AP Psychology Exam

Hello everybody! So for those of you who are unaware, this week and next week are AP EXAM WEEKS! And this past Monday I had the extraordinary privilege to take the AP Psychology Exam! I was extremely nervous the whole morning leading up to it; I was even shaking. But in the end, all my hard studying paid off and I feel pretty good about how I did on the test overall! (: Now I get to wait until my scores are sent out! I really hope I get a high score, because Psychology is what I want to pursue and it is going to be for sure one of my majors and a 5 on the AP exam would benefit me on so many levels! FINGERS CROSSED!(:

Mindsets!

I recently completed an in-class general response essay in my AP language class on the topic of how a person's mindset can be easily swayed by teachers and the classroom and school environment and I was able to apply some of the knowledge on this subject that I recently acquired from my Psychology class. Part of the prompt described in small detail the characteristics of a person with a fixed-mindset and a growth-mindset. Psychologists, especially ones that focus their expertise in school environments, conduct experiments as well as observe students with either of these mindsets. It has been observed that students with fixed mindsets tend to not do as well when it comes to improving their learning skills, while a student with a growth-mindset tends to do very well in school due to their dedication to continuously improve, taking advantage of resources, such as study hall and tutoring, and have the drive to set goals for themselves.

A Figment of Our Existence

Today in my Psychology class, we had a discussion on the Freudian theories on defense mechanisms which turned very complicated very quickly! For those of you asking what defense mechanisms are; there are eight mechanisms formulated by Sigman Freud based on how we deal with our Id and Superego balances which most of you may know better as the "devil and angel on our shoulders". We began to talk about how our personality is affected by these two parts of our thought processes. One of the mechanisms is that of denial which is the process of our minds closing off towards threatening memories, experiences, or even desires. So to prevent the "evil" thoughts, we turn to denial and unconsciously pretend they never existed, according to Freud. If we are able to easily and unconsciously deny existence of a memory or a desire, is it possible that maybe we are able to unconsciously deny our existence all together?

Autism

I became extremely interested with Autism after meeting an autistic child a few months ago. For those of you who do not know what Autism is, its a disorder that often develops in the first three years and affects the development of the brain and one's social and communication skills. Meaning that autistic children often have a hard time making and keeping friends, do not participate in interactive games or playing "pretend", and cannot communicate with words effectively. Currently there is no cure for Autism, but scientists are working to improve treatment remedies and looking for a cure. I know that this may be a little "out there", but someday I would love to contribute to the finding of a cure for Autism. People tend to ignore Autistic children or label them as "weird" or worse names, but really they are extremely talented and are often misunderstood because of the way they communicate. After meeting a child with Autism, it has opened my eyes to the struggles they face everyday and that they will never be able to experience a "normal" childhood and also that they definitely don't deserve to be treated in the awful ways that they are by other children and even adults.

Inspired!

Last week I went on the Southern California College trip with my school to tour 6 colleges. I've had my heart set on going to University of San Diego for a long time, but I think that University of LA has become my new number 1! I fell in love with the school right when we arrived. The schoo has an amazing Psyche program which is exactly what I want. Another school we toured with a good psychology program is University of Santa Barbara. Another school I fell in love with. The trip as a whole made me realize how much work I still have to do in order to be accepted into one of those schools but it also inspired me to continue to work hard in academics and extracirriculars so that one day I can continue my education at the college I want.

Maybe Medical?

For about a year or so I have really wanted to become a psychologist and I still do. However, I've been thinking a lot lately about also maybe trying to pursue a career in the medical field. I know for sure that whatever I do after high school and college I want to help people. But since it is already the second semester of my junior year, college is approaching fast and I have to decide pretty soon about what I want to major in and where I want to apply to college. At first I was thinking about majoring in psychological development, health, and human behaviors all of which would help my chances of being a psychologist. But now with my growing interest in the medical field, I've decided that I would like to major in Health and Administrative Services. This major would benefit me both as a psychologist or a doctor or nurse.

Emotional Motivation

I've recently become particularly interested in why we are motivated to do things we do. Motivations are feelings or ideas that cause us to act toward a goal. One simple motivation that everyone is familiar with is hunger. Why we become hungry and why we sometimes over feed or under feed our bodies say a lot about our biological, psychological, and social mindsets. One area of hunger motivations studied by researchers is eating disorders. The three most common eating disorders are Bulimia, Anorexia nervosa, and Obesity. Many people have a generalized knowledge of these disorders, however what most people don't know is that an anorexic and a bulimic are substantially different due to their obsession with food and their weight. On average, an anorexic is at least 15% below their typical weight, where as a bulimic's weight tends to be average or even slightly above. Researchers has been investigating the causes of eating disorders for many years and in the future, I want to write my master's thesis on the causes and the complex set of factors of eating disorders in female teenagers and young adults and hopefully write a book on my thesis as well.

