Not My Type

The attribution theory is the theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition. 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.

Stereotype is a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people.

Chapter 10

I think that a lot of people have influenced my personality. My parents, my siblings, my co-workers, and my friends. I have become who I am because of the people surrounding me.
For defense mechanisms I think that I may use denial and projection. If I did something really bad I will usually fess up, but if it is a minor thing I will sometimes blame it on one of my sisters. I know it is really mean, but I think that everyone has done this once before in their lives. I use denail just because somethings I don't want to be true, I don't use it very often because a lot of the things that I could deny are true.

Chapter 8

Memory is very important in defining who we are as human beings. Without memory we obviously wouldn't be able to remember anything. Memory defines who we are. If you are able to remember most things people will probably come up to you and ask you for help, and if you can't remember anything people probably won't ask you much. If we did not have memory life would be crazy. People would be running aroud not knowing who they are or where they are going. People wouldn't have jobs or friends. And probably not family because you wouldn't be able to remember who is in your family. Clive is the same person but without a memory. He wouldn't be able to remember things so he would always be living in the past because he would never be able to remember things from the future.
Now I think more differently about memory because now I don't take it for granted. I am now starting to think about what it would be like if we didn't have a memory. It wouldn't be fun. I also cherish my memories more than I did before because they make me who I am. I trust my memories because they are things that have happened, and I can remember the things that happened in the past.
I found it interesting to learn about deja vu. Everyone one has experienced it and it is interesting to learn about why it happens. I hate when deja vu is happening and I sit there and think to myself, hasn't this already happened before?

Chapter 7

I thought this chapter was very interesting. I was able to learn a lot about learning. It was interesting to learn about the many different types of reinforcements. I didn't know that there was a schedule to follow. I also found it interesting to learn about all the types of conditioning. I never thought of myself as conditioned, but I guess I am. Like when they bell rings, I automatically get up, its just something that I have learned over time. Operant conditioning was also very interesting. When I read about that one I instantly thought about dogs and the electrical dog collars. If they leave the yards, they will hear a sound and if they aren't back to the yard within so many seconds then they will get shocked. After a while they learn that they are no longer allowed to leave the yard otherwise they will be punished.
I used conditoning when the bell rings, when the timer on the stove goes off, when my alarm in the morning goes off. I never realized how conditioned I was to some things.

Chapter 6 Blog

I was able to learn a lot from this chapter, some of the things that I learned were about the eye and how we are able to see things and how an image travels from the eye to the brain. I also learned that feature detectors are nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, like shape, angle, or movement. I also learned that hearing is three-dimensional, and that sound travels at 750 miles per hour. I also learned that pain is when nerves are injured and they send the message to the brain that the body is experiencing pain.
What suprised me about this chapter was all the illusions. It was very interesting to do the assignments with the illusions and see if I was able to see what the people who made the illusions said I would see. It also surprised me that if my eyes weren't relaxed I wasn't able to see some of the other things that were in the illusions.
It was interesting how much eye movement matters. Every little movement with your eye can make something look different or make you think it's moving even though it was just your eye moving. It was also interesting to learn a little about parapsychology. Some of those types of things can like paranormal activity can influence a lot of how people think. Like this weekend I went and saw Paranormal Activity, before I saw this movie I didn't believe in things like ghosts, but now I kind of do.

Ilusions Blog

I thought the illusions were very cool to look at, and I was able to see and learn a lot about the way things can be percieved. The eight blogs that I went to were the snake illusion, rotationg snake, spiral aftereffect, Rogets 'palisade' illusion, freezing roation illusion, biological motion, hidden bird, and hidden figure-dalmation dog.
From the tutorials I learned that things aren't always what they appear to be. In order to see some things you have to really relax your eyes otherwise you won't be able to see the images that are there, like in the hidden figure one, at first I couldn't see the dog then I relaxed my eyes and I was able to see it. I also learned that eye movements do matter. The snake illusion tutorial wasn't acutally moving, but when I moved my eyes it looked the the image was expanding when it really wasn't.
It suprised me that the position of the picture had an effect on the way the picture looked. One of the tutorial's rotated and that made the image look totally different than what it was. It also suprised me how much eye movements matter. Everytime your eye moves it affects how the picture will come across.
It changed the way I percieve things by showing that there is always a different image to something. You may see just one thing, but if you look closer there may be something else under what we originally see.
These may affect they way I look at things on a day to day basis by making me look at things more closely to see if there is an image in it. It may make me look at things from a differenct angle to see if the image can be looked at two different ways than the normal way.

