Monthly Archives: August 2018

Chapter 9: First Impression

--Original published at Kirsten's Kreations

When it comes to thinking about school, it is weird to believe I have been in school for about 15 years. Over the years, I have encountered many educators. Some left me with pleasant experiences and some left me with not so pleasant experiences. A couple left me with a love hate relationship, like a certain band director I know.

Up until I graduated, the public school system I went to for elementary, middle, and high school didn’t seem to have any thing wrong with the system itself. They gave every student the same treatment as whole. However, the individual teachers would treat students different. The best examples come from high school. There is a band director who has a tendency to show who his favorites are in front of other students whether he realized it or not. Luckily, he never tells a student he didn’t like them but he talks about them behind their backs to other students. Unprofessional? Absolutely, but he is also a great teacher in the sense he has developed different ways that has made even a person who was awful at playing an instrument could become one of the best musicians in class.

Since starting college, my view has changed. I feel as though its more than just the teachers now. Its the politics involved in running the school that has become an issue.  In the recent years, schools have become more concerned in raising money than with the quality education they are giving the students. Colleges in particular are notorious for this kind of behavior.

The business department is currently getting hit with a problem I believe to be an issue for ridiculous reasons. A marketing teacher retired this past semester which left us with only one marketing professor to handle all the marketing students for advising and classes. When it came time to discussing hiring someone to take over the empty marketing we were told there was no money to replace him. This to me seems like an ironic situation because I keep getting hit with more expenses. So if I have to pay more than I did last year in tuition and other expenses, where is all the money going if we can’t afford one new teacher? This is the problem I have with the college system.

The people, teachers and more, have done nothing other than treat the students like they truly care about their future, which is how they should treat the students. I have year to have a teacher treat me any way other than with the care of my future I deserve. Certain teachers, like my tax teacher, show it more than others, like a poetry teacher, but that happens. I don’t expect a poetry teacher to want to put in as much effort on an accounting major that they do an English major. Some students do have their own issues with certain teachers but it seems to be more of a personality clash than the teachers genuinely treating them bad.

The fact that the school can’t afford to give a department a new teacher they deserve while making the students pay more than ever before is an issue that needs to be fixed. Many students like myself believe the new gym is an excuse for the school to spend more money than it is bringing in. The school should be coming up with ideas to change the school then get the student’s input so they can spend the money in places that would benefit the students in places they want rather than where the school things the students will be benefited.

Chapter 9 First Impression

--Original published at CatherinesCollegeBlog

I chose the first option for this impression post. I believe people are direct results of who they encounter in their lives, whether these interactions are brief and seemingly unimportant or prolonged and more significant. Our intelligence is affected by the environment we expose ourselves to as well, specifically regarding the educators responsible for developing this intelligence. Several of the teachers I have had throughout my school career have had lasting impacts on my personal and intellectual development. The first example that comes to mind is about a student teacher I had for an english class in high school. He taught a lesson about David Foster Wallace’s book This Is Water. There is also a video to go along with what is said in the book, but Wallace presented the same ideas in a commencement speech at a college graduation. Normal commencement speeches are overly optimistic and filled with cliches, but Wallace took a different approach and tried to reveal the truth to these college graduates. Essentially, he shared the not super exciting things about the adult life they were soon to begin, like going to the grocery store after a long day’s work when all you want to do is get home and sleep, or letting the annoyances of life build up so much so that you blame everyone else in the world for any inconvenience caused to you. Wallace wanted to adjust the mindset of these college graduates so they did not enter the adult world as self-centered people who believed the world was only happening to them. Instead of getting angry with the guy who cut in front of you while in traffic, Wallace suggested you should adjust your mindset and perspective because maybe it is that same guy who has a sick child in the car who he must rush to the hospital by cutting in front of as many cars as possible. The ideas mentioned in this book have stayed with me since I took that english class, and I have tried to follow his suggestions for living a life with more than one perspective. For me, intelligence is not just about memorizing countries on a map or how to spell the toughest vocabulary words. I believe intelligence is determined by how you handle interactions in the real world, especially when the situations are difficult to navigate and decide what is right or wrong. My student teacher had a significant impact on how I view the world, which I will always value more than being able to complete a complex math problem.

