--Original published at Kaylyn's PSY105 Blog

This is going to be a great year!

Hello! My name is Kaylyn Gordon, and I am a sophomore student here at E-town. I am originally from Dover, PA where I live with my mother, sister, and 2 miniature Labradoodles names Sandy and Mowgli. I am a huge lover of animals, with goats as my favorite animal of all time. I took this course because not only is it a requirement for my major, but my sister graduated with a Psychology degree and learned a lot of interesting things in her courses. I do not have much background in Psychology other than having depression and anxiety myself. When I hear the word Psychology I think of how the brain works and how mental health affects our everyday lives. The three topics that interest me the most are on sleep, stress, and emotion. I suffer with insomnia and anything I can learn about good sleep is very appreciated. Also, like most students I stress over a lot of things and find it hard to relax and cope with the stress I feel. Lastly, emotions affect my everyday life and they are not always the best emotions to be carrying around all the time. The three topics I am least interested in are on Psychology then and now, group dynamics, and psychiatric medication. I am not a huge history person, even though I know it is important to learn, it just is not my favorite topic. Also, I am not a fan of doing things in a group so I am not too sure about group dynamics. Psychiatric Medication just seems so hard to comprehend since everybody is so different in how they react to medications. The overall question I hope to answer is just a basic form of what is going on inside of my mind. I hope everyone has an amazing semester and I can not wait to get to know you all!

Kaylyn Gordon

--Original published at Rachelsblog

My name is Rachel Christman and I approach this course to be slightly difficult but also very interesting. I decided to take this course because I enjoy learning and studying about the brain and the way it works and affects human behavior. Although, I do not have a wide background with psychology I hope this course will change that. When I hear the word “psychology” I think about the brain and how it is so much more complex than humans think it to be. I am mostly intrigued by the macro and micro topics of the brain in the syllabus. Along with the “How to Improve Memory” and the personality topics. I enjoy learning how and why things happen, which is why I am excited for these topics. The only topic I am not as interested in is “How to Choose a Therapist”, it just does not sound as intriguing and interesting as the others. As I have not taken psychology in high school, I have tons of questions on all of psychology that I’m sure will be answered throughout the course of the semester. I enjoy learning all about how the brain works and all its complexities so I hope all of my questions pertaining to that are answered!

--Original published at Jayln's Perspective

Hello! My name is Jayln Maulfair. I am a first year Biology student at the college this year, which means my first semester consists of: a Biology 111 lecture/lab, an English 101 course, a Harry Potter seminar, and of course– an introductory level Psychology class. I did not choose to take this Psychology class if I am being completely honest; instead, it was simply just a class I was assigned. However, since I am a Biology student who is pursuing a job in the medical field, this class will be extremely beneficial in understanding societal patterns and also humankind in general. I am looking forward to this learning experience since I have no background in Psychology. That being said, I believe that Psychology pertains to a person’s behavior and how their mind works. This area of science helps people get to the root of why they act a certain way. After looking over the syllabus, I am most looking forward to learning how to: cope with stress, classify mental illnesses, and to get a closer look at how the brain works. First, I think that learning how to cope with stress is not only an interesting academic topic, but it is also an applicable, necessary life skill. Second, I believe  that classifying mental illnesses will be captivating because it directly correlates to the diagnostic aspect of the medical field. Lastly, learning how the brain works is fascinating because it helps us further understand our behaviors in an anatomical way. In comparison, I am the least interested in studying observational learning, the Attachment Theory, and the scientific method because all three of those topics seem more on the bland side of Psychology, and they also do not seem as interactive as the rest of the topic appear to be. After this course is finished, I hope that I can have a better understanding of why people behave a certain way in relation to their upbringing and societal pressures.

--Original published at Sydney’s Side

--Original published at Wolfman Productions

For my intro to psychology class at my college, I was asked to make an introductory post about the course.

I chose this course because I need the class for credits and my core requirements for my major.

I have no background in psychology.

When I hear the word “psychology” it makes me think of psychiatrist.

Three topics that interesting to me are How to Make Memories, How to Improve Memories, and Why do we Forget? These interest me because my memory as it is now is terrible when it comes to certain subjects. The three topics I’m least interested in are The Brain: Micro & Macro Level and Theories of Intelligence. These don’t interest me because the topics themselves don’t sound all that captivating.

I can’t think of any questions about psychology I want answered by the end of class.

--Original published at Psychology 105

Hello, my name is Lauren Kerr and I’m a sophomore allied health major. I decided to take Psych 105 because I’m hoping to minor in psychology along with my major. I want to be a physician’s assistant, but I’m planning to specialize in behavioral health which is where I would specifically apply psychology in my career. In high school I took a dual enrollment introductory course; other than that, I have limited experience. When I think of the word “psychology” I think of the study of how the brain functions and its effects on human behavior. Since I want to go into mental health care, I’m most looking forward to the units on mental illness and psychotherapy. However, I’m also just personally interested in the units that cover emotion and human morality.  I’m not really interested in learning about conditioning methods, obedience, or the unit on sleeping. These topics were covered fairly heavily in the other course I took, so that’s really the only reason I’m not super interested in learning about them again. I don’t really have any specific questions about psychology that I’d like to answer, but I would like to know the different ways that psychology and human health are related to each other by the end of this course so I can know where to take my studies next in this field.

