Author Archives: isabellaspsychologyblog

Spotlight 3: Year-Round Schooling

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

Isabella Panzica

12/7/2018

Spotlight 3 Post

The Year Round Schooling Debate

During my childhood, the thought of year-round schooling was one of the worst things ever. I viewed summer break as the best thing ever. Though looking at four different sources which explore whether or not year-round schooling would be beneficial to the overall learning of the children in the schools made me question whether my past self was correct. In order to answer this question, four peer-reviewed sources were collected and evaluated. There were two sources supporting year-round schooling and two sources against year-round schooling.

Supporting Year-Round Schooling

The peer-reviewed article “Evaluating Year-Round Schools in Texas” by Cynthia Opheim and Kristine Mohajer had positive results on student learning. Data from this article were taken by sending 59 surveys to principles of year-round schools and 46 surveys to principles of traditional schools. In this article it had resulted from five hypotheses, only two of the hypothesis relate directly to student learning instead of general year-round school operations. The first hypothesis related to student learning was year-round schooling reduces student absenteeism, increase facility utilization, and reduces student discipline problems. This hypothesis was proven correct through answers on the survey which principles of different schools in Texas filled out. The second hypothesis concerning student learning was about how year-round schooling increases student achievement. Results were that the overall improvement was low but still statistically significant. Different components of student achievement were also specifically tested and had positive results. These parts of student achievement had positive results were fewer retention problems, special education children’s progress, bilingual student’s progress, enrichment learning program positive results, and an increase in standardized test scores. So overall the article “Evaluating Year-Round Schools in Texas” showed not only was year-round schooling better for academic reasons but to also be better for special needs student, bilingual students, and problem students (Opheim).

The article “The Influence of Extended-Year Schooling on Growth of Achievement and Perceived Competence in Early Elementary School” by Julie Frazier and Frederick Morrison also supported year-round schooling. All participants were kindergarten children, there were 90 students went to a traditional school and 91 students in the year-round school. Then later these participants were tested on eighteen various variables. Results from the study showed students in year-round schooling had higher scores in mathematics than students in traditional schools. Though this progress is only gained because year-round students are working in the summer while the students of traditional schools are on school break. Since despite distributing short breaks throughout the year, overall in year-round schooling students are in school one month more than traditional students. This extra month allow teachers to teach topic more in-depth and cover more material (Frazier).

Against Year-Round Schooling

The article “A Statewide Evaluation of Academic Achievement in Year-Round Schools” by Bradley McMillen was a comparison of year-round schooling students to traditional schooling students in North Carolina. There were 345,000 students in the study who were all in grades 3 through 8 at the time of the study. Data used in this study came from the North Carolina Testing Program, which tests 3-8 graders mathematics and reading skills. Then the results of the study were there was no overall significant change between the test scores of students in year-round schooling and students of traditional schooling (McMillen).

Amery Wu and Jake Stone wrote the article “Does Year Round Schooling Affect the Outcome and Growth of California’s API Scores?”, which was about how year-round schooling affects students scoring on the California API in comparison of the scores of students at traditional schools. The Californian API is a type of standardized test taken by Californian students. API scores were collected for six years from 4,569 Californian schools. The results of the data analysis were students overall API performance did not change by going to year-round schooling instead of traditional schooling (Wu).

Conclusion

Looking at the sources for both pro and anti-year-round schooling the articles against year-round schooling were the most solid. This is because the sample sizes were at times over a hundred times larger and over more years then the sources arguing for year-round schools. Also the source “Evaluating Year-Round Schools in Texas” which was in favor of year-long schools had results showing only small improvements in students of year-round schooling when compared to traditional schooling (Opheim). The results of year-round schools compared to traditional schools only show slight improvements or no improvements at all, so in response, year-round schooling should not replace traditional schools entirely. Though year-round schooling does not need to be eliminated since it’s not negatively affecting the education of students of year-round schooling.

