Chapter 9 First Impression

--Original published at Noah'sPSY105blog

Although Governor Miller may have had some very good intentions with the introduction of the program to supply parents of newborn children with CD’s or cassette tapes housing classical music, I do not believe that this was a very good decision on his part.

There may have been some evidence to support the Mozart effect at the time, but I do not believe that there was enough evidence given for Governor Miller to spend some of his budget on a theory that did not have a very large amount of evidence supporting it. Not only was this an issue, but even if there was fairly significant evidence supporting this theory, it did not mean that the parents would utilize the tapes or CD’s that they were sent. Therefor, may of the tapes and CD’s would go unused and the money spent on this project would most likely be more effective if it were spent elsewhere.

Chapter 9 First Impression Post

--Original published at Courtney's College Blog

Throughout my education experience, I have had both positive and negative experiences with educators. My high school biology teacher sticks out to me. She is an amazing teacher and does everything she can to support her students, whether it be academically or emotionally. She would always tell me how much she believed in me and thought that I would make a great physician. This encouraged me to study hard to obtain a high grade in the class. Her positive energy made me look forward to going to class each day. I was enthusiastic about biology, and was really eager to succeed. My teacher’s enthusiasm and my hard work allowed me to earn a high A in the class.

That same year, I also had a teacher who was constantly miserable. She belittled all of her students and fostered a negative environment. I never felt that I was good enough. I had her class during a time when my anxiety was at a high point, and I had a couple anxiety attacks in her class. Even while discussing my anxiety with her, she was very insensitive about it, which made me feel ashamed. Her negative energy made it hard to focus, because I was constantly worried that she would call on me, then embarrass me if I got the wrong answer. My mind was always hyperactive and anxious during class, which led me to obtain a grade lower than what I had hoped.

My experiences have shaped my opinion about what education should be like. Educators should develop relationships with their students, because everyone learns differently. The educator can understand the student’s goals, strengths, and weaknesses. This individualized approach lets the educator be like a mentor to students, not just someone who throws information at them. Educators should be passionate about their work. If a person is not caring, enthusiastic, and have a strong inclination to share the beauty of a certain subject, then that person should not be an educator. Students spend much time with their teachers/professors, so they should feel comfortable and cared for, but also pushed to succeed.

Sherika's Psych Blog 2019-06-28 16:37:49

--Original published at Sherika's Psych Blog

In 1998, the Georgia Governor, Zell Miller, spent thousands of dollars of the states budget in order to purchase several hundred copies of classical music CDs to distribute to parents as he believed in the Mozart effect. Or the effect that classical music could be influential in increasing the intelligence of a young child or infant’s developmental stages.

I don’t agree with Governor Miller’s approach here, especially to spend such a significant amount of the state budget to purchase classical music CDs when such money could have been redistributed to an area of more significant need. Not too mention that there’s been plenty of research that’s been conducted on the Mozart theory to prove that there’s no negative or positive correlation between listening to classical music and intelligence. Instead, I felt that Miller was wasting taxpayer money on a theory that has been discredited with proof time and time again. Instead of trying to fund this theory, Miller should have put the funding towards improving Georgia’s school systems, curriculum, or provide these schools with more funding.

Chapter 9 First Impression

--Original published at JVershinski's Blog

Governor Miller made quite a bold statement with his idea of the Mozart effect and distributing a cassette or CD of classical music to the parents of each new born child. I personally do not believe in the Mozart effect, and think that this was a foolish idea to do this.

First, this idea that listening to Mozart will increase intelligence is only a theory. This just means it is an educated guess that is used to attempt to explain something. While it would be interesting to explore this theory some more and actually test it, I don’t think that a personal belief of this theory justifies spending $105,000 to do it. Additionally, the money spent was spent based on the idea that he theory holds true. If the money was spent to experiment if the theory was true or not, I think then it could be justified some more, but the fact that the governor just spent the money because he thought it would work is not a good decision.

Also, who is to say that the parents will even play the music in the household to even try to increase the intelligence of their child? There is no reinforcement to ensure that the music will be played. In addition, how long is the music to be played for? Is there a certain amount of time that states the music should be played for x minutes during a certain time of the day? Is it better to play the music while the child is asleep or awake? Up to what age should the music be played? Does the theory explain why it only contributes to the intelligence of young children? With all of these questions unanswered, I think spending $105,000 to give out free Mozart was not the best idea.

Chapter 11 First Impression

--Original published at Noah'sPSY105blog



Stress management is absolutely crucial in most people’s everyday lives. This holds especially true for college students who are often sleep deprived and have to abide by very strict deadlines when it comes to assignments and testing.

To be truthful, during school I do not have a set tactic when it comes to managing my stress levels. I often try to keep a level head when work starts to pile on during the middle of the semester or I am tasked with a large work load. The largest tactic I employ on a regular basis would most likely be stepping back when I start to get stressed, take some deep breaths and break up my schedule in a way that makes it seem like I have less work than what I actually do.

I believe that if I were to incorporate more stress management activities I would most likely incorporate hiking into my schedule. I believe hiking is an extremely good stress management activity because not only are you able to go out and clear your head by surrounding yourself with nature, but the natural beauty of the sights that you see whilst going on hikes can be somewhat soothing as well which may improve your mood as a whole. I think this is an activity I could realistically incorporate into my schedule because you do not have to take an extremely long hike to experience the calming effects, and there are a large amount of interesting trails near Elizabethtown and near my hometown as well.



Leading a stressful life

--Original published at Sherika's Psych Blog

College is a very stressful time period for many students lives, not only are they experiencing living in a singular place away from home, but the stress of academics, maintaining a social life and more contribute to stress as a whole. But what are some ways that stress like this can be managed?

