Tag Archives: Fall 2018

Extra homework​: a ​Case study

--Original published at Manami PSY105blog

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.
Come up with an explanation for Miguel’s problems from each of
the modern perspectives (beginning with psychodynamic) we
discussed today
・Behaviorist Psychology
He is irritable during and fights with his roommates. These cases are considered Behaviorist psychology. Because people such as his friends and especially his roommates can see that he act differently from usual.
People tend to be aggressive when they are irritated because of stress.
In his case, he loses to control his behavior.
・Humanitic Psychology
He wants to be perfect. He wants to improve himself in terms of studying. Therefore, I guess he would be satisfied and happy if he got a good grade. In this case, his life goes in a bad way because he is struggling with his studying.
・Cognitive Psychology
He is always feeling tired. This feeling also influenced on his behavior. He cannot afford to care for the others because of tiredness. He is mentally tired.
・Biological Perspective
I am not sure if it’s biological cause or not. But, I think insomnia is categorized in Biological Perspective. It is obvious that his stress makes him not to sleep well. Therefore, He is always tired and cannot focus on studying. That is a bad cycle.
There is no content for cultural Psychology because there is no information about his cultural background.

Research Methods — Mythbuster’s mini-myth

--Original published at Makayla Hockenbrock

For my first blog prompt, I chose to critique the mini-myth of “Are Women Better Than Men at Reading Emotions?”, that the Mythbusters performed. The gist of the experiment was the “busters” took pictures of their faces expressing different emotions, then showed only their eyes to the test subjects. The number of emotions answered correctly between the men and the women were recorded and analyzed. After watching the video, I noticed some strengths and weaknesses that were performed throughout the study. I based my strengths and weaknesses off what I already know from psychology and performing experiments.

First let’s discuss the strengths of the experiment that I noticed. The Mythbusters used multiple people to study. They took pictures of more than one person’s emotions. This is a strength because to perform an experiment and receive adequate data, one would need more than one variable. Also, different people show emotions differently. Another strength that I picked up on was they brought in test subjects who did not know the “busters”. This is a strength because the subjects are coming in blind as to who they will be trying to read. This is the first time the subjects are seeing the emotions of the “busters” which is good because the recording is the initial response, not the rehearsed reaction. Keeping track of the subjects guesses and how many each got right is also a strength. This allows the data to be analyzed and kept track of so nothing is lost or forgotten. A points scale was also identified so that everyone was on the same page. After all data was collected the average for each gender was calculated and the myth proved that women are better at reading emotions compared to men. Averaging the data is a strength because this allows all the data collected to be compared with two numbers side by side.

Now let’s look at the weaknesses that I noticed in this experiment. They threw out someone’s pictures because they were all the same. This is a weakness because they are throwing out evidence or a variable from the whole experiment. Another weakness is that they are only showing the eyes for the subjects to determine the emotion. On some people, more than just the eyes show emotion, and sometimes the eyes look the same for two different emotions depending on the person. After data was collected, they showed the insight of the female brain and not the male brain. This does not allow the viewers to see the differences between each genders way of thinking to determine what emotion is being shown. Even though averaging the data is a strength, it is also a weakness. It is a weakness because it is generalizing all the women and all the men into one person. If there is an outlier in each gender, that will bring the average up or down, which can be misleading if that is the only data published for the viewers to see.

So how can these weaknesses be modified so they are better? First, the pictures that were thrown out can be kept, or if they are going to get rid of that person’s emotion, they should add someone else. Instead of only showing the eyes, they could show the whole face. This allows all the aspects of the emotion to be shown. Showing both insights of the two genders brain, will also be an improvement to the weakness of only showing the females way of thinking. Not averaging the data is difficult, but there are ways to change it. Instead of averaging all the data, if there are outliers, one could get rid of them in both genders, and then proceed to average the remaining numbers. Another fix would be to just use no average at all, however, that could become a difficult aspect to get a final answer.

So, there is my critique of the Mythbusters mini-myth on “Are Women Better Than Men at Reading Emotions”.