Developing Through the Life Span

I was able to learn a lot in this chapter, one thing that stood out in my mind was Piaget's Theory. His theory showed that children progress through four stages of development and they are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. This theory suprised me because all the stages are the same exact thing that people go through in order to grow up. Like the sensorimotor, all children from birth to age 2 use there senses and actions to learn new things. I also learned a lot about day care attachment. It didn't suprise me that children that went to day care were slightly more advanced in thinking and language. My mom used to do daycare. Some things that happened when she did daycare was the kids would become more attached to her, they wouldn't want to go home with their parents; that happened very often. I think that daycare is go for kids because they learn how to grow and share so when they are older they will be able to carry those traits for the rest of their lives. I also learned about attachment differences. I learned that parents that are more sensitive have infants that are attached to them. I thought it was interesting because it shows that either way you parent it affects your children. There is no right and wrong way of parenting.
I thought it was interesting to learn about the parenting styles. It again shows that there is no right or wrong way of parenting. I'm just glad that my parents aren't authoritarian, they are more authoritative which is nice. I believe that the way your parents raise you will be the way you raise you kids, maybe, it all depends on your beliefs too.

Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity

I found this chapter very interesting, I was able to learn a lot about twins, gender roles, and how cultures affect the way we live. One thing that I learned in this chapter was how cultue and child-rearing has changed over time. A century and a half ago children were taught to be true to your traditions, be obedient, and to respect your parents and people who are older than you. Now they are taught to be true to yourself, you are responsible for yourself, and to follow your conscience. I found this suprising because I didn't think that things have changed that much, yes my parents teach me to be true to myself and all that, but I am also taught to respect my parents and people who are older than me. I also learned that men are more likely to talk to a woman than they are to another man. I found this interesting because I always thought that men talked to men, but I can understand why they would talk to women because women are more nurturing. I also learned that although identical twins have the same genes they don't have the same number of copies of genes, and that is why one twin always seems to get more sick than the other one. I found that interesting because identical twins have the same everything, so I assumed that they had the same number of copies of genes.
In this chapter a lot of things suprised me, but one thing that sticks out in my mind is the whole personal space thing. This suprised me because before I read about it, I never noticed how much some people invade others personal space. I didn't do the test where you talk to someone and get closer to them because I like to keep my own personal space.

Implicite Association Test

I did the test on age. This test determined if you prefered young or old people. The tests were interesting to take, but I think the results are what the people who made the test wants them to be. My results were that I prefer young people over old, but I really don't. I hang out with young people more than old, but I don't have a preference.

Consciousness and the Two Track Mind

In this chapter I learned about selective attention. I noticed that I and many people have that. It affects my life because sometimes I don't know that people or talking to me or didn't see that something happend. It's a lot like selective hearing. I also learned about REM sleep and dreaming. I learned how to know when someone is dreaming because when they are dreaming their eyes move. This doesn't really affect my life all that much because even if you don't remember the dream you still dreamed. Ever since I have learned about this, I haven't been remembering my dreams as much as I could before. In this chapter I also learned about hypnosis, I didn't know that being hypnotized could relieve pain. This again doesn't affect my life, unless I am being hypnotized.
In this chapter I found it suprising that doctors could have someone look at a pictures and without the person saying what they knew which picture the person was looking at without asking. It also suprised me that being hypnotized could relieve pain, I think I would rather have drugs in me to relieve pain than be hypnotized, espically for a surgery.
I agree with everything in this chapter other than the book saying that people dream to fly away memories. For some people that may be true, but for others dreaming about the past may make them think about it more other than letting it go. When I have a dream about the past, and actually remember it, I try to figure out why I would dream about that and then it will be on my mind for awhile. It won't go away until I figure it out or just decide to move on.
Overall I thought this chapter was very interesting it answered a lot of questions about dreaming and how we know that people are dreaming.

Chapter 2 Brain and Behavior

From completing the activites I learned that the brain is a very complicated organism. I knew that the brain is the main reason for us being able to functionin but I never understood what it has to do for us in order to function. What suprised me is how much stuff goes into being able to write or read. There are messages that have to go through the brain just so we can read what we are writing. Or how our brains have to tell our hands to type certain letters on the keyboard. The things that I learned can be applied to everyday life by me doing the things that the brain does. So now when I do something I will be able to understand how I am able to do that and what parts of the brain allows me to do those things. No, it really doesn't change the way I look at the world. I knew the functions in the brain had to do with why we act the way we do. Even if we didn't know all that we know, I think people will still act the way the were meant to without having to think about why.
In this unit I learned about how the brain functions and how messages are passed from one area of the body to the other. Like how the cerebellum lets me turn my steering wheel. I also learned that it is possible to have two brains. When I heard that we were going to watch a movie about a man with two brains I thought it was a joke, but I learned that it is possible to have two brains. Finally I learned that their slight differences between people who write with their right hand or left, other than the obvious differece that they write with different hands. I learned that people who write with their left hands are more likely to suffer from migranes and allergies.