 

Work Cited

.Frazier, Julie A., and Frederick J. Morrison. “The Influence of Extended-Year Schooling on Growth of Achievement and Perceived Competence in Early Elementary School.” Child Development, vol. 69, no. 2, 1998, p. 495. JSTOR Journals, doi:10.2307/1132180.

Mcmillen, Bradley J. “A Statewide Evaluation of Academic Achievement in Year-Round Schools.” The Journal of Educational Research, vol. 95, no. 2, 2001, pp. 67–74. Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1080/00220670109596574.

Opheim, Cynthia, and Kristine Hopkin Mohajer. “Evaluating Year-Round Schools in Texas.” Education, vol. 116, no. 1, 1995, pp. 115–120. Academic Search Complete, eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=ae1d8c18-0516-4aee-b46d-e0 3ff0ad7be2@sessionmgr4007.

Wu, Amery D, and Jake E Stone. “Does Year Round Schooling Affect the Outcome and Growth of California’s API Scores?” Educational Research & Policy Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, 2010, pp. 79–97. ERIC, eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=f112b709-da06-4fa8-bdd3-66 7bb259a3f6@pdc-v-sessmgr02.

Media Production: The Myth of the American Narcissist

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

Narcissism is an epidemic in America, at least according to the older generations of Americans. According to the research article “The Narcissism Epidemic Is Dead;  Long Live the Narcissism Epidemic” by Wetzel, this narcissism epidemic is not only nonexistent but it probably never happened at all.

Variables used in the research was narcissism and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) survey. Narcissism was a dependent variable defined by high scores on the NPI survey. The NPI survey is a dependent variable since the participants had to answer their own survey.

Research participants were undergraduates between the ages of 18 to 24 years old from the years 1992 to 2015. The three colleges participants can from where the University of California Berkeley, the University of Illinois and the University of California Davis. Throughout the years the research was being performed researchers put extra emphasis on each of these three colleges.

Research participants were selected from three non-randomly selected universities, so the study is only generalizable to students from these three universities. Research participants were placed in groups based on ethnicity and gender. Each category of people was analyzed and compared to the results of all of the NPI tests. Group assignment was done by ethnicity and gender there was no random assignment in grouping participants. Random assignment is a defining feature of an experiment. Causal claims can only be made through true experiments. Research without random assignment cannot make causal claims.

The results of the research were a decline in narcissism. Results of the study are only generalizable to the undergraduate students from the University of California Berkeley, the University of Illinois and the University of California Davis. This group of people is very small compared to the general population of young people in America. The researchers were wrong to generalize their results to the wrong population. Also since the research was not a true experiment so no causational clauses can be made either. This study alone cannot disprove the narcissism epidemic it can be used to help other research disprove the existence of the narcissism epidemic.

Reflection:

My summary had the small word limit of 367 words making it hard to include all the research information into the word limit. The most important information needed in the article was, an introduction, five critical question answers, and research results were included. An introduction and conclusion were included since both are essential to writing since they hook the reader in and closes the article. Answering the five critical questions shows that the writer understands the research article.

Another thing I did was tell the reader how to interpret the research article. I did this because my word limit was so short I could not be able to include enough information to allow the reader to form their own opinion about the research article. After writing the introduction and about the five critical questions I did not have enough words to explain the research without inserting my own opinions. I was able to include a few sentences about how I reached my opinion on the research article.

To reduce my word count, I also combined the results my opinions on the research, and the conclusion in the last paragraph of the article. The reason for this was that the results supported my opinion on the research. The conclusion was included in the last paragraph since I did not have enough words left for another paragraph. Also, the result of an experiment and an opinion on the research are both topics usually at the end of an article so adding the conclusion to the paragraph read naturally.