In order to improve students’ performance in the classroom, I think educators need to realize how much their opinion matters to many of their students. This is especially true when there is a close bond or quality relationship between a student and educator. If there is already a well established relationship there, students will want to make the educators proud of any assignment they turn in with their name on it, just as the educators will want to help these students succeed down the road. I was close with many of my teachers from high school, so when I would have to write an essay for english or complete a project for spanish class, I made sure it was up to my personal standards and that the teachers opinions would agree with mine since I valued their thoughts. It is much easier to accomplish this when class sizes are smaller since educators can dedicate more time and attention to each student. Perhaps there should be an initiative to promote smaller class sizes and a larger number of teachers in each school. This would also give students the chance for more exposure to different educators with various backgrounds and valuable knowledge to offer in their own ways. I think there should also be less of an emphasis placed on every student being tested on their ability to complete the same tasks. I love Einstein’s quote because it demonstrates this idea so clearly: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Although standards across the board are an easier way to evaluate students and their intelligence, we all develop intelligence differently. I think our strengths need to be appreciated more, instead of only focusing on the same few subjects for all students in the country. Overall I think intelligence needs to be viewed as more than memorization of factual information. Like my student teacher showed me, intelligence is about continuous growth in perspective.

Chapter 13 First Impression Post

--Original published at Jenna'sPSY105blog

For this week’s first impression post, we were prompted to take four different personality tests to find out more about ourselves. Personality is a very interesting topic, and it’s what makes everybody different from one another. How you respond to certain situations and your level of creativity say a lot about your personality, so it’s different to see how people answer the questions.

For the first two personality tests, I was told that my personality type was ENFP. This means I am more of an extravert than an introvert, I prefer intuition over sensing, I trust feelings rather than thinking, and I am more perceiving than I am judging. ENFP’s are typically easygoing, energetic, free-spirited, adventurous, social, and curious.  I think this personality describes me pretty well because I enjoy going to parties and social events often because I like the friendships and connections I make, and I’d much rather be with friends than alone. I’m also very good at thinking things through when asked for advice, but when it’s me in the situation I act very impulsively when making decisions and let my emotions cloud my judgment. I love to adventure and explore new places as well. Also, along with being social, I am fascinated by people. I love to observe people and learn from them. I like helping and am very empathetic towards people, which is definitely going to show when I become an Occupational Therapist. ENFP weaknesses are that we are impulsive, emotional (and not very good at handling our emotions), tend to get very stressed and overthink everything, sometimes find it hard to focus, and don’t like being told what to do. I pretty much got these same results in the other two personality tests as well. All of these traits I deal with on an almost everyday basis, so I would say my results were pretty accurate.

While they were pretty accurate, I’m not so sure how credible these tests are. A simple 60 question survey is not going to accurately tell you all about your personality. Also, for a lot of questions my answers weren’t so black and white. For a majority of the questions both answers could’ve worked for me because sometimes I feel one way, and other times the other option was more likely to occur. There was no middle ground on the questionnaires. To improve these personality tests, I think it would be beneficial for the researchers who come up with the questions to have a “both” or a “yes and no” option for people who don’t have a concrete answer. This way, they could get more accurate results by avoiding people not knowing what answer to choose and just randomly selecting one.

Chap. 9 – Impression

--Original published at Kealey's PSY105 Blog

 

I think the idea that listening to classical music as a child will increase intelligence is largely a myth. While Mozart’s and Bach’s music may be soothing and easy to listen to, there is not substantial enough research to support that classical music is guaranteed to strengthen brain development. Listening to music as a baby definitely isn’t detrimental, but as the professor mentions in the article, for it to be thought of as an intellectual building block would be an illusion. I think people commonly associate classical music with prestige and intellectual maturity, which is why many think that making babies listen to it will lead them to reaching their own elevated rank in society one day. The environment that parents raise their children in is what really stimulates learning. If parents choose to play classical music while encouraging their kids to learn and be successful in school, they have established a intellectually nurturing environment for their children to develop in.

Chapter 13 First Impression Prompts – Personality

Hand writing on a notebook

We all want to know more about our ourselves, and psychological tests are one way to explore our personalities. While the full psychological tests are often long and require a fee to take, there are an abundance of free versions online. Take the four personality tests linked below, discuss how accurately they describe your perception of your personality, and discuss the credibility of each test. Make sure to use the tag “Personality” on your post.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

Chapter 11: First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this first impression, I choose to discuss my own stress management and how well my management style works. I have not experienced a college stress level yet, but I know that it is completely different from the high school stress level. I am typically a very stressed out person. I tend to stress out over small assignments or small things that I know I can do. I know what the assignment is and how it needs to be done, but I will still stress out about due dates and when I need to get it done. Not only do I stress out about school work, I also stress about things in life in general. I was very stressed out when I was picking what college to go to. There were many different factors that went into my decision, and I believe I made the right one for me. I was very stressed though thinking that I was not going where I should be etcetera.

