Monthly Archives: April 2019

Ch 9- Intelligence

--Original published at Maddy Vingom's PSY105 Blog

Intelligence is both impacted by one’s genes and their environment. Most children spend six to eight hours each day sitting in a classroom. In these classrooms kids learn not only facts and math skills, but how to behave in certain social situations as well. Throughout school I was fortunate enough to have teachers who truly cared about my peers and me. One of my favorite teachers was my high school physics teacher, Mr. Daugherty. He was passionate about helping students learn, regardless if you were enrolled in his class or a different teacher he would gladly sit down and ensure that you understand each concept. Mr. Daugherty made class engaging though hands-on labs to explain physics concepts to his students. I think all educators should follow in his footsteps by implementing more hands-on learning and ensuring that the students are not only memorizing facts but understanding concepts. 

Mr. Daugherty made school about learning again, not simply the memorization of random information. Unfortunately, school has become a place where obtaining a good grade is more important than actually learning. The teachers are not at fault for this, they typically want what is best for their students, the school system is failing their students. Schools are often times not adequately funded teachers and other staff are underpaid, the teaching materials are out dated, and schools lack transportation for all students. These have a major impact on how well students will do in their classes, the more money a school has the more resources they will have for their students to succeed. Thankfully my parents choose to live in a wealthier school district, where many of these things were not an issue for me. 

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

Stress : Option 1

--Original published at Bogo's Blog

“Stress permeates American society, and college is a very stressful environment for everyone involved. Stress management is a critical component of academic success in college. Describe your current stress management strategies, assess how well they work, and discuss what other stress management activities you could realistically incorporate into your routine to help you deal with stress more effectively.”

Currently, I am at that time of the year where my stress levels are almost at the peak. With finals about a month away and multiple papers due from most of my classes, this is the time of the year that most college students find themselves scrambling. To minimize stress when I’m doing a large load of homework, I take fifteen minute breaks every hour I work to refresh. During those fifteen minutes I watch things ranging from YouTube videos to comedy skits on Netflix. At the end of the day, when I’m done with my homework I spend time with my friends and relax. I find this to be the most efficient way of stress management since I find myself almost stress-free when I am with my close friends. Other effective ways I use to stress manage are running, playing soccer, and going to the gym.

another method that I think I should incorporate into my schedule is cooking. I used to cook a lot more in the beginning of the semester but as my work load increased I found myself eating at the jays nest a lot more often. Whenever I would cook I would feel no stress and it always felt good when the food came out good. If I can find more time in my schedule to cook I believe my stress would decrease .

Chapter 11 First Impression Prompt

--Original published at Phil's College Blog

Stress has been one of the hardest issues in society that everyone has to deal with at some point. Whether that is making sure the children are picked up from school on time, or if you have enough money to pay your bills for this month. However, for me my stress is completely focused on my daily life as a college student. I can say that my stress levels in general are coped with by different strategies.

First, I typically resort to an activity that I find exciting and fun. Which for me is to go grab my lacrosse stick and shoot lacrosse balls for about a hour. This makes me feel better when I go back to study for a exam or to write a paper because I feel accomplished. I can say to myself you accomplished something that made you better today.

Secondly, when I do not pick up my lacrosse stick I typically call my parents or close friends to help calm me down. They help to put everything into perspective and that everything will be okay as long as I put my best foot forward. This is huge for when I feel too overwhelmed to go grab my lacrosse stick because this stress reliever is accessible at anytime and anywhere from my phone. This always works for me because a calming voice makes me realize that what I have going on might seem like a lot but in reality I can handle all of my stress.

Finally, The activity I could work into my stress routine could honestly be a stress ball. I feel like this could have the same effect of playing lacrosse because I take out all my stressful energy on another object and after my energy is exhausted I feel better, or when I get home I could get a punching bag that could have the same effect but a lot faster.