Best,

Makayla

Chapter One Case Example – Extra Credit

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

Miguel’s struggle with his coursework can be perceived in various theoretical lenses in psychology. Looking at Miguel’s situation from a psychodynamic perspective may indicate there is conflict within his unconscious mind causing his irritability and anger. This conflict in his unconscious mind are likely driving his behavior when the situation is interpreted using the psychodynamic school of thought. Miguel’s feelings of imperfection, the conflict in his mind, contribute to his physical symptoms such as, trouble sleeping, irritability, and lack of focus.

If applying behaviorist psychology, Miguel’s struggles are being magnified by his behavior, his sleep schedule, amount of work done, and fights all of which are measurable. Miguel’s problem is his low energy and lack of sleep behaviors are causing a vicious cycle of irritability and anger. There is no benefit in Miguel’s behavior and thus contributes to his doubt in confidence. A behaviorist psychologist would likely conclude that this anger is also making his feelings of imperfection worse too. In this perspective Miguel is struggling because he has not experienced success with his coursework and feels anger towards himself in making (measurable) mistakes.

Looking at Miguel’s struggles from a humanistic perspective, these struggles would be explained from his feelings of imperfection which can indicate low self-worth. Since Miguel is not getting sleep or engaging in good social contact, his needs are not being met. This explains why he doubts himself. Additionally, because Miguel tends to focus on his imperfections rather than his strengths a humanist psychologist would argue that Miguel’s personal growth is being hindered. Because Miguel is too focused on being perfect and feeling inadequate, he is not focusing on more basic needs such as sleep and social relations.

Cognitive psychology would focus on how Miguel’s struggles have manifested from how he processes information and thinks. Miguel has though distortion evident in his feelings of imperfection. These thinking patterns cause his self-worth to decrease and impact his ability to fall asleep, irritability, and self-confidence. Because Miguel tends to become angry at himself when making mistakes, it likely causes him to ignore his coursework to avoid being angry at himself. Miguel’s desire for perfection likely causes him to become irritable, angry, and stressed when he does not think he had reached the level of perfection.

Biological psychology would explain that Miguel’s struggles are either due to his genetics or evolutionary. Miguel may have a family history of depression which is marked by irritability, lack of sleep, and low energy. In biological psychology it could also indicate a chemical imbalance within Miguel’s brain which is causing his change in mood. Or, in an evolutionary perspective, Miguel wants to be perfect, not just survive but thrive, this adaptive desire to be perfect may actually be hindering his life and causing more harm than benefit.

When explaining Miguel’s struggles with cultural psychology, it may be because he feels the need to meet that standards set by society. Perhaps he was socialized into thinking he had to be perfect. Thus, when Miguel fails to attain what he thinks is perfect, his confidence and mood decrease causing irritability and doubt in himself. Because he is feeling this way he may be more irritable and have troubles sleeping. Miguel’s struggles in this perspective are due to how perfection is understood within his culture.

First Impression Post 1 – Option 1

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

The research question I’d like to explore is how stress affects memory. I hypothesize that when under stress, short term memory improves because the brain will be working harder to memorize the information. The independent variable would be the time given to memorize a deck of cards and the dependent variable would be how many cards were recalled. Supplies needed would not be costly, a deck of cards and a stopwatch.

In order to test this research question and hypothesis I would use hypothetic-deductive reasoning. My data would come from two randomly assigned groups of students with similar IQs and in the same cohort year to ensure that the independent variable will be the only entity tested and the sample is the same. I would recruit students by printing a list of all students in the same graduating class, rolling a dice and choosing each student counting by the number on the dice. For example, if the number was five, every fifth student would be contacted. The first 30 to respond would be chosen. Because all students are in the same year and admitted into the same college, their IQs are likely to be similar. This assumption though could cause flaws but this factor is glanced over because it would be too time consuming to gather the information.

In Group 1, students would be told they have up to twenty minutes to memorize a deck of cards (the number and suit) and to take their time. On the other hand, in Group 2 students would be told they only have exactly two minutes to memorize a deck of cards (the number and suit). Each student would receive a newly shuffled deck of cards to ensure they were not listening to the person before them. Manipulating the time and urgency in which students had to memorize the cards would be observed if it affected memory recall.