In my rough draft, I was extremely harsh for my conclusion of the article. At one point I even included the statement “the research does not matter.” I did this because I disliked the pop culture article “The Myth of the American Narcissist” by Laura Entis over exaggerated research results, so I want to be realistic while writing my article. Instead of being realistic I went into the territory of being hostile. Later I changed my article’s wording so that it was not hostile but critical. This critical writing approach is very different from Laura Entis’ article which over exaggerated the results of the research.

The main differences from the Laura Entis article and my own were our approaches on the five critical questions. While writing my article, my main objective was to answer the five critical questions. Answering the five critical questions took up half of my summary. Laura Entis’ article was made up of a short introduction and a three-question interview with one of the researchers of the study. Though Entis did not answer all of the five critical questions (Entis).

For the critical question of optimizing variables of the experiment both me and Entis had the same answer. Entis did not include any mention of the critical question of how participants were selected. Then Entis did not answer the question of how participants were assigned into groups. In my article, I answered the critical questions of how the participants were selected and how participants were assigned to groups. More critical questions I answered clearly but Entis did not as if the research allowed for causal claims and if the researches generalized the results correctly. Entis did not answer these questions directly but gave enough evidence for a reader knowledgeable about causal claims and generalization can figure out the answers for themselves (Entis).

From the pop culture, scholarly, and media production assignments I learned about journalism and strategies for reading research papers. When reading a research paper look out for the answers of the five critical questions. By finding the answers to the five critical questions, a reader is able to understand how the research was performed and judge if the conclusion the researchers came up with was correct or not.

In journalism, the writer needs to understand the research paper they are citing and write something not only accurately relays the information from the research paper but is also interesting to the reader. Also, journalists have word limit too. So this means even if they want to the journalist could not include all the information from the research paper without the article being extremely dense and similar to the abstract of the research paper. So in order to write something interesting within their word limit, a large amount of research cannot be included in the article. By writing these articles, I gained a higher respect for journalists. Journalists summarize research papers into short articles the general public can easily read.

Another topic I learned about from the previous assignments was writing in general. In the writing manuals, I learned many tips which I incorporate in my writing in other classes as well. One of the tips I use the most often is avoiding to use the word that. Also, I write more simple now to avoid making grammar mistakes by trying to overcomplicate sentences.

Overall I learned not only about narcissism but about how research articles become pop culture articles and strategies on how to read research articles. By doing these assignments, it made me look at and experience all the parts a pop culture article is made of.

 

Work Cited

Entis, Laura. “The Myth of the American Narcissist.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 10 May 2018, http://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201803/the-myth-the-american-narcissist.

Wetzel, Eunike, et al. “The Narcissism Epidemic Is Dead; Long Live the Narcissism Epidemic.” Psychological Science, vol. 28, no. 12, Dec. 2017, pp. 1833–1847, doi:10.1177/0956797617724208.

Chapter 14: First Impression Post

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

I watched the video and found it very unsettling how the voices and the hallucinate worked together to create a scary situation out of a normal beautiful day. Normally in a movie they have people just act crazy and irrational but they never show why they act the way they do. For example, the voices said that there was something wrong with the pizza and then the hallucinations made the pizza move in a gross and unnatural way.
By watching how schizophrenics voices and hallucinations create a narrative which seems real it is understandable why they act oddly. Though from the video it looks like they can live a normal life just by taking medication. Schizophrenia is usually not depicted as controllable through medication in films. I feel this is because movies need to create drama to get viewers attention and this is usually done by exaggerating things like illnesses. So a disorder that is controllable through medication that involves voices and hallucinations when untreated is made to seem worse and is used to explain why a movie villain is doing something bad for no reason. Also because schizophrenics are usually the irrational crazy person in movies people associate schizophrenics with crazy people that act out without any reason.
Another reason is that in the news sometimes when people who are schizophrenic commit horrible crimes the news media puts too much emphasis on them being schizophrenic or having other mental disorders. Personally, I feel that this is the news trying to rationalize that some people do horrible things by blaming mental illnesses, which then results in the stigmatization of mental illness. Since in the video the person was having horrible hallucinations but still did not out in violence against another person.

