Well, that’s a wrap!

Well, since this is my last blog for . Psychology, I just thought I would reflect on what I’ve learned since being in this class. Throughout this class I found some quotes that I have saved from the book that I love. My favorite is: It’s your brain, not your heart that falls in love. The quote really makes a person wonder if we chose to love because we want to or if it really is our hearts that we fall in love with. I still think about the neurotransmitters at random times too. Most of the time when I’m watching TV they use these neurotransmitters in dialogues and when I hear one I usually point at the TV and yell that I know what they’re talking about. Then my parents look at me funny and shake their heads. I like it though when I realize that I’m applying what I have learned in psychology during random moments.

How Other People’s Expectations Control Us

This article was pretty simple to understand. It discussed how people change or act a different way by other people’s expectations. Through one study, men talked to women through microphones and headsets and were unable to actually see the woman’s appearance. Beforehand though, the men were given pictures of beautiful and not so beautiful women. By talking with these women they were to decipher if the woman they were talking to was beautiful or not. Through this study they proved the point that people expect attractive people to be more social and intelligent.

I found it interesting to see that people really do expect a person to behave in a certain way based on their appearance.

~Chapter 16 Blog… Not My Type~

The process of attribution is how one explains a person’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition. Basically, how one explains a person’s behavior based on actual factors and with no opinion. The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition. So fundamental attribution error would be when one explains another’s behavior based on their opinions and jumping into conclusions about the person.

Stereotypes are the generalized belief about a group of people. Stereotypes are related to illusory correlations by both being a perceived belief of something nonexistent. For example, we are more likely to notice and recall only the instances that confirm what we believe.

~Personality~

I think that the environment around me and my family influences my personality. For an example, a child that grows up in a family that is always traveling and having game night, chances are that child is going to be an outgoing child because the family is interacting a lot. However, a child raised in a family where the parents are gone all the time and never goes out that often is likely to be a shy child. I found that the Humanistic Perspective theory made the most sense to me because it because I do believe that people try to be the best they are and want a positive outcome. I think that I have used all of the defense mechanisms in some way throughout my life. I think that I, along with a majority of people, used the projection defense mechanism.

In all honesty I did not enjoy the Moral Psychology video. Some of the comments in the video really made me a little annoyed, but I understand that this is only this man way of thinking. The other video was more interesting to watch and I found much of the information useful. It was interesting to see how one man changed his career based on his personality.

I thought that the tests were ok, but not anything special because I think that if a person happens to be in a bad mood when they take one of those tests can really change the results.

So it’s Thanksgiving…

With pretty much everyone going to family get-togethers and all the lovely meals this past week I thought I’d write something about the Thanksgiving week. One of the main things I hear around Thanksgiving time is “imagine the calories I’ll have to walk off this week!” and quite frankly it gets on my nerves. The same thing happens on every holiday. I think that people do tend to eat more than usual on holidays because there’s all that food and people don’t want to make their parents or in-laws feel bad that there is leftovers. Another things I hear around Thanksgiving of course is how the hunting season has been. Now I know that not everyone hunts and some people live in towns so they don’t have the same opportunities, but for those that do hunt it’s quite a treat. It’s hilarious to listen to all relatives and siblings when they come home from hunting, especially if they miss a deer because they can come up with some pretty fascinating stories. I find it interesting how most hunters just cant come clean and say “I missed.”

Think Yourself Healthy by Appreciating the Exercise You Already Do

I have heard a little about people thinking their way to lose weight, but I didn’t understand it much. This article was all about how a person could think their way into losing a couple pounds. In one experiment hotel attendants were told how much exercise they were already doing as a part of their job. Without doing any extra exercise or diets over a period of 4 weeks there was a significant change in all of their health measures. On average the weight loss was about a difference of 2 pounds. The article said it was like dropping a bag of sugar. It also claims that it’s the power of the mind-body link that helped lose the pounds.

I’m not sure what I believe when it comes to thinking about losing weight. I guess I don’t see how thinking would help a person lose weight. On the other hand, I do recall days where I just feel huge and other days when I’m comfortable with myself.

~Chapter 9~

This week went by pretty fast for me! I enjoyed all the riddles we did in class. The riddles really made me think in ways that I had to be creative and think outside of the box. I found it interesting how you can take the simplest things and turn them into a riddle like one we did; like the riddle about the glasses of water and how many people were on the train. I really like the riddle when I figured out which dog was in the green house and which dog ate crunchy kibbles. The other activity we did and we had to pick which was more common like cancer or heart disease in women. I learned a lot from this activity because I did not realize half of them. Overall, it was a fun week for me in psychology.

Men’s Health Boost from Marriage Disappearing

This was an article about how marital status is related to men’s health. A few years back single men were known to be pretty much fat and lazy with no ambition; however, 30 years later has shown little difference whether the man is single or not. Also, back in the 1970s unmarried women were slightly unhealthier than married women.