Out-of-Body Experiences

If you've ever gone sky-diving you may have felt an out-of-body experience lasting for a only a few moments. Out-of-body experiences belong to a group of  phenomena known as the paranormal or "beyond the range of normal experiences or scientific explanation". Most out-of-body experiences do not take place within the confines of an extreme environment, but transpire as part of our normal lives. Out-of-body experiences are defined as a perceptual shift in consciousness.

Do you remember?

I don't know about all you guys, but I constantly forget things! Sometimes it seems as though I can't remember anything. This is because I don't pay special attention to the information being processed in my sensory memory. Your sensory memory is continuously processing new information all the time. The average length of time information is held in your sensory memory is approximately under a second. Ever point a flash light at the wall, and quickly move the beam of light in a circle? The reason you see the circular shape of light is because your sensory memory holds the memory of the light. The only way to maintain a memory is to pay special attention to it, then it is passed to your short-term memory. Short-term memory has a very limited capacity; it can hold up to 7 pieces of information. This is why we can remember phone numbers. However we can also use chunking in order to increase the memory capacity. This is why it is easier to remeber a phone number which is hyphenated, rather than one, seven-digit number. Short-term memory only lasts for apprximately 30 seconds before you forget the information. In order for it to be encoded into your long-term memory, you need to pay special attention to the information once again. Once in long-term memory, you'll never forget the information.

FUN FACT:
People often say that they don't want to study anymore, because they;re afraid of losing the information they already have in their long-term memory. However, in your long-term memory, the more information you learn and acquire, the more available capacity in your memory. So basicly, what you are able to learn and comprehend is endless!!

Classic Conditioning

There are many different approaches to the study of psychology. One such is the Behaviorist view. Behaviorism is the theory that human nature can be fully understood by the laws of the natural environment. I recently learned of a man named John Watson who is known as the 'Father of Behavorism'. Watson carried out a classic conditioning experiment with a little boy named Albert by making a loud, clanging noise behind the child's head as the child was playing with a white, fluffy rabbit. Although the child was quite happy while playing with the rabbit, he came to be extremely terrified of the rabbit as well as anything else white and/or fluffy. The act of the child being scared of a generalization of white, fluffy objects is called stimulus generalization. This experiment was a major example of behavorism and  how the natural affects of the brain can be changed by repetition and the right type of conditioning.

Your Sense of Smell/Taste

Recently in my Psychology class, we learned about how certain smells can make you cognitively remember past experiences. For example, the smell of freshly cut grass could take you back to when you were 6 years old playing around in the grass at a park. Also, certain tastes can highly affect your eating habits. You could eat a certain food dish and coincidentally get sick right after and never want to eat that food item again. When this happens your mind ties together you getting sick with the food you had recently eaten to morph it into one situation therefore imprinting in your mine the side-affects of the certain food.

Is Hypnosis For Real?

Hypnosis has always fascinated me! How hypnotists are able to put people in a trance and how the person often has no memory of the experience. But can hypnotists actually have complete power over the people whom they mesmerize. The answer is no. Hypnotists cannot force anybody to do something that the person would not do completely conscious. Over the summer, my family and I attended the State fair in Sacramento and were able to see a professional hypnotist, hypnotize a group of random people from the audience. Before the show actually started, she did a quick test on each of the volunteers to see if they were able to be hypnotized easily. One man was unable to participate because he couldn't relax and was unable to get rid of the thought that hypnosis isn't real. So that concludes that you have to want to be hypnotized and agree to all the terms of what you would be put through.

FUN FACT:
The female brain is more adept at reading facial and verbal emotional expressions than that of a male's brain.

First Post!

Hey Guys, so this is my blog. Its all about Psychology, duh! I'm absolutely fascinated with the mind and why we do and say the things we do. I'll be posting new things I learn around every other week or so. I'll post links, photos, videos, and  anything else that I can think of that would be cool to put on here. So definitely keep checking back and give me your feedback so I can make this blog amazing! :) So I guess that's it for now. But here's a fun fact to keep you interested until my next post!

FUN FACT: When you think of psychology what image pops into your head? Probably something along the lines of a person with problems laying on a long, dark green couch worrying over some dream they had last night, right? Well, this is only partly true. Most psychologists aren't therapists. They may teach in colleges, universities, or elementary schools, work in government offices, or even work as doctors or surgeons in hospitals. Psychology can relate to almost everything!