For me personally, I’m a huge fan of music, art, and reading. Whenever I’m stressed out I simply either listen to music of different varieties, read a book, or watch a movie. On any given day they tend to work, since I’m confining myself to a degree of solitude and in that time I’m allowing myself to decompress from the stressful situation I found myself in.

To deal with stress more effectively, I suppose I could take up a less stressful hobby that allows me to be both productive, but relieve stress at the same time. So I suppose I could take up painting in order to supplement my stress relieving strategies.

Is Stress a Good Thing?

--Original published at Rickster's Psychology Blog

I watched a TED talk from Kelly McGonigal called “Making Stress Your Friend.” I didn’t really believe the study she brought up. I believe one of the statistics was if one of the participants believed stress was bad for their health and was moderately to severely stressed, then they had an increased 43% of dying the next year. I believe a survey size of 30,000 is not large enough to be preaching numbers like this.

Then she talked about what out body does to react to stress. The body releases oxytocin which is also called the “cuddle hormone.” The heart contracts blood vessels while stressed. When your stressed, you begin to breath quicker and your heart pumps harder. This is why stress is linked to cardiovascular disease.

This seems like a lot of doom and gloom. However, it can all change if you think of stress as a good think. McGonigal said if you view stress positively, you won’t have compressed blood vessels and your heart will continue to beat harder which is good for cardiovascular health. Stress also helps to you to reach out to people you care about and seek support which is caused when oxytocin is released. Oxytocin helps with stress resilience and helps heart cells regenerate. She even said snorting oxytocin would be great for everyone.

I think this a great video to show someone who is in the middle of a slump. It’s inspiring and its supported with science. I wouldn’t believe everything she said about the studies but everything else seemed pretty legit to me.

I already implement this into my life. I played sports all my life and always got burst of energy when the enemy team or crowd was booing or talking smack. I take it as a challenge and I always seemed to play better when my back was against the wall or there was money on the line.

Pressure makes me perform better. That’s probably why I’ve always been an extreme procrastinator.

First Impression Post; Stress

--Original published at olivyahvanek

My current stress level is much lower than it is during the school year because I am taking many less classes than I am during the school year. I also am taking this class at my pace, rather than attending classes every day I get to take this class from the comfort of my own home. I feel as though being at home I am less stressed taking a class because I am working at my pace and I am in my own comfortable environment.

During the school year I do not get very stressed, but I do get stressed for sure. I do have some stress management for during the school year, when I am very stressed. I go to the gym and run and workout, which helps me focus on something different for a little bit, rather than focusing solely on school work and stressing out more.

This really does help me be less stressed because I can work out all of my anger and stress directed towards school work.

Other things that I could do to manage my stress would be boxing because that would take off a lot of anger and stress by boxing, rather than taking my stress out on something. I think that being stressed makes my performance worse because then I am not able to focus on my work and things that I need to focus on. I think that when I am not stressed my performance is better, which is why I enjoy going to the gym and doing physical activity to relieve my stress.

Emotional Intelligence Quiz

--Original published at Rickster's Psychology Blog

I took the Greater Good Intelligence Quiz. I got an 18/20 on the quiz. The test had 20 pictures of people making different facial expressions. I had to choose which emotion these people were expressing.

The 2 emotions I had problems with were anger and pain. I think I mixed them both up because most of the time, I feel like people are angry because they got hurt physically like if they stubbed their toe or hit their head off the kitchen counter. Both facial expressions looked similar because both emotions have similar micro-expressions occurring at the same time. Every other emotion was very easy to answer.

The test isn’t very credible. I feel like every interpretation of someone’s emotions requires more situational awareness. There were no audio cues so you couldn’t tell the tone of the person’s voice. You couldn’t see what their hands or body were doing except for the embarrassment emotion.

I already use this information in daily life. This might have been useful 15 years ago. I have 2 Tiger Parents so I need to know exactly how their feeling so I know when or if I can engage them about something. I can tell how their feeling by the sound of them opening a door or how they go up stairs.

I see emotional intelligence being more important than normal IQ. You can be the smartest person in the room, but if you don’t know how to properly communicate with people or express your emotions properly, then how successful could you ever be?

Chapter 11 First Impression

--Original published at Courtney's College Blog

Throughout my academic career, I have tried several different stress management techniques, and have found several practices that work for me. I have started practicing yoga about a year ago. It is a valuable escape from reality that allows me to focus on myself for one hour out of the day. I owe my thanks to Professor Lorenzen in the Spanish department, who is my yoga instructor. While practicing yoga, I have found value in meditation. Meditation does not have to take long and is a great way to clear my mind. I have started implementing yoga in between study breaks, and whenever I am overwhelmed. I tend to get overwhelmed frequently, since I have been struggling with anxiety since I was around thirteen years old. I am on an antidepressant, which has been working well. It eliminates excess stress so that I can experience as much stress as any other student, which as you know, is still a lot.

Stress has impacted much of my life, which is why I have explored many techniques. Regardless, I still have more practices I want to implement in to my daily life. I do rigorous exercise twice a week, but I think if I do it more often, it would release more stress. During the spring, I ran several miles almost every day, and that was a great way to relieve stress and aggression. I need to go back to that routine, especially when the fall semester starts. One thing I want to implement is learning to accept the things I cannot control. Since I like to plan every aspect of my life, when something is out of my control, I become stressed. Forget about a five year plan, I have an 100 year plan. This trait has its upsides and downsides, and I am looking for ways to cope with its downsides. Another thing I want to try is breathing exercises. I know that breathing exercises work for many people, so I want to try it also.