Blog Post #4

I read the article "What? Me Biased?". It's about how people are subconsiously racist or sexist. In the article, they talk about President Obama, and how people have found him less American because of the color of his skin. The discrimination is not only racial, we also have unconsiously biase opinions on the elderly and women seeking powerful positions. I find this relevent because it shows how we potentially think.  This makes us questions ourselves such as "Do you find yourself having racist or sexist thoughts? And why?"  People think this way everyday. It's interesting to me because we do it subconsiously. It's like you're born with it, or you learn it as you grow up. Being racist seems to be a subconsious thing, but we have to learn it some how. Where is it, that you suppose, we learn this?




I  think no one should be discrimated becasue of their race or sex, we are all created equally so why not be treated equally? There are such things that us as women have the power to do just as well as men, so why be sexist? There are things that African American, Chinese, or Hispanic can do just as well as Caucasion, so why be racist or discriminate? I was surprised that the article was saying people were finding President Obama less American then candidates from the past because he's African American. Something I did like in the article was that it said there's evidence that when people are aware of their unconscious biases, they can overcome it. I think many people don't realize that you act in a certain way until you catch yourself in a moment. You see yourself, and realize you need to change that one flaw. Until we realize that we need to change this, it wont happen. We need to realize that we do things wrong, after they happen. It's like our brain has a delayed reaction. What could we do to help this?

Blog Post #3

The first activity I did was "Seeing More Than the Eye Does." The activity was to close the left eye and look at this cross with the right eye. You were supposed to recognize the black dot on the right side of the screen, but you can't look at it only with prefural vision. You were to start a couple feet away and get closer to the screen while looking at the cross. As you get about a foot or so close to the screen you will notice the black dot disappears for a second and reappears as you get closer.

The next activity was with "Ambiguous Figures." Ambiguous figures have more than just one meaning. For example one of the pictures was of a skull one way and a woman looking in a mirror with her reflection. The purpose of this exercise was to look at all sorts of pictures and see if you can find another meaning.



One thing I learned from completeing the activity was that we don't truely see with our eyes but with our minds. Also that each eye has a blind spot, so that when the other eye is closed the mind will make up something for the blindspot.



This information suprised me because we have been taught that we see with our eyes, and our eyes do things to help our brain understand.  Now when I look at something I'm not just going to look at it, I'm going to wonder if my mind is seeing this, or if it really is my eyes seeing this. 

Blog #2

Research is important because it allows you to investigate things that are relatively unclear. If you don't understand something, you can simply research more about it to help you understand. Research is an important part of life that has helped us in finding great things such as cures.



I read the research article called "The Acceptance Prophecy: How You Control Who Likes You." This article talked all about the 'acceptance prophecy' which says that if you think someone will like or accept you, you act more warm and nice to them. Also, if you think someone will not accept you, you will probably act cold and shy around them, causing them to not you. In this article, scientists tested this and found that when people felt like their risk of rejection was low, they were more friendly and welcome. When the risk was high, they were more quiet and shy. People who thought they would be accepted were more confident opposed to those who thought they would be rejected. I think this article is relative to my life because everyone has to go through the acceptance and rejection stage and we are all afraid of it. We have no way of being 100% positive that acceptance is the answer, but we have to ability to believe that we will be accepted. We shouldn't frown upon this even if we get rejected. Rejection is another part of the 'acceptance prophecy' that we all have to get over.  Acceptance is what we want, rejection is what we may get.

This chapter taught me other things, such as: psychology is a scientific process that allows us to read the human mind more in depth, research is a very important part of psychology because there is much more to be explored.

Chapter 1

Before this class I thought that psychology was the study of how the human brain worked. In chapter one, it not only explains about the human itself, it tells about the history of psychology. It helps to understand the history to better understand how the human brain has changed.

Psychology affects life in many ways. We understand humans and can read their emotions more effectively, therefore helping us to better help someone else.

The fact that psychology, from the 1920's till now, has changed dramatically is amazing. The human brain is increasing with knowledge as the years go and that means more for us to understand. There is more stuff for us to discover about the human and their emotions.

About Me

My name is Marcie Oestreich, I am seventeen years old. I am a senior at Loyal High School. Photography has shaped me as a person because it is something that I enjoy. It gives me an open mind and allows me to capture the things the human eye only see's for a second. Phsychology is important to study because it will better help us to understand the human mind. I think psychology is the scientific study of the human mind.