Chapter 12: First Impression

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

When I took my response I did not feel that shocked by my results. Though I noticed that the results of the test were affected by the amount of time spent associating something correctly by pressing the designated keys. I found it difficult remembering which key meant what category and was slow in associating the different pictures in the middle of the screen. I didn’t really feel that it was reliable since it was obvious how the questions were going to be graded.

After I took two of the IAT tests and was curious if the test results can be faked. So I redid the IAT about weight and decided to try and get a significant preference for fat people over thin people. The first thing I did was skip over the personal questions so reduce the amount of false data I gave the website. Then I made sure to pause when associating thin people to good things and fat people with bad things. Then I went faster in clicking on associating bad thing to fat people of good things to thin people. I also made some purposefully wrong answer to make it look more like I automatically associate thin people to bad things and fat people to good things. After doing this my test answer was that I had a moderate preference for fat people over thin people. I was surprised by this since I thought that I did good in faking my results but I only got a moderate preference instead of the significant preference that I was trying to get. Though this still shows that the test can still be manipulated. I strongly believe that if I tried the test a few more times I could successfully manipulate the test.

Since the IAT can be manipulated this easily with just one try I feel that if college students of job candidates could manipulate the test as well. Considering that there are so many books and videos about job interviews, so I feel that books and videos would be made to manipulate IAT tests. For this reason, I feel that colleges and jobs should not use the IAT in their application processes.

 

Spotlight Post 2

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

Evaluating Stress Management Websites

Stress is a part of daily life. Many people struggle with dealing with stress. Fortunately, there are stress management strategies. Many stress management strategies are published online along with other stress management advice. Websites hosting information about stress management have different target audiences. Using real stress management techniques from psychology, three websites with different target audiences will have their stress management content evaluated.

 

Help Guide Website

Help Guide is a website which tries to help people with a range of mental and emotional problems. The website’s target audience is people with mental and emotional problems. Stress is one of the website’s main topics. Stress Management is a subtopic to Stress. This subtopic has three authors, Lawrence Robinson, Melinda Smith, and Robert Segal. (Robinson)  Lawrence Robinson is a senior writer of Help Guide and has over twenty years of writing experience about health and fitness. Melinda Smith has a masters degree in psychology and is the editorial director and senior writer of Help Guide. Robert Segal has a masters degree in educational psychology and is the executive director of the website Help Guide. Based on the authors of the subtopic of the website I find the subtopic to be very credible. Most of the authors had a master degree in psychology, and all authors were important people in the Help Guide company (About Us).

The subtopic of Stress Management is made up of seven tips for stress management. Tip one is to find the stress; done by evaluating yourself by keeping a stress journal and access ones habits and attitude. The second tip is using a technique called the 4 A’ which stand for avoiding stress, alter situations, adapt to stressors, and accepting some stressors are unavoidable. Each of these four steps is broken down into smaller steps which are easier to complete. Being active is the third tip. The site recommends thirty minutes of exercise a day but recognizes even small activities can help relieve stress. Connecting with other people is the fourth tip; the website even recommends ways to build relationships. Tip five is to make time for yourself and to have fun. Improving time management skills is the sixth tip; done by not over-committing, prioritizing tasks, getting help, and breaking up tasks. The seventh tip is to live a healthy lifestyle through diet, abstaining from harmful substances, and sleeping. Then the final tip is to relieve stress at the moment (Robinson).

The first tip was good advice since it is half of problem-focused coping. Problem-focused coping is getting rid of stress by changing the stressor or our response to the stressor. So by identifying the stress, one is part way done with changing the stressor and our response to it. Tip two is very close to changing the stressor since it includes altering situations. Then adapting and accepting stressors one is changing their response to the stressor. Improving time management skills is a problem-focused-coping since time management helps eliminate stressors (Myers 406-437).