The article continues on about pretty much the same thing, but I find this article very debatable. For there are unmarried people who are both healthy and unhealthy. Same goes for the married. In my opinion, it depends on the person. Some people really care about their health whether they are married or not, while some just aren’t too worried about it. Also, back in the days most women were stay at home moms when they had plenty of time to worry about nutrition and healthy meals as now days families are lucky if they even sit down to dinner once a week.

Pets are a great influence on a person

Ok the other day when I came in from outside, I turned the TV on and it just so happened that a show about pets was on the channel and it talked about how pets can improve a persons life. According to the speaker, pets can increase serotonin levels, which make a person feel better overall. The speaker also claimed that the people who do have pets tend to have to take fewer medications, less check ups at the doctors, and hospital stays are shorter in duration. He also talked about how some dogs can sniff out cancer, but not all of them.

Overall, I found the show to be quite interesting. It was so weird to be watching something on TV and using what I learned in psychology at a really random moment!

Blogging Time!!!

I think memory is important in defining who we are as human beings because memories allow a person to recognize people, to talk a language, know our way around and where to find the simplest of things. Without memory our life would be confusing. We would be unable to enjoy an event and remember it for enjoyment too. Clive Waring is unable to remember anything 20 seconds in the past. In my opinion, Clive is still Clive, he simply cannot enjoy the past memories of his life.

For the most part I do trust my memories because most people really want to believe their own memories. Sometimes my memories of a certain event is different from another person’s, so sometimes I do have to look at my memories differently. Our memory can work in weird ways, but I find that I can remember things better when I’ve seen a visual like a movie or an artifact.

One thing I learned more about in this chapter was recalling our memories. Being able to recall a memory allows a person to remember something in significance to them. The ability to recall is important; that way we are able to remember and learn from out memories.

Would You Ask Someone to Pick up Their Dog’s Poop?

Well, this surely was an “interesting” article. This article was all about the uncivil behaviors that anger many people. The top 5 uncivil behaviors are:

1. Failure to pick up after one’s dog

2. Littering

3. Illegally parked car

4. Graffiti

5. Aggressiveness towards others

The number of people who actually do social control to keep things, such as these top 5 uncivil behaviors are low. Not many people are willing to take a stand against another person. Some researchers found that the following factors influenced a person about whether or not to intervein on someone who has littered or fails to pick up after their dog: Responsibility, Legitimacy, and Getting angry.

I think most everyone has done at least one or two of these 5 uncivil behaviors. However, I think that most people see it everyday that it doesn’t seem wrong anymore. Overall, our country has become rude to others on the streets, there is graffiti all over in towns, littering, and what makes me really frustrated is watching people with no disabilities park in a handicap parking.

Better Golfers See Bigger Hole

I don’t mean to sound weird or anything, but I do watch golf every once and a while so this article grabbed my attention quickly. In this article it says that golfers that see a larger hole golf better. To prove this they showed a group of golfers a poster of black holes that ranged from 9-13 centimeters in diameter. The golfers picked the hole which they believed to be the actual size of a golf hole (the actual size of a golf hole is 10.8 centimeters). Those who picked the bigger holes on the poster had a better score that day on the course than those who picked the smaller. However, it is unclear whether or not imagining the hole bigger helps a person play better or not.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting article. Just thinking about how our perception can either help us or harm us is intriguing itself.

How Poor Gifts Affect Relationships

Well when I found this article I figured it would be pretty interesting just by the title. In all honesty I didn’t find it all that interesting, but that may be because I’m not in any kind of relationship at the moment. In the experiments in this article they tested to see how males and females react to poor gifts and gifts that they actually like. In one experiment, participants numbered a list of items from which they would most prefer to least. Then when they met with strangers, they gave each other either the gift they most preferred or least. The results showed that men that received gifts they wanted perceived themselves similar to the gift giver and saw a relationship lasting longer. Women, on the other hand, thought there was no similarity or be affected by the gift choice.

Overall, I thought this article wasn’t all that great. However, I do think that if a person is in a relationship they should know what their partner wants so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I think that people have troubles finding gifts for their special someone because they want to make sure that the gift is perfect and make it special.

Human-Cat Psychology: Do Cats Improve Our Mood and Become Attached to Us?

This article was pretty interesting in my opinion. In this article they collected data from married people that own cats to evaluate whether or not cats improve our mood. From the results they were able to comply that cats do ease moods, but they don’t promote positive moods. Moreover, the positive moods came from their partners. Another part of this article was whether or not cats are attached to us. Experiments show that cats are emotionally attached. A persons cat is more likely to wander around if the owner is there because the cat is comfortable, but if the owner wasn’t then the cat felt uneasy.

I do have cats, so I found this article interesting. At times I feel like I am attached to my cats, but there are days when the cats have a mind of their own. Overall, I think that any pet can ease a person’s mood and if cared for enough, are attached to a person.

