Blog #12

When something is a psychological disorder it is an ongoing pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions that are deviant, distressful, and/or dysfunctional. In order to decide what is a psychological disorder you have to view the standards for deviant behavior which vary by context and by culture. They also vary with time. However there is more to a disorder than being deviant. To be considered disordered, deviant behavior usually causes the press distress. If someone acts abnormally they are not disordered. Everyone acts different and has other thoughts on how they behavior. Unless the person shows signs of distress they are normal, I believe.
I have not had a psychological disorder, nor have I known anyone who is disordered. However I have studied the disorder of paranoid schizophrenia. Which preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations, often with themes of persecution or grandiosity is the definition. Some symptoms are confusion. lose of ouch with reality, strange behavior and actions and a change in eating and sleeping habits. If I had this disorder I don't think I would think anything of it. I think I would be looked at differently and have no friends. I would do weird actions and act abnormally.
I found learning about bipolar disorder very interesting. I learned that adolescences have mood swings from rage to bubbly which can produce a bipolar diagnosis. I found it interesting because I never knew that during the manic phase of bipolar disorder the person is typically overtalkative, overactive, and elated, have little need for sleep and show few sexual inhibitions. The person also finds advice irritating. They need protection from their own poor judgement, which may lead to reckless spending or unsafe sex.

Blog #13

As I watched the video about Asch's Conformity I began to think of so many situations that I have been in myself. I sometimes believe that I know the right answer but then once everyone else says a different answer I begin to go with what they are saying. Althought I think that I am right I am not 100% sure. I think because the majority are voting for the same answer that I am wrong. Then I started to watch and learn about the Milgram's Obedience which I disagreed with. I couldn't believe the cruel ways people would treat others just for a psychological tests. Many of the people used as the victims in this test could have other problems that could result in life threaten situations. Finally was the Stanford Prison Experement which I believed to be very cruical and painful for the victims. I, once again, disagree with this experiment and still can't believe people would do such a thing to others. What I found rather interesting about these experiments were that some, if not most, of the victims to the experiments were able to leave the tests normal and fine even through all the different experimentation. These studies state that as humans no matter who you are the odds of you staying with what you think to be right over the majority of people thinking the opposite you are going to go with what others are thinking. That is just human nature.
A social influence can be seen in one's conformity (adjusting to one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard) compliance and group behavior. The book has examples of normative and informational social influences. Normative include influences resulting from a perosn's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval. Informational include influences resulthing in a person's willingnes to accept others's opinion in reality. An example of having a normative influence would be completing homework and doing well in school. I have an older brother who set the bar high when doing homework and taking tests. My parents have then expected the same from me even though I am not my brother. However because he has has set the bar and my parents believe and want me to do the same if not better I try my hardest and won't settle for anything less. Another good example of a social influence would be being voted President of Student Council. Because of my thoughts and some ideas I decided to run as an officer to have my ideas thrown out there. Because of my ideas and they relate to others I was voted as the President. Others began to understand my points of view and agree on topics with me.
The most interesting thing I learned in this class was the different parenting styles such as authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. I found the different styles interesting and related them to the parents of my friends. I could pick out which parents were what and most importantly which parents mine were. My parents are the authoritarian type. They are strict and have many rules and do expect much obedience. They want us to be respectful towards others especially our elders and follow rules when they are given with no questions asked. They obiviously gave the rules out for a reason and that reason isn't to be quesioned. I learned many more important and interesting facts in psychology and parenting styles caught my attention the most.

