Chapter 7 First Impression Prompts – Learning (option 1)

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I would have to disagree with Skinner’s belief that there is no such thing as free will. To me, I see operant conditioning as the way life flows. As humans we either continue to do things, or stop doing things based on the response to our actions. Obviously, if we get punished for doing something we will not do it anymore, and if we get rewarded for something, we will continue to do it. For operant conditioning we still have to think about, and have control over the actions we are doing. I think the loss of free will comes into play with the concept of classical conditioning, where a certain stimuli makes us do automatically do something without really thinking about it.

Chapter 4 First Impression Prompts – Development

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Personally, I would not consider any of the three parenting styles the “best” way to parent and raise a child. You need to have a combination and balance of them all in order to achieve the ideal parenting style for producing children that are happy, healthy, and productive members of society.

The “tiger moms” use strict rules, discipline, and overall just drive their child really hard to succeed. These moms use this parenting style to promote success in both their child’s schooling and extra curricular actives, such as sports or learning an instrument. This style often reflects that of a Chinese culture. I think if a child grows up under this parenting they will not be happy with their lives. Not being happy with their lives can result in low self-esteem or depression because they never feel like they are good enough. This parenting can also lead to the development of a perfectionist personality because they grew up in a household where everything needed to be perfect, or else they would get punished.

“Jellyfish dads” have few rules and expectations and are essentially push overs to their kids. When I think of the product of this type of parenting I think of children that are spoiled and disrespectful, because they do not know any better. Due to the lack of respect and the impulsive behaviors these children grow up with I do not believe they would be able to be productive members of society, working for a boss, and listening to someone else’s rules or commands.

Helicopter parents are parents that tend to hover over their child, like a helicopter. They can be overcontrolling and overbearing. When I think of this term I think of a child that cannot do anything without the parent knowing their every move, or even a parent that does everything for their child, such as doing their school projects for them or picking their classes. Although this child might grow up “happy”, they will not develop any life skills because their parent(s) have always been there to do everything for them. This can result in a child growing up to not be able to be a productive member of society, or care for themselves or a family.

Overall, to achieve the “best” parenting style, you can’t pick just one. You have to have balance. There needs to be some rules and discipline, or else your child will run crazy, and can get themselves into some poor life choices. When it comes to extra curricular actives, I think it’s fine to reflect a more “jellyfish” parenting style. If the child wants to be good at something they will work at it, you cannot push them to the point where they hate doing something they once loved or always end up in tears. Being a helicopter parent isn’t always a bad thing either, for example if their child is doing poorly in school, they might need that hovering to get them on the right track.

BONUS POST- Describing Miguel’s Behavior

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“Miguel has been struggling with his coursework lately. He has felt very tired in recent weeks and has found it difficult to focus on his studies. Even though he is always tired, he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommates. He is a bit of a perfectionist and gets mad at himself when he makes even tiny mistakes. It’s gotten to the point where he doubts his ability to do anything right.”

Psychodynamic: Psychodynamically, Miguel’s behaviors could be explained by repressed memories from his childhood, or even unconscious desires. It is possible that as a child, Miguel was not very good at school and would get bullied because of it, or his parents would get angry at him and push him to be better. Now as his school work starts to pick up, he begins to struggle and doubts his abilities because he thinks back to those hard times in his life.

Behavioral: From a behavioral perspective we take a look at Miguel’s observable behaviors. It has been seen that Miguel is always tired due to his lack of sleep which causes him to be irritable during the day and he also picks fights with his roommates. One would also be able to see Miguel’s angry outbursts when he makes even the tiniest mistakes due to his perfectionist personality.

Humanistic: The humanistic perspective focuses on the individuals worth. Based on the overview of Miguel, we can conclude that he probably has poor self worth right now as he gets mad at himself easily. Being a perfectionist could be counted as a strength, but during this time in Miguel’s life I think it would be seen more as a weakness contributing to his anger and irritability.

Biological(Neuroscience): From a neuroscience perspective we look behavioral genetics or tendencies. It is possible that one of his parents or another family member has had trouble sleeping or even suffered from sleep illness and it has been passed down to him. He could have also developed his perfectionist personality from a family member as well. Evolutionary psychology, or adaptations are also looked at when using the neuroscience approach. If it was a family member that as passed on the sleeping problems, over time it is possible that they have adapted and learned to live this way without it effecting their everyday lives, and over time Miguel adapt as well. In addition, Miguel could participate in a sleep study where they look at what parts of his brain are active while he is trying to sleep to get to the roots of his problem.

