do much. This model just helps the addicted person be safer about their addiction, rather than shrinking it. I think that when handling addiction, the best route is sobriety. Through the abstinence model, most organizations will suggest a 12-step program. Within this program, an addicted person not only find sobriety, but also makes amends with those who may have been harmed by the addiction. I truly believe that this is the best way when best with addiction and if approached by a loved one, I would recommend the abstinence method.

Chapter 8 : Memory

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

My study habits are most definitely not the best or most effective. Typically, in high school, I would not study ever, and I knew from the beginning, that would need to change in college. For the first exam in this class I used note cards. My first big issue was I waited absolutely too long to even start to prepare to study. I didn’t start making note cards until the day before which unquestionably hurt me. For the second exam, I will make note cards following the lesson that day on key terms and important information. Then, when the study guide comes out I will review whether or not my note cards capture everything on it. If not, I will make more. I will do this all prior to the day before the exam. The next big issue was due to the fact that I waited too long to make my note cards. Because of this, I did not start studying until late Sunday night. Which then caused me to stay up way too late to study, which is something professor MacFarlane specifically said not to do. For the next exam, I will start studying a week prior, taking it section by section. This will lead up to Sunday where I will take the practice exam. After taking the practice exam I will grade it and determine what final concepts I need to work on. While studying for my first exam, this habit of going over what I did wrong is most likely the only thing I will replicate come the second exam. I was able to get a better grasp on the information that I did not know and although it may not have been perfect, I know my exam score benefited from this practice.

Chapter 7 Impression: Learning

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

Today, video games are very popular among children and young adults. The level of violence in these video games has risen, as stated in the prompt. I believe the fact that this level has risen has impacted the level of violence in everyday life. The number of shootings has sky rocketed recently and it may have something to do with the violent video games so many have becoming almost addicted too. Seeing and hearing gun shots and killing may have an effect of the mental state of the children.

Although I do not believe the answer is to ban video games, I do believe there should be stricter rules on the age requirement. A child of a young age being exposed to this type of violence may make them think it is okay when it absolutely is not. Something must change in order to lessen the gun violence. I am not saying that violent video games are the only reason, or even a primary reason to the gun violence but I do believe it plays a role.

Bonus Blog Prompt – Theoretical Lenses in Psychology

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

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 roommates. 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.

Psychodynamic: Psychodynamics focuses on internal drives. The fact that he is a perfectionist and not doing well in school will most likely make him irritable therefore causing him to pick fights with his roommate.

Behaviorist: A behaviorist may state that through examination and analysis. His lack of sleep could be the reason he is irritable and picking fights with his roommate. Without correction, Miguel will probably continue this behavior. The fact that he is a perfectionist may mean that he has OCD.

Humanistic: Miguel may not be reaching is full potential and therefore may be having trouble because of that. Humanistic psychology emphasizes the approach to study the whole person and the uniqueness of each individual. Due to the fact that Miguel is not performing to his greatest ability, he could be getting mad at himself for his mistakes.

Cognitive: Cognitive psychology focuses on mental processes. His lac of sleep has most likely slowed down his cognition and therefore weakened things like attention, language use, problem solving, creativity, and thinking. All these reasons may lead to a struggle with classwork. Therefore the reason he is struggling in school is due to his lack of sleep and slow mental processing.

Neuroscience: Due to Miguel’s lack of sleep, his brain is most likely not functioning correctly. He could potentially be suffering from insomnia which would explain his inability to sleep, bipolar disorder, which would explain his irritability, or OCD, which would explain his need for perfection.

Cultural: The pressure from Miguel’s surrounding culture may lead him to be hard on himself when he does not perform to the best of his ability. If his culture demands good grades and he isn’t doing well, it could put pressure on him causing him to stay up at night and become irritated.

Research Methods

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

In the Myth busters mini-myth “Do Beer Goggles Really Exist?”, the results of the hypothesis were plausible but skewed. Some strengths of the myth were the number of subjects and both a female and male were subjects in the study. It is important to consider having both genders in a study due to there may be differences in the results based upon their gender. It is also important to have more than one subject when trying to get accurate results in a study so that it is not biased based on one subject. Given that they only had three subjects which is not that many, so the results may be skewed. In order to make this study even more reliable they could have had ten to fifteen subjects and then gathered there data together. Some weakness of the study includes the inconstant pictures and lack of level of consistency of blood alcohol content (BAC). Within an experiment, constants are very important. For example, people rate levels of attractiveness differently, so in this experiment it is hard to measure the accuracy of how the subjects are rating the attractiveness. Also, the number given to what the subject scored after taking the test does not have any true numerical value, meaning we can’t use this number to truly prove something. We also are unsure how they are scoring the numbers, so we don’t know what the number truly means. Over all the study does have some true potential just needs a few adjustments and more time to develop.

Introduction Blog Post

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

Honestly, I was placed into Intro to Psychology because I am an undecided freshman, but I think this class is a great class for me to take. I ultimately want to be a guidance counselor and could potentially major in Psychology depending on how this class goes. In high school, I took AP Psychology my junior year. Unfortunately, I didn’t put in the correct amount of time needed to do well in the class, so I did not score very well on the AP test. When I hear the word psychology, I instantly think about how people work and why. Three topics I find interesting are moral development, coping with stress, and psychotic, traumatic, & personality disorders. Moral development seems interesting because I am excited to learn where our morals start from and how they form as you get older. I am excited to learn about coping with stress because I feel I may be able to use that in my own life. Finally, psychotic, traumatic, & personality Disorders is what interests me most in psychology, so I am very excited to learn about that. Three areas I am least interested in, all have to do with the brain. Both the brain: micro-level and the brain: macro-level I know I will struggle with therefore I am least excited about them. chemicals and consciousness also don’t seem so exciting considering they sound like it will be able the brain also. By the end of psychology hope to answer the question, why do people do what they do. Why are people stressed and how can they fix it? How are morals developed? Other questions like that really fascinate me.