Blog #11

I have many personality traits that represent who I am and people should expect. My strongest personality would be thoughtfulness. I always think of others before I think of myself. I try to make others happy and do what would satisfy them before what I want or need. Some traits can be positive others not so much. Positive traits are: agreeableness; I don’t see a point in disagreeing and arguing over something that can be discussed to fit both peoples needs, neuroticism; I remain very relaxed in situations that I don’t believe are a big deal I go with what life throws at me and try to make the best of it, extraversion; I am social and enjoy the company of others no matter who the person is or what they are doing, conscientiousness; I am very well organized and can be relied upon I like all my nooks and papers in correct and labeled folders, trustworthy; everyone can trust me with their secrets and know that I won’t talk about them behind their backs. Negative traits are: moody; I become very moody when certain topics are discussed and some things I don’t like brought up, procrastinator; I wait until the last minute to do my homework and hand in my work when time is almost up, I complete the work to the best effort I just don’t use my time wisely, opinionated; although it can be positive it can be taken negative as well, I will stand by what I believe and it can sometimes create an argument.
I believe I am both optimism and pessimistic. It all goes back to my mood. If I am in a good mood everything is optimism and at an above average level. However on a not so good day I can be pessimistic and it is at a low level. They both impact my life because many will see me as happy and always looking at the positives in life however some might only see me when I am pessimistic and get the wrong impression. An example would be everyone complaining about the test to take in school but I would mention we wouldn’t have homework over Thanksgiving break. Another example would be I complain about everything and look at all the negatives the situation has to offer and the new student in school sees me acting in this way will get the impression I am very pessimistic.
Two traits that vary are mood and extraversion. An example of moody would be – the other night I was happy doing my advanced math assignment. My dad came and sat by me and asked me how the class was going. They he tells me how I won’t do well in college if I don’t study for all my quizzes. I got very upset and angry with him for telling me something I already know. Another example would be I am having a great day talking to others and saying hi until I hear news that my boyfriend is flirting with other girls. I wouldn’t approach him because we are all human and do it but I would become very antisocial and not want to talk to anyone else. In both situations they would only benefit you until the change occurs. In both scenarios I was happy which would bring joy to others, then my mood would change or I wouldn’t talk to you.
I have very strong defense mechanism level. An example of a defense mechanism would be when someone would talk negative about my ex boyfriend I would stand up for him and defend him over what they had to say because I still cared about him. Another example would be me teasing my brother but once someone else starts to tease him I would defend him and put what I had to say before behind me. A final example would be when someone talks of my faith and what I believe I will stand up and speak my opinion in a defensive matter.

Blog #10

In Chapter 9 I learned numerous new things and all that interested me. However, the topic of explaining language development caught my interest the most. In this section two different people, a Behaviorist and a Linguist both expressed their reasons to how humans learn what we know. Skinner, the Behaviorist, stated we learn by 3 main principles; association, imitation, and reinforcement. He gave an example of each such as for association, the sight of things with sound, imitation, the words and syntax modeled by others, and reinforcement, smiles and/or hugs when the child says something right, The Chomsky, the Linguist, stated children acquire untaught words and grammar faster than solely learning principles. Children generate all sorts of sentences they have never heard. Chomsky believes given adequate nurture language will naturally occur. He gave the example that no parent teaches their child to say “I hate you, Daddy.” I found this interesting because I believe that both are right to an extent. I believe Skinner more than Chomsky because although we don’t teach children bad words or negative comments they hear them from their models or parents and they imitate them thinking that is what they are suppose to do.
As defined in the textbook creativity is the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas. I chose that one because I usually come up with ideas to write about or an answer to solve a problem. I can honestly say that I am creative. I believe I am most creative when designing something or decorating. I love to scrapbook and I think that is where most of my creativity is shown. I also apply being creative to my everyday life by helping people solve their problems. I personally think if you have a solution to someone’s problem you were creative in finding an answer. Being high in creative intelligence is a huge asset because you think beyond your normal knowledge. You find other ways to solve or create something then what is given.
In Chapter 10 I learned about hereditary and environmental influences on intelligence. I found this interesting because they had two good points to prove. I f someone was born into a smart and well positioned person they would think by birthright they justify their social position. That is from heredity. However if we got our intelligence from the environment someone who was brought up in a disadvantage environment can expect to lead disadvantaged lives. I was curious to see whether I could blame my intelligence on my mother and father or I would have to thank nature for what it has given me.

