Blog # 7

Sensation refers to the processes that our sensory receptors and nervous system recieve from various things in our environment. Perception refers to interpreting the information gained from sensation in order to recognize important or meaningful objects and events.



In Chapter 6 I found Sensation and Perception to be very interesting, because it is proven that we can unconciously sense stimuli below our threshold, and without our awareness, these stimuli can influence us. For example, although we are unable to smell something, our body may still react to it, depending on if the smell is pleasant or unpleasant. This can be applied to everyday life by surrounded someone with positive, but yet subliminal, messages in hope to boost their spirits or self-confidence.
I searched for perception and read and article on Psyblog named "How do Emoticons and Capitlisation Affect Perception of Email?" This article explained that forms of communications such as e-mail, texting, or even blogging can decrease the true understanding of the writer's behavior. With increased popularity, several people use capitilisation, punctuation, italicisation, or emoticons to express and convey their emotion. When capitilisation is overused, readers tend to recieve a bold, intimidating, or even angry perception. When emoticons are used, readers often feel a friendlier vibe. This was put to the test by holding a questionaire among college students. The students were asked to fill out a personality questionaire and then read anonymous emails. Although the students' personality also affected how the emails were preceived, the majority students rated the writers that used correct capitilisation and emoticons with a higher likability and those writers that used intense capitilization with a lower likability.
This is interesting because although forms of communication have changed radically in the last couplde decades, people continue to find ways to justify for what is lost by the lack of nonverbal communication. The study also proves that although the way in which a writer punctuates a message may alter the vibe, everyone precieves the message differently. This can easily be applied to everyday life because these forms of communication are an everyday thing. There will always be some confusion when trying to convey a message.

Blog Post #6 part 2

The "Parenting and Adolescents"  video made me think about lives at home. I agree with the video when it says that kids and their parents often make a big argument over some small, insignificant matters. I tend to fight with my parents over many small things. Growing up I have learned a lot, and my teen years have helped me realized a lot of things. It was drama filled and crazy, but a lot of fun.  I believe that I will benefit from all of my experiences and have more knowledge going into the adult world.

 

One thing I found interesting in Chapter 4 was in the section about gender development. A boy in Canada was born and lost his male parts in a circumcision accident and his parents decided to raise him as a girl. As the child grew, 'she' didn't like any girl toys or girls clothing and played a lot rougher than other females of her age. She wasn't interested in boys at all as she grew up. Then, her parents decided to tell her about the accident. The child then decided to become the male he was born as and assumed a new name, David. He married a woman later on but committed suicide shortly after. This is interesting how your body knows what you are, and your mind knows what you are.


In Chapter 5 I found childhood amnesia to be very interesting. It stated that most of us can't remember much of anything before age 3. This is interesting because we have such a great memory of everything else, but can't remember anything up to age 3. We seem to be able to remember things if our parents remind us they happened though.

Blog #5

One thing I learned from reading this chapter was a better understanding of Identical and Fraternal twins. I learned that although identical twins have the same genes, they might not always have the same number of copies of these genes. Also most identical twins share a placenta, but one of three sets has two placentas. I learned that fratnernal twins develop from seperate fretilized eggs and, although they share a fetal environment, they are just the same as a normal sibling to us.
Another thing I learned is how crucial the things we learn from our parents as a child, are to ou life and brain development. Parents who have poor parenting skills and set bad examples are more likely to have poorly judged, or misbehaved children. Those parents who are dedicated and set good examples for their children are more likely to have children who are well-behaved and successful.

I also found personal space is something that differs in us all greatly.  I learned that Scandinavians, North Americans, and the British prefer to have more personal space than Latin Americans, Arabs, and the French. You would assume that personal space would be a personal preferences, depending how how comfortable or affectionate a person was, but it also depends greatly on the culture they are surrounded with. In France, people traditionally kiss cheeks when they meet. You would never see that happen in America on a normal basis.

The video on sexual attitudes was interesting as well. It shows that there are different ways in choosing who you want to be with. The idea that homosexual men tend to get more sexual relations because they are with another man who want the same thing, is something that I never thought about before. The cultural differences of how we chose, doesn't seem to effect people as much as I thought it would.

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.