The third tip of being active was great advice since exercise helps alleviate depression and anxiety. Even a short walk can create two hours of feeling better. Connecting with other people is good advice since a support system of people can help with stress management. Making time for yourself is a valid stress management technique since relaxing reduces depression, anxiety, and even headaches. Relaxing at the moment requires calming down through relaxation techniques. Then sleeping and eating well are also good for living a happy life since it makes the body healthy (Myers 406-437).

 

American Heart Association Website

   The American Heart Association is a famous organization dedicated to helping people fight against heart disease and stroke. When it comes to fighting heart disease one of the important things a person has to do is manage stress. The American Heart Association put stress management as one of its main topics. The Stress Management topic page has a couple of articles and two infographics. After looking through the stress management articles and infographics, most of the stress management information on the website are summarised in the article “3 Tips to Manage Stress”. None of the website content had an author’s name, but the information is considered credible because it is published by a credible company (Stress Management).

   The stress management advice the American Heart Association gives is separated into three different steps: positive self-talk, immediate de-stressors, and stress relieving activities. Positive self-talk is being nicer to yourself and thinking optimistically. Immediate de-stressors are counting to ten, take deep breaths, go on a walk, meditate, sleep on non-urgent stressors, take a break from the stressor, break down large problems, listen to relaxing music, hug someone, and workout. Stress relieving activities are being creative, read, connect with others, play sports, listen to music, meditate, and self-care (3 Tips).

   The American Heart Association was focused mostly on emotion-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping is attending to the emotional needs created by the stressor but ignoring the stressor. Stress is eliminated by aerobic exercise, relaxation, meditation, and active spirituality. Immediate de-stressors and stress relieving activities closely related to meditation, relaxation, and exercise. Positive self-talk is also useful for stress management because it makes a person more like an optimist. Optimism is good for stress management because optimists are happier and react better to stress than pessimists (Myers 406-437).

 

Positive Psychology Website

Positive Psychology Program is a website which provides stress management resources ranging from paid courses to blogs. The website’s target audiences are people trying to become more positive and people becoming educated in positive psychology. One of the topics of positive psychology is stress management. One of the available articles about stress management is “62 Stress Management Techniques & Tips To Prevent A Burnout” by Amba Brown. Amba Brown is a credible author since she has degrees in both psychology and sociology. She has also authored books and presented a TEDx talk about major life transitions (Brown). These major life transitions are stressful times since even happy life changes cause a person stress (Myers 406-437).

The stress management content on the Positive Psychology Program website starts by defining stress management and stress in general. Then the article goes into information about stress and burnout. Next, the article goes into the “62 stress management techniques” it had collected from various resources. Some of these techniques even have videos to go along with them. The first set of technique given are understand stress, identify stress, recognize stress, recognize stress strategies, takes self-care, and ask for help (Brown).

Most of these techniques are problem-focused coping, which is reducing stress by changing the stressor directly. The only exception is taking self-care which is emotion-focused coping, which reduces stress by ignoring the stressor to focus on the emotional needs caused by the stressor (Myers 406-437).

The second round of techniques used three categories of stress management strategies which were action-oriented, emotion-oriented, and acceptance-orientated. Action-oriented approaches are being assertive, reduce surrounding noise, manage time, say no to others, and calming thoughts. Emotion-oriented approaches are giving yourself positive affirmations, challenge negative emotions, and use the ABC’s method. The ABC method is recognizing adversity, react with positive beliefs, and accepting the consequences of the adversity. Acceptance-oriented approaches are having a healthy diet, exercising, meditating, build resilience, talk to others, and get a good night’s sleep (Brown).