Blog #9

Having memory is a privilege that we, as humans, take for granted. No one realizes how much a person uses their memory and doesn’t realize it. Without memory it would be difficult for a person to continues forward in life and increase their knowledge and ability to learn. Memory is everything that a human’s life is revolved around. Clive Wearing is an amazing and gifted human in the study of music. He has talent beyond any other however his lack of memory hurts his ability to go fat in life with what he knows. As I sit here I imagine being Mrs. Wearing, Clive’s wife, and I think to myself she handles Clive’s disability very well and doesn’t let that affect her love for him. She knows how long they have known each other and what has happened yet she plays along, while with him, like nothing has ever happened between them before. Now I see myself in her shoes and I can honestly say I could never do it, I couldn’t handle being married and having my partner forget everything in the past and for that matter my name. I would get upset with Clive when he states he didn’t write in his diary or that he doesn’t know what I am talking about. After this video I realized how fortunate I am to have the memory I do. I know I complain about forgetting little, unimportant events, but after seeing Clive those unimportant events became nothing because I can still remember my families’ names.
To me, memory was nothing like I thought it worked before. I learned in the “Human Memory Model” that human memory is described as a set of stores which are places to put information and a set of processes that act on the stores. It then went into detail about 3 stores being 1.) Sensory information store, 2.) The short term store and 3.) The long term store. They spoke of 3 processes; 1.) Encoding, 2.) Maintenance and 3.) Retrieval. I had no idea there were so many different places and steps to having a memory. I don’t see a difference in my memory from any other, I believe they all work the same what stops others from remembering certain things is the way our brain works and how it was developing. Most of the time I trust my memory and I normally have other information to back up what I have stated. However there are many points in time where I second guess myself and don’t agree 100% with what my memory is telling me.
In this section I learned the influences of emotions and stress hormones on memory. I found out that when we are excited or stressed emotion-triggered stress hormones make more glucose energy available to fuel brain activity, signaling the brain that something important has happened. I believe it was important because so many events take place in a person’s life that can change their emotions and affect their memory. However something can happen on a day to day basis and a person still has to remember those events as well. I can apply this to my life, especially being a teenager and emotional, because I have school work to memorize yet events occur that either make me happy or sad and remain in my memory for a larger period of time than any school work would.

Blog #8

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticpate events. That was the way the book described it. In my words I believe classical conditioning is like taking puzzle pieces and putting them together to create the whole picture. An example would be a teacher giving you the end of the chapter assignment and making the next day a review day in class. You can conclude that the following day is going to be a chapter test in class. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior is stregthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. An example of that would be me cheating on a test, and having bad behavior, then in turn getting a 0% on my test from the teacher causing me never to cheat again. The difference between classical and operant conditioning is classical you are using what you know to predict a future event whereas operant is performing a behavior that will diminish because of a punisher telling you it was wrong. It is interesting to see how two types of conditions can be totally different in many ways yet still play a huge part in our lives. They both apply greatly to my life but I believe more so operant conditioning because so many times I perfrom behaviors at school, at home, or at practice that I get punished for and realize it wasn't worth the time.
Positive reinforcement is increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli. Negative reinforcement is increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. Punishment is an event that decreases the behavior that it follows. An example of a positive reinforcement is a suggestion that my mom brought to my attention. She offered to buy me a cell phone for my 18th birthday if I could keep all "A"s in all my classes. I worked really hard and set goals for myself to complete all my classes with an A. I achieved those goals with "A"s in all my classes and for my 18th birthday I received a cell phone. An example of a negative reinforcement would be my behavior changed when I was dating a certain guy. He was a bad influence on me and made my behavior change for the worst. My mom brought it to my attention and told me to stop seeing him. I did as she asked and it urns out his next girlfriend he got pregnant and got into trouble for under age drinking. I also found someone better for me. Finally, an example of a punishment is I tend to use unnecessary and inapproiate words. Well my mom hears them and everytime I use an inapproiate word I have to pay her 10 cents as my punishment. That money than goes to charity. The outcome in this situation is at the time I didn't think 10 cent was a lot until I realized how much I swore and how I was running low on money. I soon reduced my swearing and I have money again.
In this section I thought observational learning was the most interesting topic. Observational learning is observing others in their actions and than imitating them. I love to see the different behaviors and actions performed and see who follows and who doesn't. I also enjoy seeing how others respond to the action, such as do they follow or do they become individual and do their own thing. This applies to my everyday life and everyone elses in the aspect that people do stuff all the time in shcool that others will either follow or thye will go the other direction. I have observed that if someone is popular they are more likely to be imiated than if someone who isn't so popular were to do the same thing.