Students would be given points for how many cards they could recall in order (number and suit). Points would immediately end if a card was not in the order. For example, three points means three cards were recited in exact order of number and suit. These points would be recorded and compared to one another to see if the time made a difference in memory recall. After the results were collected, I would analyze this data and either accept or reject my original hypothesis.

PSY 105 – Introductory Blog Post

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

Hi everyone! My name is Rachel Bickelman and I’m a sophomore Sociology and (new) Psychology major. My hometown is Hershey just twenty minutes from Elizabethtown. I love to play tennis, make art, hike, shop and spend time with my friends and family.

Since I declared a second major at the end of my first year, I signed up for this course. I don’t have a ton of background knowledge in psychology, but, when I think about the word I connotate it with: human behavior, emotion, analysis, and research all of which have always sounded interesting to me.

Looking at the course syllabus the three topics I’m excited to learn about are, “Chemicals & Consciousness,” “Personality Theory,” and “Classifying Mental Illness.” I am interested in “Chemicals & Consciousness” because I think it will involve the brain which has some uncharted territory; there always seems to be new information researchers are finding out about the brain and how it works. “Personality Theory” also sounds interesting because of how unique everybody is and learning how psychologists classify people together. Last, “Classifying Mental Illness” due to the stigma and misrepresentation and spread of false information. Also, the topic is super fascinating to me due to the implications mental health has on everyday life and in society.

Honestly, I’m interested in all the topics but if I had to choose the three topics I’m least interested in they would be: “Obedience,” “Attachment Theory,” and “Assessing Intelligence.” I picked these on a whim since I don’t know much about them and seem less exciting than the other concentrations in psychology.

By the end of this class I’d like to know what human emotion is most powerful. I’m not sure if that is a psychological question or if there is a definite answer but that would be cool to know. I’d also want to learn what is the biggest factor in mental illness: biology or environment? This could change the way that mental illnesses are both treated and managed.

First Impression Post: Cultural Background

--Original published at Manami PSY105blog

People’s behaviors are influenced on their background or how they were raised. In other words, we can see the cultural differences easily from people’s behavior in daily life. I chose option 1 to create a research study. My topic would be cultural differences between Asian people and Western people. The reason I have picked this topic is that I know how Asian people act because I am Japanese and have spent time with Asian students here a lot. Beside this, it is easy to find differences between Asian students and American students through my study abroad experiences. 

My research question is, “How do Asian people and American people behave differently in society such as school?”

My hypothesis is that Asian people tend to gather together by finding similarities visually and make a comfortable group that stays together. Compared to them, American people tend to care for personalities and respect differences, and also, tend to act individually. 

I would gather a number of participants who are Asian students and American students. I would ask some of my international friends from Asian countries such as Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam. I also would be able to ask some American friends at this college. In addition, I would need to prepare one room and a lunch box. I will ask them to take a seat and choose what they would want to eat for lunch normally. In my opinion, Asian tends to sit next to Asian and eat together, or they will make their own world with their cellphone even though they sit together. On the other hand, American do not care where they sit and they will talk and introduce themselves to people who are sitting closely.  They will try to find similarities based on their personality and background by communicating. After that, I will suggest them to make a group and give them a mission, such as cleaning the lunch box and dishes. Asian people will work together, while American people may do only their own dishes. Asian people also will try to watch how the other act first.

All my ideas are based on my observation in the US. Therefore, I still need to know more American perspective.  

Bonus Blog Prompt – Theoretical Lenses in Psychology

Hand writing on a notebook

Last week in class we discussed a number of different theoretical approaches to understanding human behavior and mental processes. For practice using these different theoretical lenses to explain behavior, you can use the following example:

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.

If you write a blog post where you explain what is going on with Miguel from the perspectives below, I will award you 1.5 extra credit points. You must post your explanation by the beginning of class on Wednesday 9/5 and use the tag “Bonus Posts” to earn credit. Explanations can be brief but need to be at least a couple of sentences to show you grasp the basic concepts. You must use all the following theoretical approaches:

  • Psychodynamic
  • Behavioral
  • Humanistic
  • Cognitive
  • Neuroscience
  • Cultural

 

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

 

(1) First Impressions: Cognitive Psych

--Original published at Jayln's Perspective

After our first week of classes, the branch of psychology I am the most fascinated by is Cognitive Psychology. Although there are a lot of topics that could be researched in this branch of psychology, I am specifically interested in studying attention. In psychology, attention is a mental process that deals with how humans process or react to what is happening around them. When a lot of stimuli is occurring around humans, I believe that the brain prioritizes what it will pay the most attention to.