In psychology, there is (action) problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. Action/problem-focused coping is reducing stress by changing the stressor. The website used good examples that fit the definition. Emotion-focused coping is reducing stress by ignoring the stressor and focusing on the emotional reaction. Trying to be more positive and accepting of the stressor like the website suggested focuses on the emotion side of stress done by emotion-focused coping. Acceptance is not a coping strategy, but it is made up of many useful stress management techniques. Meditation, exercise, and relaxation are three of the four major concepts that reduce stress. Social support gives people calm and open heart therapy, where one can talk to others about stress. Eating healthy and sleeping well make the body healthy and reduces stress (Myers 406-437).

The third set of techniques is for stress management at work by setting realistic deadlines, take breaks, create a work-life balance, and going to therapy. Then the final set of techniques is to perform de-stressing activities like breathing exercises, listening to relaxing music, giving yourself hand massage, then focus on each of your five senses for a minute each. (Brown)

   The advice in the third and fourth set of stress management techniques was also useful. Setting realistic deadlines was problem-focused coping, and then most the rest of the techniques were emotion-focused coping. Giving yourself a hand massage and focusing on each of your senses for a minute are not methods of relaxation I am familiar with when it comes to reducing stress. Since I have never heard of these stress management techniques anywhere else, I do not recommend these two methods of relaxation for stress management (Myers 406-437).

 

Conclusion

   Based on my evaluation of the three websites I found them overall useful and full of good stress management techniques. There may be a few weird results like giving yourself a hand massage, but there was also very good advice. Useful stress management techniques are repeated more frequently than the rare questionable stress management technique.

 

Links to websites:

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/stress-management-techniques-tips-burn-out/

 

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm

 

http://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management

 

Work Cited

“3 Tips to Manage Stress.” Heart.org, American Heart Association , June 2014, http://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/3-tips-to-manage-stress.

“About Us.” Help Guide, Help Guide, www.helpguide.org/misc/about-us.htm.

Brown, Amba. “62 Stress Management Techniques & Tips To Prevent A Burnout.” Positive Psychology Program, Positive Psychology Program, 23 Feb. 2018, positivepsychologyprogram.com/stress-management-techniques-tips-burn-out/.

Myers, David G. ”Stress, Health, and Human Flourishing”  Exploring Psychology, 10th Edition. Worth Publishers, 2016. [Chegg].

Robinson, Lawrence, et al. “Stress Management.” Help Guide, Help Guide, Sept. 2018, www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm.

“Stress Management.” heart.org, American Heart Association, http://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management.

Chapter 13 First Impression Post

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

I took four different personalities test to evaluate myself and to see if I got a similar result on all four tests. The tests I took were the Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test, the Jungian Personality test, the IPIP-BFFM test, and the color test.
The Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test was based on the work of Carl G. Jung to create sixteen different personality tests. This was done by creating four different categories, and in each category, a person judged on a scale. These categories are general attitude, perception, judging, and judging-perceiving. So I feel that the test was based on good science and is credible. My results were that I personality type ISFJ. This means that my results say that my general attitude is slightly introversion, an in the middle of both the perception and judging categories, and am moderately more judging than perceiving. I feel that this is accurate to myself.
The second personality test I took was the Jungian personality test. This test was also based on the work of Carl G. Jung and can determine between sixteen different personality types. The website says this is done by asking questions to determine five main personality traits and thirty sub-personality traits. So based on this information on the test, I feel that this site is credible. My result from this test was that I was personality ESTJ which was similar to the previous test considering that I was in the middle in the judging category. Though I did say that I was an extrovert instead of an introvert, which is different from the last test. I personally feel that I am an introvert and disagree with the results of this test. Also, I disliked that the test did not give as detailed results as the first test.
The third personality test I took was the IPIP-BFFM test, which was also collecting results for research. So this makes the test seem credible since it is good enough to be used in some type of research. Though one of the questions they asked in the extra set of questions for just the researchers was if I owned a goat, and I found that really odd. Then it also wanted to know the exact number of Facebook friends I had, which I liked since I had to give a hard number instead of agreeing or disagreeing. My score was also more details by showing percentiles I fell into, which I also liked. I scored as an introvert, emotionally changing, stubborn, slightly critical, average diligence, and slightly above average for open to experience. I feel that these scores reflect myself well and I don’t object to it.
The color test starts out on a screen that says its widely used and credible but I disagree. During the test, I I did was chose colors I liked in two different orders. The test also did not ask me any question other than my gender. So I can’t say that I find this personality test credible. My results were not even close when it came to restrained characteristics and desired objective. I have to admit the source of stress was close but overall I dislike the color test.