Blog #7

I would clearly state that the difference between sensation and perception has a varitey of different ways being descirbed. I would first state that sensation is what you are feeling of how you act in respones to the environment. Whereas perception is how you see things through your eyes. Many people get this two words mixed up or think that they are the same but they are actually totally different.
The most interesting thing that I learned in this chapter was dealing with the illusions and seeing things beyond what they appear to be. I was interested in the illusions we had to glance at and write about. Some many of the illusions I looked at and thought one thing but then realized after you look at the display and go beyond what the naked eye sees you see much more. I then related all this illusions to life experiences that I either have experienced or will be experiencing in the future. My favorite was the wagon wheel, you thought you knew what was happening and you thought you had figured out the puzzle but really you had to sit and observe what was truly taking place as the wheel spun. So many situations occur in my life today that I see people for who they are on the outside but it isn't until I look closely and talk more to them that I finally figure out their true selves and realize what kind of person they are.
The article I chose to summarize was called 18 ways attention goes wrong. This article talks about how our minds get so distracted and can't stay focused on one thing. We forget, as humans, of the present events that we are doing because we are thinking about future events yet to come. Because of the mind working like this we miss many other occurences in the present time that play a huge part of our future. Then the article listed 18 ways and describe each of them and how they all can play a part in attention lost in your present mind set. I found this article interesting because some of the way they mentioned that affect your train of thought at the time are events I would never have thought would affect me. It then started to make me think about how some events affect my thoughts at the moment and then I forget what I was doing, who I was talking to, or what I was suppose to be doing but instead I got side tracked. I will always be applying this to my everyday life because there will never be a moment in my life that I can't be doing something without thinking of many others things. For example right now, I am doing my psychology homework and concentrating on how these events affect my learning yet I am truly thinking about what I am going to wear tonight to the football game and how I did on my last Physics quiz. So many events happpen in my life that I can relate to either the illusions that I saw for today or just events that take place of what my mind is suppose to be set on.

Blog #6

While I was talking to my grandma I learned a large amount of the different life styles that she lived in that I am living in today. I was shocked at everything she had to say that I never even thought about. I was shocked to find out that most girls didn't have their ears pierced. They also didn't wear much jewelry which would be hard for me because I absolutely love accessories with my wardrobe. They did, however, wear neck scarves which I believe has come back into fashion in a different style. As my grandma continued to talk I was amazed at the situations she mentioned with dating. She said she could date but no on ever asked her. She then stated that no one really dated in high school they just hung out as a large group as friends. Today there are so many couples in high school and now the younger children are beginning to "date" as well. One thing that my grandma pointed out that I took seriously was the fact that the difference between teenagers then and teenagers today is the lack of respect not only for other but for ourselves. She mentioned that she has met up with a few teenagers that have not treated her with the respect she remembered having to show others as a teenager. I took that to heart because in a way she is talking about her own grandchildren, maybe not specifically towards us, but that was the way I took it.
I honestly enjoyed the Parenting and Adolescence video. It really opened my eyes to how my parents are feeling and made me feel more comfortable about the way I act. I feel like I am just a teenager and this is the emotion and stages of life that I am going through right now. As I head toward my adult life I think back to when I first turned into a teenager and where I am at right now. I think my parents have given me the guidance that I needed to become who I am and that they have done a great job at it. I wouldn't change anything about my teenage years even though I have had some disagreements with my parents. I understand now where they were coming from when they wouldn't let me do something or wouldn't let me have something. They have reasons for everything that they do and of course at the time I don't want to sit and listen to those reasons because I am so angry with them. I believe my time as an adolescence has and still is impacting my life for adulthood tremendously. I have learned to be mature about certain situations and keep an opened mind when others are talking. I have learned to accept what I have and be grateful for what I was given. I think I will turn into a mature, well-rounded adult with much respect towards others and especially towards myself.
In Chapter 4 I learned about gender identity and gender typed. This two topics lead into socail learning theory. All three of those relate because they talk about males and females exhibiting traditionally masculine traits and interests or distinctly feminine traits and interests. Social learning theory states that children learn gender-linked behaviors by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished. I would have to agree 100% with that statement. I believe that children learn their gender at a young age byt the way they are talked to. For a girl it might be acting as a good mom while playing with dolls. For a guy it could be not crying because big boys don't cry after getting hurt. Even when a child is being discouraged parents tend to do it in a gender-type matter which still helps children learn their group and then they go into their "boy" or "girl" world.
In Chapter 5 many different things about infants and about children in their younger years. One that was brought to my attention because my mother is a day care provider was does day care affect attachment? The book stated that it does not affect their attachment. There the book continues to go into depth with the situation and talk about how it can actually sturdy an individual who can thrive in a wide variety of life situations. I would also have to agree with this situation. Being a by stander at my mother day care center I get to experience the different emotions and reactions from all different children as they enter the center and at the end of the day leave. I have come to realize that the first years that a child starts they are scared and only want to be with their moms which is typical. I mean I wouldn't want to go into a house I have never stepped foot into and be there for at least 8 hours out of the day without my mom. But as the child progress through the center they begin to attach to my mom and at really young ages treat her as if she was their mom. Once the child grow and start school they find it hard to leave the day care but go into school very outgoing and ready for any new person to come along to meet.