Ch 11 First Impression option 1

--Original published at MaddieHinson

Stress for me comes and goes in waves. I am mostly good at looking at a problem and saying, “That’s a not right now issue” so I can prioritize what I stress over. Usually, being able to choose what I’m going to be worried about helps me get through every day life. The problem with this method is usually, all of the small things I push off until later choose to pop up into my head at once. That time is usually when I’m sleep deprived and have a few other big things going on, and then they pile up and I get overwhelmed by it. I would say that for this method to be effective is that I can put off stressing about something for a day, but anymore than that and it’s going to be ineffective to me.

Another tactic that I use to give me some stress relief is to just say out loud what I’m stressing about. A lot of times if I tell someone a problem in my life, I’m not looking for them to give me a solution, it’s more of a venting situation. For some reason, being able to recognize out loud what the issue is makes it more visible to me and I don’t have to constantly be thinking about it in my head. This method works well for me when I actually use it. A lot of times I try to keep my problems to myself so I don’t bother my friends with it.

The latest stress reliever I’ve found is running. This one was surprising to me, because generally, I’m too tired or busy to fit running into my schedule, but I’ve been doing it three or four times a week for the last three weeks, and it’s been going very well. I don’t usually think through anything while I run, it just makes me feel more accomplished after I do, plus I’ve found it to be fun especially if you have the right music to go with it.

A stress management activity that I could incorporate into my life is meditation. For most of the day, I am either surrounded by people, or electronics, and it would probably be beneficial to me if I spent a few minutes each day just breathing and listening to calming music, maybe before bed.

Ch. 11 First Impression- Stress

--Original published at Ben's PSY105 Blog

Since starting college, I have found myself way more stressed than ever before. In high school, I never worried about classes, tests, or grades. Everything was easy enough for me to just skate my way through. I knew college was going to be a change, but I wasn’t ready for it to be as overwhelming as it is. I find myself sleeping less and worrying way more. I tend to stress myself out over small details more often now than I ever did before. On top of all the new stress I have from college, I lost my most effective stress relieving method. Whenever I was stressed in high school, I would just go play soccer and all my worries would go away. Now, with my daily headaches, soccer is no longer an option for me. On top of the headaches taking away my stress relief, they also stress me out more on their own.

At this point, I don’t really have any stress relief techniques. I just try to go with the flow as much as I can. One of my top 5 strengths is adaptability, so I tend to get by with it. I should probably find a technique that works better, like yoga or meditation. I often get overwhelmed with stress and then just shut down completely, so I no longer have to worry about my problems if they don’t exist. It’s probably not healthy for me, nor is it good for my productivity, but it’s my natural response.

Chapter 11: Stress

--Original published at Grace's College Blog

In Kelly McGonigal’s TED talk, “How to make stress your friend,” she discusses changing our relationship with stress and how we can interpret the physical reactions our bodies have to stress. I believe Kelly to be very credible. She is a health psychologist and after reading a study that conflicted with her beliefs, instead of dismissing it she continued to do more research and adapted her methods of helping people cope with stress.

I thoroughly enjoyed this TED talk and will definitely apply her methods to my life and how I deal with stress. I feel her method of managing stress in new ways is very reasonable and easily applicable to everyone. She discussed how people who described their stress as helpful in situations were much more confident because their body was preparing them instead of making them unsure and nervous. She also talked about how people who were involved in the betterment of people close to them, had a better time handling stress. Also just being around people you care about, can help with stress. I think this can be applied to my life when I am preparing for a test or a presentation, I can prepare with other people. If I am alone in my room going over a presentation or studying, I will be significantly more stressed than if I were to do my presentation in from of someone that I know. Having that relief of knowing that person will make it less stressful and make it easier when you have to present for real. I do not think I currently have the best strategies for dealing with stress, but when I am struggling to work on homework, I ask someone else to work on homework with me, so I am more motivated and help responsible because I asked someone else to work with me.