Social-Cultural: From a social-cultural perspective it could be seen very disrespectful from Miguel’s roommates that he is picking fights with them especially if they differ in social/cultural backgrounds. His aggression and picking fights could also be a result of seeing his parents argue as a child, so he thinks that is what is normal and accepted by society. Also depending on the culture, it is expected to be perfect and if mistakes are made, they can be punished, so that could contribute to Miguel’s personality and anger issues as well.

Chapter 1 First Impression Prompts – Research Methods

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Are women better than men at reading emotions? This is a question that I believe many people would agree that yes, women are better than men at reading emotions. The Myth Busters clip I watched attempted to get an answer to this question.

To test this theory, the cast members set up an experiment where they took pictures of themselves while making facial expressions that reflect different emotions such as happiness, anger, confusion, fear, and sadness. With these pictures, they focused specifically on the eyes, covering up the rest of the face. These snap shots of the cast member’s eyes were then shown to a pool of participants, both man and woman, and they were to guess what emotion the cast members were demonstrating just by reading their eyes. The members conducting this experiment then kept track of how many correct answers each participant got out of the total number of pictures shown.

Some strengths from this experiment were that they made sure they stated their hypothesis (women are better than men at reading emotions) in the beginning of the clip so the audience knew what was being tested, and also that they showed every volunteer the same 17 photos so there was consistency. Another strength from this experiment was at the end where they stated the results of the experiment, which confirmed that women are better than men at reading emotions. They even researched scientific evidence that showed that the female neuron system was larger and more active in the parts of the brain responsible for empathy and understanding and recognizing emotions in others to back up their results, which is something else that I thought they did well.

A weakness in this experiment was not stating the sample size, or letting the audience know exactly how many men and women participated. They should have had an equal number of men and women, because if they do not, it could skew the results, for example showing that women were worse at reading emotions because they had fewer participants. Another weakness I found was that although it was clear what they were testing for, it got kind of confusing on how they were measuring the results once they started talking about the speed of which the volunteers responded to the pictures. If they wanted to make speed a factor in addition to the number of correct answers that should have been mentioned in the beginning before the experiment began, and measured by using a stop watch for both the men and the women rather than just going off of their own judgement that the women were faster.

Kayla’s Introductory Blog Post

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Hi! My name is Kayla Kolivras, I am a sophomore occupational therapy major and play on the soccer team here at school. I am from New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, which is about 30 minutes away from Etown. I not only chose to take this class because it is a requirement for my major, but psychology is a subject that is very interesting to me and I plan to minor in it. It is fascinating learning how the brain works and why some people are the way they are. In high school I took AP psychology and it was my favorite class that I took in high school by far. My favorite memory from that class was when we learned about Pavlov’s classical conditioning with the dogs, and then we had to mimic that by training rats with simple commands/triggers and rewards. When I hear the word “psychology” the first thing that comes to mind is the brain; all the different parts, functions, chemicals, ect. One topic on the syllabus that I am excited to learn about is “Why do We Forget?” because I tend to be a forgetful person and hopefully learning why it happens, can help prevent it from keep happening. Another subject that interests me is “How to Get Good Sleep”, and I think the reasoning is rather self explanatory. I would love to get some new tips on how to get a good sleep since that is something myself, and most other college students lack. Lastly, the sections on mental illnesses and disorders caught my eye because mental illness is a very prevalent issue in today’s society and it will be interesting to learn what all these different illnesses look like and what is the cause of them. One subject that seems least interesting to me is the first section on the history and scientific method. History is something that I think is boring, and I have learned the scientific method before in many classes, but I do see the importance in having that background information. Another subject that does not seem very interesting to me is the section on obedience, mostly because I am not exactly sure what that entails. One other section that does not seem very interesting to me is the section on “How to Choose a Therapist” because I feel like it is a personal decision when picking a therapist for one’s situation and preference/comfort levels because everyone /every situation is different and it cannot just be generalized in a textbook. By the end of this class I hope to have the answer to the question, “What causes some people to have chemical imbalances in their brain while others do not?”