Blog #5

This week in psychology I learned a number of new things. One interesting concept that I learned was in the Evolutionary Psychology and Sexual Attitudes Video. I learned that men are more interested in casual sex than women are. I found it interesting that gay men are the same way and they are happy becasue they have found someone who will, 1. have the same interests, and 2. give them the casual sex they are looking for. I believe that men are prefer casual sex over women and I am curious to know why. Why aren't women more interested in having casual sex? What is the difference between how the mind of a man is working compared to a women? I was surprised to find out that because the vast majority of man are attracted to women and the vast majority of woman are attracted to men is because we evolved that way. My only question is because so many men are attracted to women and vis versa then why do we continue to have more confessions of being homosexual? I question myself and the video answered it in saying that because men are getting what they want because their partner wants it too. Women are obvisouly the same way, they have found someone who doesn't always want the casual sex.
Another concept that I learned and was surprised to read about was in The Nuture Assumption article. As I began reading it I learned that a children isn't entirely the way they are because of the up bring of their parents. I was interested to find out that because of the environment a children is born into can play a huge part in what the future will be like for that child. I agreed with that statement for the most part, but deep down I truely believe a child is the way they are because of how the parents treat the children and act towards them in good and bad situations. I am thankful to have the parents that I do because they raised me well and I believe I have a strong up bring that will benefit me in the future. I strongly believe my statement before because I have seen how parents approach their children and how those approaches are rubbed off and mentioned again in different terms.
A final interesting aspect that I learned from the lesson this week was in the Chapte 4 reading. I came across the topic of Evolutionary Psychology Today. It comments on Charles Darwin's theory and then goes into questions from other evolutionary psychologists have addressed. One question that keeps coming back into my mind is "Why are biological fathers so much less likely than unrelated boyfriends to abuse and murder the children with whom they share a home?" In my opinion unrelated boyfriends abuse and mrder the children because they are jealous and want to be the only person in the woman's life at this point in time. They don't want to have to share her and the home. They are in the early stages of a relationship and want to be able to do things that wouldn't involve the children. I also believe it is because they don't want to be reminded that their partner was once with another man and had sexual relations with him. Seeing the child or children everyday is that exact reminder. Those are just my beliefs and I would be very interested to find out what the psychological reasoning for that question would be. I don't understand how an innocent child can have such an effect on one man.

Blog #4

I took time to listen to the discussion about Teens and Sleep. It was very interesting to hear the point of views from other people about Teenagers and their sleep time. I was also interested in all the facts the talk show host used to support what she was trying to make known. I realized no matter how late a person stays up studying a person who doesn't do much studying and gets sleep will do better than the person who stayed up all night studying.
I learned that if you didn't get enough sleep one night, coming home and taking a nap can help to an extent. I also learned that catching up on sleep on the weekends has good and bad news with it. It is good to catch up on the sleep but people are forgetting that you have a clock and then come that night you don't want to sleep and then Monday morning instead of getting up for school you are wanting to have your head on your pillow. I never looked at it in that way. I always thought that not getting much sleep during the week I can make up for on the weekends. That really won't work if I am staying out late with friends and then sleeping until 11:00a.m. the next morning.
I believe this is relevant to me because I have a lot of homework during the week. I don't normally get to sleep before 10:30 at night. I am also involved with sports and clubs that take up much of my time as well. I have to learn to manage my time wisely and make more time for sleep even if everything that I want to get done isn't done. You don't realize how important sleep is until it is hard to get up the next morning, you are falling asleep during classes, and doing well in classes becomes harder.
Getting sleep effects me greatly. Not getting sleep effects everyone no matter what your age is. Being a senior though and wanting to do well in school before college and yet be involved with so much I feel like I don't get enough sleep. I try and tell myself to go to bed early but I never have the time because the next day of school comes and none of my homework is done.
I was very surprised to find out that because teens aren't getting sleep they are driving drowsy. The talk show states that driving drowsy is at the same level of driving drunk. I was shock because even if I don't get enough sleep when I drive I am alert and more focused in my driving then anytime during the day no matter what I am doing. That statement I really didn't agree with because any teenage I talk to really focuses on driving and the last thing they want is to get in an accident. I also wouldn't really compare driving drowsy to driving drunk. They are two totally different situations and there would be no comparison. Driving drunk you are unaware and have no clue what is going on. Driving drowsy you are some what connected with what is going on in life.
I am going to be more aware of the time that I set apart for homework and the time I decide to go to bed. Sleep is very important and I think I need more of it. I believe if I got more sleep I might do a little bit better in my school work and I can achieve the goals that I have set academically.