Links to tests:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

http://www.personalitytest.net/cgi-bin/q.pl

http://personality-testing.info/tests/BIG5.php

http://colorquiz.com/

Chapter 10 First Impression Post- Prompt 3

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

On the surface, The One I love is a love by REM is a song about a person you love and it should be a very romantic song. The first line of the song is literally “This one goes out to the one I love.” Unfortunately, the second and third lines of the song are “This one goes out to the one I’ve left behind” and “A simple prop to occupy my time.” (REM). Which most people in a relationship would be angered to be called a prop used to occupy someone’s time by their significant other. Since this means that the person saying this is using their partner and are not returning the others feelings despite being in a relationship.

 

Then when you look in the later verses the line “A simple prop to occupy my time is replaced by “ Another prop to occupy my time.”  Which is even worse, since this implies that the person saying this treats everyone they love as a prop. This indicates that the person does not see other people as deserving respect or affection. So the person saying this is just using people without thinking of the other person’s feelings. Then they continue to do this over and over again in their relationships without remorse. Which is scary since this means that they truly do not care about the people they were in a relationship with.

 

The chorus of the song is not better since the chorus is the word “Fire” as another band member sings “she’s comin’ down on her own, now” in the background. I am interpreting this as the breakups are bad and end in anger from the other person since they realize that they are being used.

 

The song does not have a lot of lyrics since it just repeats itself over and over again so there are not a lot of lyrics to analyze. Though the song repeating itself probably means that the person the song is in the point of view is never going to change but instead continue to use their romantic partners as props. Which is sad that the person is unwilling to change their actions. Though it is also disturbing since they know that they are using their romantic partners but don’t find anything wrong with it.

 

Link to Lyrics: https://genius.com/Rem-the-one-i-love-lyrics

Link to the Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7oQEPfe-O8

Chapter 9 First Impression- prompt 1

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

In school I learned two things about intelligence that has stuck to me today, you need to be excited about learning and be an advocate in making sure you are learning. Since even though school is a place to learn, it doesn’t mean that it is a good is a good place to learn. I was taught this when I was in elementary school and was put in the special class for kids who struggled in school. This classroom was smaller and we had better teacher supervision. The teachers explained that we all learned differently and by being in the smaller class we could get more support. Also, the teachers were more encouraging and patient so I never felt stupid even though I knew I was behind on learning things when compared to other students. My classmates and I were encouraged to be excited about learning and to do essays and research articles about topics we liked. I felt encouraged and excited to learn new things.

 
So I just kept on trying to do better until I only needed some extra writing classes and had a special study hall when I was in middle school. My second year in middle school I had an extra writing class. It was filled with kids from the special classes I had in elementary school and I enjoyed the class. At the end of the year, I ended up getting almost a hundred in the class and was very happy. So you can imagine my surprise when I had to retake the same exact class, with the same exact students the next year. All of the projects and rubrics were exactly the same. The teacher even acknowledged everything was the same and it was not a mistake that I was in the class. I felt confused and sad that even though I passed the class the teacher did not feel that I was smart enough to truly advance to a different course. I talked to my Mom about this and we both talked to the principal about my development in writing. I got transferred out of the class but I felt that the school was holding me back. At the time I was scoring high in the majority of my classes and was known as being the best read student in the school but I was not considered good enough to get out of my remedial classes.