Blog-- Chapter 7

At first when I read this chapter, I found this section really confusing. However, after I did all the activities and assignments I really understood it more. I found the observational learning the most interesting in this chapter. I never really thought about observational learning until I thought about it in this chapter. It was all just interesting how people, especially children, will watch another person behave badly or good and try to imitate that person. Growing up I think I experienced observational learning many times. I learned how to speak properly by listening to my parents and older siblings, learned how to brush my hair and teeth by watching my siblings, and learning how to walk as a little child by watching everyone around me walk and keep their balance. I found Pavlov’s experiment with dogs and how he combined the food with a sound, which created both the food and the sound a conditioned response. In the end, I thought this chapter was actually very interesting and I had fun doing the learning activity too.

~Illusions blog~

I looked at the following illusions:

Hidden Bird

Hidden Figures – Dalmatian Dog

Adelson’s “Checker-shadow illusion”

Pyramid Illusion

Simultaneous Contrast (dynamic)

Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet Illusion

Café Wall Illusion

Fraser’s Spiral

I learned that your eyes can play tricks when looking at these illusions; our perception is misunderstood. For example, one illusion I looked at was lines of black and white squares which appeared to be slanted when really all the lines were parallel. I was really surprised by some of the illusions like Fraser’s Spiral. The picture appeared to me as if it were a spiral, but actually it was just circles. All these illusions illustrated to me that we actually see things that are not there in real life. Our perception of some objects are wrong at times too. I think that these experiences may affect me on a day to day basis by making me realize that what I’m looking at may be an illusion in some sort. However, I don’t think I see very many illusions on a day to day basis. Overall, I thought this illusion assignment was pretty cool.

Are Boys Better Than Girls At Maths?

Wow, I believe this article is very true! Throughout this article it was debated whether or not boys are better at math than girls. Looking at data from the 1990s, the results from SAT scores showed that yes, boys are better at math than girls. However, one of the main reasons for this is stereotyping girls as bad at math. When girls are literally told that they are bad at math and that boys are always better, it will lower their confidence and the result will show that they are in fact bad at math. BUT now there is new data showing that the boys had better look out because the girls are showing major improvement. Evidence provided by many, many schools of different grades showed that there was little difference between boys and girls performance in math.

I don’t normally hear about this subject anymore, but when I was younger I remember the phrase that guys are smarter when it come to math. I certainty do not agree that boys are smarter than girls. In my school, the advanced math class is pretty much equal when it comes to boys and girls.

How Beliefs and Values Influence What Tastes Good

This was a very intriguing article to read about food. This article was all about how one’s belief could influence the choice of foods they like. In one experiment, participants were given sausage rolls, some with real beef and some with a vegetarian alternative. However, if some participants were told they were eating real beef, they were actually eating the vegetarian alternative and those told they were eating the vegetarian alternative were actually eating real beef. The results showed that a majority of them couldn’t tell much of a difference. But along with this experiment they did find that those high in social power preferred the real beef, while those low in social power preferred the vegetarian alternative. Much like the sausage rolls experiment, there was a Pepsi challenge which showed that a majority of people actually preferred the store brand cola over Pepsi.

Overall, I thought this article was interesting. It’s funny how we always want the best brands of food like Pepsi, but when we don’t know that we aren’t drinking actual Pepsi we like it better. In the end I think its all in our head whether or not we like a certain food or not.

Happiness Could Add 10 Years to Your Life

Well, I read this short article about happiness and how it could add 10 years to my life. Although, it clearly says that this is has not been proven yet. Some studies on this have shown a positive, neutral, and even negative affects of happiness on life. The studies of people who were ill showed neutral and negative effects of happiness actually. On the other hand, those that were healthy showed positive effects. Another study on nuns showed that the happiest nuns lived 10 years longer than those who were unhappy. What do I think about this? I think this all malarkey. Of course those who were ill were going to show no effect of happiness… they’re sick! I also look around and know that some of the happiest people become ill and have died at a young age. Sure happiness makes a person feel better about themselves, but I don’t think it can contribute to 10 more years of life.

Why Loud Music in Bars Increases Alcohol Consumption

AWESOME! This was one of the most interesting articles I have read. This article was all about how loud music in bars can make a person drink more. According to some studies by a few different groups, it really is true that the louder the music is in a bar, the more a person will drink. To make sure that this was a true experiment they kept the music at its normal volume or it ranged from 72dB to 88dB. On average when the music was at its normal volume, it took a bar-goer 14.5 minutes to drink a 8 oz glass of beer. However, when the music was turned up louder, it only took 11.5 minutes. On average when the music is turned up louder, a bar-goer usually has one more drink. So why do you think most bars play loud music? Well, after reading this article I definitely understand why. I guess I never really paid that much attention to the relation between music and bars. This article didn’t really have a solid reason as to why a person would drink more if the music was loud, but it did come to a conclusion that the louder the music, the less a person talks. And the less a person talks, the more a person drinks. I thought this article was very entertaining compared to the articles I have read so far. Go read it!

http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/09/why-loud-music-in-bars-increases.php