The Man With Two Brains

I thought the video about the man with two brains was really interesting, at first I couldn't believe it. Its not everyday that you hear about someone having two brains. When they started to run tests thats when I understood the whole two brain part. Like the test where he saw a word to the right side but couldn't remember what it was and then he was asked to draw it and he could. Or the test where he had to draw a circle with one hand and a square with the other, I tried and failed, probably because I have one brain! I think as the years go by we will be hearing more and more about this kind of stuff and maybe by that time we will be able to understand it more and do a little more reasearch.

The Story of Psychology

I think psychology is the study of everything. Things that you do, what you think, your behavior, and so much more. Its a study of ethics and research and taking surveys to find out more about what people think and how they react. It differs because I just thought that psychology was the study of the mind and why we do things. Psychology affects everything I do, the way I act, the things I do is all because of psychology. Now I get to learn more about why I do things and I get to understand more of my own brain. It also affects me by how others treat me and thats because of their psychologic path that they are on. I learned that in order to find out what others think about things people do surveys in order to learn more and thats how we learn more about psychology traits. I also learned about the hindsight bias. I found that interesting because it shows that people to belive what they hear. Like the "absence makes the heart grow fonder," people heard that and believed it even though it was untrue. They thought of it as more common sense.

Thinking Critically

Research is important because without it we wouldn't be able to find out things that we didn't know. With research we are able to learn new things and reflect on what we have learned. If we didn't have or use research we wouldn't be where we are today because people wouldn't want to learn new things and then add on to what they have learned.
An article that I found that related to my life was "Why You Can't Help Believing Everything You Read." The article was related to my life because I tend to believe everything I read. I read things in magizines and hear things on the TV and people, including me, automatically believe it because the magizines and TV's are a source of information. Since they are worldwide word travels fast and I believe becasue I think they know what they are talking about.
From reading the article I learned that in order to start to understand information we have to believe it first. Then in order to not believe it there has to be evidence to change our minds. I also learned that if someone is distracted or interrupted their concentration changes and that way they aren't fully concentrated on the task at hand. If someone isn't concentrated they may forget what they were doing and initally believe what they here because they had that one moment of interruption. Also your beliefs have a say in what you actually do believe. It is also better to believe more things you hear then to become cynical and believe nothing.

About Me Again!!

Hello, my name is Katie Romag. I'm a senior at Thorp High School and I am 17 years old. I love to play softball, it is basically my life right now. I have two sisters one older and one younger. My favorite time of the year is winter because my birthday is in winter and of course Christmas. Besides playing softball I like to downhill ski, ice fish, and read. I am a major bookworm.
I belive that my friends and softball have shaped me as a person because they have taught me to work as team. Softball brings out my mean compeitive side while my friends bring out my goofty shy side. They have also taught me to care about other things other than myself and how to work hard.
I think studying psychology is important because it helps us understand why we do the things that we do and don't do.
I think psychology is the study of the brain and human behaviors.

Reflective Writing

I think psychology is going to be fun and at the same time very interesting. After I read the prolouge I started thinking about why I think or act the way I do. The hardest thing for me to understand was the neuroscience, I thought it was kind of confusing because I don't really know how the brain works or about the chemical balances in it or why I act the way I do. I think that behaviors do develop over time, I never used be able to get mad as easily as I do now. I also think that people inherit traits from their parents but they can easily change because eventually everyone becomes their own person. I do have to say though that parents do have an impact on how you behave.

What I think about psychology.

I think psychology is important to have because it helps people understand the mind and how it works. It also helps us understand why we have the behaviors that we do.

About Me!

Hi... My name is Katie Romag, I am 17 years old and a senior at Thorp High School. I like to play softball, it is basically my life right now. Since we went to state two years in a row, we kind of have to keep the tradition going and in order to do that we all have to work very hard in order to get there again. I used to play volleyball but then I had to have surgery on my shoulder and I no longer have the range of motion that I would need for that. After high school I want to go to college and become a dental hygienist. I have two sisters, we all play sports. Winter is my favorite time of year because of love the snow and Christmas of course. I love to downhill ski and shovel snow. If you have questions feel free to ask.