Even though I stress out a lot, I do have some ways that I mange it. When I start to stress out things for school, I try to take some deep breaths to get my work done. I also think to myself that I have nothing to worry about because I know what I am doing. For situations in life, I have to think to myself that everything will work itself out in the end. If something is meant to be for me, eventually it will happen. A lot of my stress management tactics are just trying to think of something else to get my mind off of it and tell myself different sayings to get through it.

Overall, I feel like my own management skills work for me at times, but I think that there are ways I could improve it. Some other stress management activities I could do that could realistically help me would include, exercise, yoga, music, and getting organized. I already workout, so I know that it could be a useful activity for me to do. I know a lot of people who do yoga and love it and say how much more relaxed they feel after it. I have never taken a yoga class before, but I could imagine that it will help you to relax and I would like to try it sometime. I love listening to music especially when I am writing long papers, that does tend to make me feel more relaxed, so I think if I incorporate that more into my stressful situations it could help me feel less stressed. Finally, I definitely need to get organized. I believe that most of the time I become stressed because I have all of my things and notes scattered about trying to do schoolwork. If I get myself organized and put my notes into an organized pile rather then having all of them all over my desk, that would make me feel less stressed out.

Chapter 9 First Impression Prompts – Intelligence

Hand writing on a notebook

Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the tag “Intelligence.”

Option 1:

Many people consider intelligence to be largely determined by genetics, but there is substantial evidence that the environment and social processes play a large role as well. Since schools are a place where children try to determine how smart they really are, it is important for educators to understand the impacts of their subtle or not-so-subtle interactions with students. In your blog post, reflect on your interactions with educators throughout your school career, and discuss what changes to the school system could improve students’ performance in the classroom.

Option 2:

In 1998, the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, proposed spending $105,000 of the state’s budget to distribute a cassette or CD of classical music to the parents of each new child born in Georgia (see the NY Times article). Governor Miller was a staunch believer in the Mozart effect, a theory that listening to Mozart can increase intelligence. Discuss whether or not you think Governor Miller’s decision was a good one.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

Chap. 11 – Impression

--Original published at Kealey's PSY105 Blog

 

I found Kelly McGonigal’s talk “Making Stress Your Friend” surprising and inspiring. Kelly McGonigal explains that she has been a psychologist, helping clients be healthier and happier, her whole career. This makes her a fairly credible source in my opinion, though I would have found her even more credible if the research she was using to make her point was her own study. In her talk, she reveals the results of a research study that changed her mind about stress.

Stress is commonly thought to be unhealthy. It can increase risk of stress-related diseases like cardiovascular disease. In this study, many people who categorized themselves as experiencing high amounts of stress in the last year were the most likely to die of stress-related causes. There is a shocking catch though. Of this group, they asked the participants if they viewed stress as healthy or unhealthy. The group that viewed stress as unhappy had the most increased risk of death. The group that viewed stress as healthy had the lowest risk of death. This reveals that it may not be the amount of stress, but rather your perception of stress that puts you at risk for stress-related death. Further research supports this. People who think of stress as healthy have different physiological reactions to stress that strengthens their heart and their minds because of their way of thinking.

McGonigal argues that this could be the answer to avoiding the unhealthy affects of stress. If we train our brains to welcome stress instead of fear it, our bodies will adapt to give us strength and resiliency to handle tough situations. In a way, I can relate to this kind of thinking. I avoid stress, but when I do have to face it I use it as motivation to handle the situation. However, I notice that stress does cause me unpleasant physical effects that I’d rather not have to experience. I could implement McGonigal’s advice the next time I handle stress to see if my body feels better from it. McGonigal also mentions the hormone oxytocin, aka the “cuddle” hormone, in her lecture. She says that this hormone releases from the brain when you make meaningful social interactions with people. It makes you feel safer and think more clearly. Typically, I don’t tell other people about how I’m feeling or what I’m going through. This sometimes leads to a breaking point where all my emotions and stress burst out. If I take McGonigal’s advice and talk to someone about what I am going through, I could feel much more in control of my stress.

Chapter 11 Impression Post

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

I picked the 1st option and my direct answer to the question is at the bottom but I also enjoy the impression blog posts so here it is:

College students have a lot of stress based off of the idea that we have to go to college in general. This may come off as cynical, naïve, and hypocritical but hear me out; college is designed for continual profit and the perpetuation of financial debt and income. For us to overall fail. We are fully signing up for years worth of debt to throw us into a system where unemployment is at its highest and social security for this generation is overall failing. But god forbid an 18 year old has a drink of alcohol but enlist in the army? Sure! Sign up for years’ worth of debit with high interest? Even better! Both at the end resulting in years’ worth of therapy and detoxing from the 9-5 job everyone has and hates. The American Dream ladies and gentleman.