--Original published at LivsCollegeBlog

Introduction

Hi! My name is Olivia Hanlon. I am from Hanover, Pennsylvania. If you don’t know where that is (because not many people do), it’s about 15 minutes north of Gettysburg (civil war). We’re also famous for Snyder’s Pretzels and UTZs chips. I am approaching this course with some previous knowledge from taking AP Psych in the fall semester last year. I didn’t really “choose” to take this class but I’m glad I’m taking it because it interests me even though it has nothing to do with my major. Some previous background comes from the AP Psych course I took last year and also being diagnose with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). When I hear the word “psychology,” the first thing that comes to mind is probably psychiatrist and psychologists. The three topics I think look the most interesting are “Classifying Mental Illness”, “Mood Disorders & Anxiety”, and “Psychotic, Traumatic, & Personality Disorders” because I have a mental illness and it is what really interested me in AP Psych. The three topics that look the least interesting are “Classical Conditioning”, “Operant Conditioning”, and “Observational Learning” because I never really liked learning about them in high school. The one question I want to answer by the end of this class is, “what causes depression and how can I make life easier for myself?”

--Original published at HuntersCollegeBlog

Hello! My name is Hunter, and I am a Music Therapy major. I’m heavily involved with music, and I also want to get involved with some other clubs. Psych has always been something that I’ve been absolutely intrigued by, and I’m so excited to be able to have a psych class on my schedule this semester. I took this class, because as a music therapy major, psychology plays a huge role in everything that you do when you’re working with a patient, and because like I said, I just love psych. In high school, I took 2 psych classes that I absolutely loved, and I learned so much, from the history of it, to how people react to different situations. When I hear the word “psychology,” I think about the human brain, and the thought processes. I also think of how people think, and how they rationalize and reason with certain things. I’m most intrigued about learning about the brain (micro/macro level, because I’m intrigued by how the human brain works, and how its set up), how to improve memory (because I have a TERRIBLE one), and coping with stress (because I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t stressed. I think I’m least intrigued about learning the scientific method, because I’ve been taught that a lot over the years. In all honesty, I’m really excited about everything we learn in the course, and I’m really not not excited about anything we’re going to learn. Psychology is such a cool thing, that I think I’ll be excited to learn anything and everything that I can. By the end of this class, I want to answer the question of why I have trouble sleeping, regardless of what I do, and how any chemical imbalance in the brain can happen.

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Introductory psychology was a necessity for my first semester here at Elizabethtown for the simple reason that I love psychology and learning about how the human brain works and why people are the way they are. In high school I took a psychology course that was very basic where we learned the anatomy of the brain, diseases of the brain, and scientists who developed psychology. After taking that psychology course when I hear the world psychology I think of how a person’s mind works, how the brain can develop diseases and how it affects each and every person’s life. Three topics on the course list that seem very interesting to me are addiction, attachment theory, and cognitive development. I find addiction interesting because it directly relates to the people around me, I am eager to learn about attachment theory because it intrigues me how people become so attached to another person and I want to know why that is. Cognitive development is also interesting to me because I am not very familiar with the topic, but I would like to be. Three topics that are not so interesting to me are how to choose a therapist because I think that this topic is not as related to the actual workings of the brain as some of the other topics. Power of the situation does not seem very interesting because I am not quite sure what it is, the title does not provide me with enough information to decide. A final topic that does not spark my interest is operant conditioning because of the same reason, I am not quite sure what it is. I am very excited to take this course and learn more about the human brain and psychology.

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

Hi, I’m Isabella Panzica and this is my blog for Psychology 105. Some fun facts about me are that I love to read and I am an Industrial Engineering Major. During the summer I work at my family’s ice cream store and try to catch up on my reading. Since I can never find the time to read while at school. I try to work hard at everything I do and this class is no exception.

For my major, taking psychology 105 is a requirement, though I genuinely am interested in the class.  I don’t have a big background in psychology though in the past I have occasionally read or watched documentaries involving mental health, mental disabilities, and the brain. Then I took a literature class my freshman year where we read one of Freud’s works. In the same class, we also discussed time as a contract theory. My brother also has autism so I grew up with my family talking about mental disabilities and advocating for getting kids with disabilities more support at school.

When I think of psychology I associate it with mental disabilities, mental health, the brain, and therapy.

Though despite those being the first things I associate with psychology and I do find them interesting; they are not what I find the most interesting topics on the course schedule. The top three topics that I am the most psyched (pun intended!) to learn about are sleep, stress, and memory. Since I feel that learning by learning about sleep it can help me with finding a trick to feel more well rested. Also, I heard of R.E.M sleep, light sleep, and deep sleep but I have no idea what they mean. So I’m curious to learn more about those sleep terms as well. Then stress is never fun so I want to learn more about it so I can use my knowledge to become less stressed. Then I am interested in the topic of memory because I want to improve my memory since it is horrible. I can never seem to remember dates, names, or schedules. Also, I heard about false memories (the Mandela effect) and I find them fascinating.

The least interesting topics on the course schedule are the scientific method, the Brain, and chemicals and conditioning. I’m not really interested in scientific method since in high school they really beat that topic to death. I think I had at least four different classes teach the scientific method. So while I understand why it’s important and useful to know, I’m just not as interested in it as the other topics. When it comes to the Brain: Micro-level I’m not that interested in it because I feel like that is a topic where we need to memorize a lot of scientific terms and parts of the brain. So with that combined with my horrible memory, it does not look like its going to be that fun for me. I feel the same way towards the topic of chemicals and conditioning as well. Since I feel like I might struggle with the terminology and that is making me not feel that excited towards it.

Though on a more positive note is that I have a list of questions that I look forward to having answered by this class. These questions are:

• Is the Mandela effect considered a cause of mass false memories and are there any research being done on it? Also are there any theories in the psychology world about this?
• What does R.E.M sleep, light sleep, and deep sleep mean?
• What are the biggest ethical debates currently going on?
• Did we ever answer the question about nature versus nurture?
• I heard about a sleep schedule where you only sleep in two-hour intervals throughout the day that is supposed to keep you better rested with overall less sleep. Is that a real concept?
• What is the biggest psychological misconception?

The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing. – Walt Disney