My research question would be: out of a room full of stimuli, what objects/sounds/colors/etc. does the human mind pay the most attention to? My hypothesis would be: in the average young adult’s mind, specific sounds and objects are picked up on more than colors and shapes are.  However, when testing a different population, one in which toddlers were being observed, I believe they would pick up on colors and shapes rather than specific words or sounds.

In order to test my hypothesis and begin my research, I would need to gather a good amount of participants: a group of young adults and a group of toddlers. I would ask my peers in my FYS if they would participate in my study on young adult minds. Then, I would ask a kindergarten teacher from my old high school if I could come in and run a quick test on the toddlers to test their attention spans. I would place 10 college students in one room, and 10 toddlers in another, providing each room with the same amount and the same exact kinds of specific stimuli. I would play light rock music in the background, have building blocks of all different shapes, sizes, and colors in the front of the classroom, a computer read out a list of various words, and a powerpoint running through a slideshow of 10 different colors on the front whiteboard. After 2-3 minutes, I would gather the students one by one and ask them to give me a detailed list of everything they saw or what all they heard in the classroom. I would record their age at the top of the paper and then write out their answers. At the end of each interview, I would go through the papers and compare the different age groups and which common stimuli was partial to each group. I would then see if my hypothesis was correct based on which group paid attention to which details.

 

First Impression-Chapter 1

--Original published at RachelsCollegeBlog

The topic that I would choose to create a research study on would be dreams. Dreams are something that I am curious about, as it seems to be something that everyone has. Some dreams, almost every person seems to come into encounter with, like falling from or off of something. While some dreams are individualized and only the individual dreams about the scenario.

My research question would be, what dreams occur the most and what are the situations that may cause that dream to occur? My hypothesis would be that someone who is more stressed or lacking sleep will have a more disturbing or violent dream than someone that is relaxed and is always well rested. Someone who is stressed will most likely have more on there mind when falling asleep about everything that is going wrong or is causing them so much stress. That then will carry over to their dreams. Someone who is relaxed and not worried may have a more relaxed and simple dream.

My procedure would start by recruiting participants. I would go around to students on my college campus and ask them if they would be wiling to participate in my study. I would then have a meeting with them and ask them some question about their sleeping habits, amount of stress they are under, eating habits before bed, the time that they normal go to sleep. This will allow me to assess the different variables that may be included in this study and group together those that would be the best participants in my study, allowing there to be the least amount of variation so that my study will be accurate and not skewed due to different habits. I would ask the chosen participants to then record the amount of sleep they got each night as well as there stress level before going to bed, what they consumed up to an hour before going to bed, and if they dreamed or not. If they did dream I would ask them to express what went on their dream. This would allow me to see the different outside aspects that could have effected there dreams. I would have them do this for about a month so I have multiple statistics to go off of for my evidence.

Chapter 1 First Impression Prompts – Research Methods

Hand writing on a notebook

Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “Research Methods” on your post. Remember that these first impression posts are designed to be conducted based on what you already know or believe to be true, so you don’t have to do any research before writing your post. Here are the prompts for this week:

Option 1

For this week’s discussion, I want you to design a research study about a topic you find interesting in psychology. You can choose any topic you would like as long as you relate it to human behavior or mental processes. In your post make sure to do the following:

  • List your research question
  • State your hypothesis (what you think the outcome would be and why)
  • Describe your procedure (what you would have participants do, how you would recruit participants)

Make your research idea something feasible that you could actually do as a student researcher. In other words, assume you have a fairly small budget and a limited amount of time. If you’re a psychology major, you will eventually conduct your own research projects, so this is great practice to start thinking about what you might want to do.

Option 2

Mythbusters is a popular TV show on the Discovery Channel which tests popular ideas using scientific methods.  Select one of the mini-myths (short clips from the show) below and critique the methods used to test the myth. Remember, critique means list the strengths and the weaknesses. For each weakness, discuss why it is a problem and suggest a solution.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator