--Original published at MentzersBlog

--Original published at alanaspsy105blog

Hi! My name is Alana Hicks and I am from Liverpool, Pennsylvania. This being my sophomore year, I chose to sign up for this class but it is also a requirement for my major (Biology, Allied Health). This is my first ever psychology class so I have no prior experience with the subject. However, there was a psychology course at my high school and everyone always seemed to enjoy it, but I could never fit it into my schedule. When I hear the word “psychology” the first thing that pops into my head is the brain. Like why we do the things that we do and why some people react to certain things but others don’t.

The top three most interesting topics on the syllabus for me are “The Brain: Micro-level,” “Stress,” and “Psychotic, Traumatic, & Personality Disorders.” Being a biology major anything having to do with the brain and how it works is interesting because it seems science related. I want to be a PA so learning about different disorders I think would also be helpful for me in the future. I chose stress because college gives stress so I might as well learn about it and how it affects me.

The three least interesting topics for me I think would be “Personality Theory,” “Obedience,” and “How to Choose a Therapist.” To tell you the truth I think they all look interesting, I just chose these ones because I didn’t really know what these lectures would be about. Like I have no clue what “Personality Theory” is. I guess that can be one of my questions that I want answered by the end of the semester. Haha. In all reality, I would like to know what psychology is, and how does it apply to my everyday life?

--Original published at Site Title

Hi, my name is Ben Thorpe. I’m a sophomore mathematical business major at Elizabethtown College. This is my blog for my Psychology 105 class. I chose to take this class because I needed a gen-ed credit and psychology was something I had a little background in and knew I enjoyed. I took an introductory psychology class during my junior year in high school. It was mostly just basic stuff. We got to design a small experiment with a partner at the end of the year which was pretty fun. When I hear the word psychology, I mostly think of experiments. The three topics that are most interesting to me are Mechanics of Sleep, Obedience and Personality. Getting enough sleep is important to me so I will enjoy learning about that. Also, I’m curious as to why some people act the way that they do and personality and obedience will most likely answer that. The three least interesting topics to me are the scientific method, the brain and observational learning. What I got from the titles of those three topics was that we were just going to be learning parts and procedures and not much more during those periods. They’re probably important but they just seem boring. I don’t really have a specific question that I want this class to answer. My goal is to learn enough to at least hold a conversation with someone about psychology topics. I look forward to this class.

--Original published at Caitlin's corner

Why did I take this class? Well, I have to pass this class and Intro to Neuroscience with a C or higher, in order to be fully accepted into the Psych Department. In the past I’ve taken intro to Psych and Psych 101 in high school. I’ve been trained to teach and lead in Social-Emotional way and we learned many teaching styles, methods, and theories about the best approach to situations. I also took Fundamentals of Teaching, the Choices We Make FYS, Discovering Society, and Early Childhood Development, all of which taught from psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, anthropologists, and scientists about their theories, perspectives, and hypotheses. This semester I’m also taking General Psych, Intro to Neuroscience, and Human Behavior in the Social Environment, all of which further my studies of psychology and the human condition. I’m very interested in Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner’s theories as I’ve already studied them, but would love to go deeper, see more studies, and read more by them. When I hear the term ‘Psychology’ I think of the human brain and how it interacts, processes, and develops over time and how our inner psyche’s really do reveal a lot about us. I love to research how influential adults/main caregivers are on children/infants, and how they retain so much information at such a young age and seeing how they develop later in life with those set of values. I love being able to figure out why I do certain things or why other people act the way they do and connecting it to past experiences or to their upbringing and way of life growing up. I am not looking forward to conditioning and behaviorism as I’ve studied that in every class listed above and feel I’ve heard what most people cover. I am also not looking forward to coping with stress and how to make memories. I feel as though like most people say the same things about coping with stress and I already have methods that work well, and I have a good understanding of false-memories and infantile amnesia, and I don’t know what else ‘making memories’ would cover.

--Original published at Site Title

Hello everyone ! my name is Simon Tague and this will be my second year attending Elizabethtown College. My current major is Communications but I might switch too business next semester, so technically I am undecided. I’m from a small town in Delaware called Newark. The city of Newark is know for the University of Delaware and all of the busy students walking from class to class. Many local residents where I live do not like the UD students but I don’t mind them. One of the main reasons why I decided to take intro to psych is because I want to learn more about myself and my brain. There are many things that I am curious about such as  anxiety, addiction, depression etc. Some of these things I struggle with my self. I understand that there are therapy sessions that people can attend to try to help with their problems or issues but in my opinion the best way to fix it is by looking into yourself and trying to figure out what the problem is. I have been to multiple therapy sessions to try and help me but every time I go to a therapy session I feel like I can’t open up to them and be honest. It just feels weird telling someone your deepest problems and secrets too someone that you just met. I understand that for some people therapy is a miracle and has helped many people get through tough and difficult situations. But I think there is another way that people can deal with theses problems. I am very exited about this course and exited too see what I can learn about myself.

--Original published at BillardnBlog

Hi everyone! My name is Nicole, I grew up in a small town called Honesdale in Northeast PA. I’ve lived on a farm my entire life and we’ve raised cows, goats, and pigs at various times. I am involved in my County’s 4H program where I enter photography projects and show animals in the Wayne County Fair. Some of my favorite things to do are listen to music, play soccer, and travel.

I am very excited this being my first year at Elizabethtown College and playing for the women’s soccer team! I will be majoring in Biology with a minor in Anthropology. Being a first-year student my classes were chosen for me, but I still look forward to be in psychology as I find it very interesting. I do not have any background with this subject because I was unable to fit it in my schedule in high school. When I hear the word psychology the first thing that I think of is the study of the mind and how it works. Also, reactions of things to their surroundings.

The top three class topics I find most interesting would be Theories of Intelligence, Personality and Culture, and Classifying Mental Illness. I look forward to these topics because I want to learn what differences there are between people. Such as how they learn or their distinct traits. Truly, I don’t find any topics not interesting, I am excited to see what the class brings this semester. Something I want to learn by the end of this class would be to understand different reactions and emotions to certain situations or stimuli. Looking forward to this semester!

--Original published at Kevin Psych Blog

My name is Kevin Nix. I am currently a student at the Elizabethtown Area High School, taking this class as a dual enrollment course. As such I’m very anxious about taking on this class but I felt it a necessary challenge to start to bring me out of my comfort zone. I’m not necessarily a quiet and reserved person, but I’m not one for starting conversations so unless I were to be approached I doubt I’ll be getting to know any of you during the next few months.

Like I said before I chose this class because I wanted a newer, more difficult experience than what I’ve been used to thus far. I chose psychology because it’s a topic I’ve been interested in for a long time but aside from taking the high school class last year I have no background in it. That class barely satisfied my desire to delve further into the subject and I decided that if I’m going to take a college level class it might as well be this.

When I hear the word “psychology” I think of the study of the mind, the obvious answer. But beyond that I associate it with behavior. Why we act the way we do. Looking at the syllabus I am looking forward to attachment theory, moral development, and the entirety of mental illnesses. Attachment theory because it looks like it goes into what I previously stated to be interested in; our behavior. It’s a specific part of our behavior but that’s really all the better. Moral Development I’m looking forward to as morality is one of the more fascinating things about humans I think, why and how our morality and ideals grow and how much of it is nature v.s. nurture. Of course I have to be excited for mental illness. It’s just a cliche that someone who loves learning about the mind also loves learning about all the ways it can go wrong. I’m least excited for learning about the brain, the mechanics of sleep, and memory. The brain, while of course being an important aspect of psychology, seems to me to be more about the body. At least when studying the physical structure of the brain, and the body is something I have little interest in. The mechanics of sleep I remember covering in my high school psychology class and I just didn’t care that much about it. I can hardly recall what was even discussed in detail because it was just a boring topic to me. Memory on the other hand is new to me. I don’t think we covered it in the class I took but nonetheless, it doesn’t sound exciting. I have no real reason for this other than my immediate reaction to seeing it listed.

I can’t really say I have a specific question I want to have answered by this class. I just want to expand my overall knowledge of psychology. I guess if I had to choose, I hope this class shows me what aspects I really want to look into more, or if I really want to continue through the subject or look to other studies instead.

--Original published at Caitlin's corner

Hello everyone! My name is Caitlin, I’m almost 20 years old and originally from Pittsburgh, PA. My first year at Etown was great, however, I wasn’t completely comfortable in the Early Childhood Education Major, so I switched into the Psychology department and decided to start taking my major related classes in the fall of 2017. I’m really interested in the Social-Emotional approach to teaching, intervention, and counseling. In the future, I would love to still work with children with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) or trauma in a school or counseling setting. After graduating, I would love to possibly attend Neumann University and earn a Master’s degree in Social Emotional Learning. I work with the program’s Director, Thom Stecher, in many ways. For the past six years, I have attended and participated in the LifeSkills/LifeChangers Conference as a camper and counselor. It is a week long intense leadership conference where you focus on respect, relationships, and responsibility in all aspects. I have also worked at Camp Rainbow in Montgomery County, PA as a lead counselor and behavioral support staff. Thom Stecher & Associates trained each staff member for both camps and provided them with the tools necessary for a successful social-emotional approach to learning and teaching. I also volunteer with and am a member of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, which is a Masonic youth service organization for girls between the ages of 11 and 21. I describe it as a mix between the Girl Scouts, a sorority, and a youth group. We volunteer our time at nursing homes, shelters, and raise money for two charities every year, so in that regard we are charitable like the Girl Scouts and care about our communities and other’s as well as our own. We also follow a ritual book during our meetings and closed ceremonies just like how a sorority does, and we also elect our officers for each chapter like a sorority president, vice president, chaplain, treasurer, recorder, and such. We are also like a church youth group in many ways. In order to be a member you have to believe in a Higher power, we have a chaplain, like a pastor but it’s a girl member, and say a prayer and reference God within our Ritual, and we also have a bible in the meeting room. Overall, it teaches the ideas of faith, charity, and hope, along with the lessons of love, religion, nature, immortality, fidelity, patriotism, and service. In between all of this, I love having a radio station on campus with my best friend and attending many concerts while also visiting my boyfriend in Allentown, PA.

--Original published at Lynsey Wissler's Blog

My name is Lynsey Wissler. I am from a farm in Lancaster Country and am excited to be starting my first year at Elizabethtown College. I am majoring in early childhood education. I am hoping to learn a lot in this course to help me understand more of human behaviors. Understanding these perspectives will hopefully, lead me to preform better in my future in the classroom. I chose to take this class because I really enjoyed my high school psychology class. Which leads me to my next point that I do, have a background in AP Psychology, where I received a 4 on the exam. When I hear the word “psychology” I think of the behavior and how people work mentally…why we do, what we do. The three topics that I think sound interesting are “Theory of Intelligence”, the studies of the brain, and personality discussions. These interest me because you never thoroughly think of the way peoples mind work, or why we behave the way that we do. To be able to study the scientific reasoning behind people and their intelligence, personality, and the brain that controls it all excites me. My question that I hope to be answered by the end of this course is how this all ties into education and how can I use this course to understand the perspectives of children in the classroom. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester.

--Original published at Site Title

I took this class because I did not take psychology in high school. I do not have any background in psychology. The word “psychology” relates to processes which take place in the brain. The three most interesting topics are The Brain: Micro-level, The Brain: Macro-Level, and Emotion because they cover important aspects of the brain and the unconscious. The three least interesting topics are Why Research Design Matters, Power of Experiments, and Power of the Situation because I find research to be boring. A question I want to answer by the end of this class is “How do unconscious processes work?”