Maybe poor humor and amounting to mediocre academic success is something I, like many others, fear greatly, but the stress accompanying it takes the cake. So this is where I am now as a cynical naïve hypocrite, working 70+ hours a week to have a job I have worked at for 8 years on top of another summer class. Doesn’t everyone love the sweet smell of minimum wage jobs. So my strategy this summer has been pretty much the ideology of going until I burn out. I hit that target right on the head.

To better my mental health and stress relief, which pretty much correlate, I am taking off work until school starts. I am putting my focus on myself and my school work which will make it easier to manage given the 52.5 extra hours I am going to be given M-F. I won’t even know what to do with myself.

When I hit these low points of stress I normally vent to my parents and together we create a tactical plan to accomplish my goals. They proceed to say I am unrealistic and I continue to cry demonstrating the effects of a house full of women. I swear, this is the peak of therapy here. We come together to a meeting point of what I hope to accomplish and how it can be possible. Realizing I lean on my parents for a large part of when I hit stressful points in my life, at school I go to my roommate for advice. We communicate differently and when I am upset she has me calm down, explain myself, and puts it into a new perspective that I understand and am able to regroup to accomplish the new task. To fully make sure I have answered the question I have each listed for clarity:

Current stress management strategies:

  1. Sleep
  2. Longer showers
  3. Talking to my parents
  4. Talking to my roommate
  5. I work at camp and I have realized I have been taking my stress out on them slightly so I work on letting it go and focus on the moment
  6. Get my nails done

Assess how well they work:

  1. I have been trying to get more sleep since I have gotten a cold and it has mildly benefitted but not significantly
  2. Long showers are good for the soul, bad for the environment
  3. I used to hate being vulnerable (up until the last few months) but talking to my parents helps with managing stress
  4. My roommate is one of my best friends and we are very different but both focus heavily on academics. She puts my goals in perspective while reminding me it is okay to not be perfect all the time while still holding me accountable.
  5. With camp, if I raise my voice at a camper I apologize and we talk about being safe and why I spoke loudly (normally when they try and stick their hand in a fan) but I realize the impact it has on them. We also sing a lot and I never would have thought 4-5 year old’s would be asking me about Drake and learning the “kiki” dance but that is 2018 for you.
  6. I pick at my nails when I am stressed so when I have them done I don’t touch them and they feel like I have my life mildly put together.

Stress routines I need to work on:

  1. Not working over 70+ hours a week with a hard class
  2. Giving myself free time to myself
  3. Having me socialize with people above the age of 7
  4. Becoming satisfied with my accomplishments even though they don’t always show
  5. Holding myself accountable but not to perfection
  6. Sleep
  7. This assignment and blog posts similar-> writing down thoughts on a blog. (feel like you are heard).

Chapter 11 First Impression Post

--Original published at Jenna'sPSY105blog

For this week’s first impression post, I decided on the first prompt which discusses stress management. With college comes large amounts of stress, especially when trying to manage everything and having so much on your plate. To be honest, I have a lot of anxiety, so my stress management is pretty bad.

I typically have two ways I deal with stress, neither of which are good strategies. The first is that I panic. I get so stressed out that my brain doesn’t know how to handle it so I just have a meltdown. I cry, freak out, yell and rant and give all of the reasons why I can’t do something and how I just feel stuck. Then, once I’m done having a mental breakdown and can pull myself together, my brain becomes more clear and I can think things through and come up with an effective solution and game plan.

The other way I deal with stress is, well, that I don’t. When I get overwhelmed with all of the stuff I have to do or if I don’t know how to figure something out, I completely shut down and don’t deal with it at all. I avoid the tasks that I feel are causing me the stress and put it off. This can often times cause even more stress because I dig myself into an even deeper hole when I wait until the last minute and I’m not only scrambling to figure it out or deal with it, but I’m now also just scrambling to get it done.

Something that I can do to better handle my stress is to plan ahead. I can schedule out my week and what needs to get done, and then once I get it done I can check it off of my list. Then I’ll have a sense of completion and accomplishment, it will help me keep track of what I still need to get done, and it will help me keep a set plan of what I need to get done each day. Going along with this, when I know that I have a lot of things coming up that will allow for little time to get work done, I can work ahead and get assignments done early so that I don’t stress trying to figure out when I’ll have time to do the work.