 
In my Freshman English class, the class was out of control and the teacher had no control of the students. So I went to the teacher and Principle to talk about half of the class being wasted by the students and they acknowledged it was a problem and decided not to fix it. Later in the year I left for a week, did two hours of work for the class and ended up being a month ahead of the class.

 
I feel that my experiences in my middle school extra writing class and Freshman English class were very discouraging and unproductive in teaching kids. I feel that performance in the classroom would be increased if the information in the classes were different from each other. Since if you lean the same thing in the same format a couple years in a row, the kids are going to stop paying attention since they already learned the material.

 
Then if the class is out of control to the point a teacher can’t even keep the classes attention for having of the class period it reduces the maximum performance in the class in half, something must be done to correct this. It could be anything from giving the teacher an air horn to having a security officer go to the class, something needs to be done Also if a student feels the need to book an appointment with the principle of the school at address a real problem and there is something that could be done to fix it, the problem should be fixed. Since when the work completed in a month of class equals two hours of work outside of class, there is a serious problem in the class performance.

Stress Impression Post

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

I’m stressed a lot of the time, so I have some stress management skills I use. I usually get stress when I have to do more things then I have time for. My first skill is preventing stress by trying to stay ahead of my work and plan my workload for the week.
Though plans change, and I get stressed with what seems to be an impossible amount of work to do. So I make schedules and work until the source of the work is gone. To help me with my work I ask for help and put some things to the side. Though I just make sure to keep on working to eliminate the source of the stress. Then sometimes I just have to accept that I can’t get everything done on time. So I have to ask for extensions, do things late, or just not do it and accept the consequences. Eliminating the source of stress does not help me in the short run but in the long run, I have fewer sources of stress and feel better about the work I have done.
Though in the short run I am really stressed and have small stress coping methods. These methods are listening to either music or watch stand up comedy while I am studying. This makes studying less effective but makes me feel less stressed at the moment.
 Another thing I do is try to schedule something fun to do each week and use that as something to work towards. When I have a test that I am stressed about I try to reward myself with squeezing in time to work out soon after the test is over. This makes me feel more motivated to work through what is making me stressed.
Other stress management techniques I could use is to make time for relaxing hobbies on a regular basis. Since I feel that they are better at relaxing then randomly scheduled relaxing activities.

Chapter 3 First Impression- Sleep

--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

Over the summer I recently got a Fitbit which logs my sleeping habits. During the summer months, I slept around 8 hours a day. Since I came back to college the average amount of sleep I get on weekdays is 5 hours. During the weekend I get an average of 8 hours of sleep. Though when I have a heavy course load I get 4 or fewer hours of sleep, which is half of the recommended hours of daily sleep.

I do not like the decrease in sleep I experience at college. When I sleep overall feel more sluggish and scattered brain. So I do not feel that my current sleep habits are healthy. I feel constantly exhausted and fall asleep during the day more. Just last week I fell asleep at dinner and in some of the classes I had to come up with staying awake strategies. My main strategy was chewing gum but that is starting to no longer work. I suspect falling asleep so easily during the day is not healthy and indicates that I need to sleep more.

The main problem to my sleeping problem is my course workload since I am always kept up late doing work. So I feel that eight hours of sleep is not a reasonable sleep goal for me. Since my time management skills are good and the studying I do is important to my learning. Also, I wake up every weekday at 7 am to work on my predetermined goals assigned to the day and when I finish my goals it’s usually past 11 pm. Then on weekends, I start studying at 11 am and continue working until past 11 pm. So an average of eight hours of sleep is just unfeasible for me while in college.

Though one new strategy I am using to improve my studying efficiency is taking a nap when I am tired. Since I work slower when I am tired. I also started going to sleep when I am too tired to comprehend what I am working on and I finish the work in the morning. These strategies seem to work but sometimes results in me falling behind, so they are rarely used. Though when using these techniques I could improve to having six to seven hours of sleep during the weekdays.