Blog #3

The first activity I did was takiong time to think. It was an activity that timed me on my reaction to a question and the time it took me to answer the question. The other activity I did was seeing more than your eye does, which, I closed my left eye staring at a picture while marking my blind spot.
I learned many new things from these activities. I learned that for many people reaction ti,e to questions differs causing slower response. I also learned when I was timed it included the time for the input signal to be transduced into neural activity, the time for neural signals to move from sensory structure to muscle involved in action and the time for muslce contractions. For the other activity I learned that what you don't see with one eye you see with the other. Because of that it explains why you have less of a blind spot when both eyes are opened.
I was surprised to find out that the moment you see, feel, taste, hear, or smell something it goes through your neural signals and then to muscles involved and then the contractions which transfer into your brain causing your respones to the intital reaction. You would think that listening to all the steps that it would take forever but really it takes a matter of 3 seconds at the most for everything to go through.
These two activities apply to my everyday life because I am always using my senses and never am I not reacting to something that happens in life. I am also always using my eyes and looking around for my blindspot. People don't realize that they use their senses more than is known. Your brain is consistently thinking and reacting to everything that you do. Your eyes are always wondering around from area to area so you don't miss anything.
I changes how I use my senses and every time I do use a sense I am thinking about how long it is taking me to process and voice an answer. I am also thinking about what it would be like to only have one eye or be blind. I am always looking around noticing new things and if I couldn't see I would go crazy.
I have learned also that Wilhelm Wundt continued studies for the time to think in his labortary. I knew who he was but never would have guessed he played a part in studing the time it takes us to responed and think. I also learned that the front of the eye acts like a camera lens, differently directing light rays from each point in space so as to create on the back of the eye a picture of the world. The picture then falls on a sheet of photoreceptors specialized brain cells. Which both make me think differently about the brain because one i learned something and two the brain is helpping the eye with putting a picture in my head.
"Man with Two Brains" was a very interesting video. I don't know how I could handle being able to do two things at once. The only thing that I would not be able to handle is not being able to put two things together which I am still wondering how he shouldn't be able to. He has two brains and they are connected if he sees one thing and sees another he should be able to put the two together without a problem. A person with one brain can do that. I also find it very interesting how one part of the brain is verbal and the other is more graphical.

Formal Blog #2

Research is very important in our everyday lives. The more you research and study something, the more you know about that topic. Knowing more about a certain thing will help you to understand it better. When it comes to psychology the more you research a person and know about their everyday lives you might be able to understand why they are doing the things they do.

The article I read from Pysblog was titled Don't Stand So Close it is interesting because it is about a study conducted showing the data of men's toilet habits. It showed that men who are right next to another man in the urinals the flow of urine changes and is weaker than when they aren't right next to eachother. I thought this was an interesting fact to know about the opposite sex. Maybe it will help to understand guys better.

Hindsight bias is also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon. To explain this try to unscramble the letters RADEB unscrambled it makes the word BREAD. If you just try to unscramble the letters without knowing the answer it will take an average of 3 minutes. However, once you know the answer hindsight makes it seem so easy and obvious.

This chapter explains the different ways to study people. One way is by the case studies. In a case study, you examine something or someone in depth. You study them carefully to describe why humans do the things we do. Case studies can also show us what can happen. However, case studies are not always 100% accurate; they do suggest some ideas while not fully discovering truth in everybody.

Naturalistic observation is the third descriptive method to record behavior. Naturalistic observation takes place in a normal environment. For example, scientists might be studying something dealing with an animal such as a monkey. Using the naturalistic observations, the scientist will head out into the jungle in search of a monkey in its natural habitat. They will then record their observations and come to conclusions about the monkey. One thing about naturalistic observation that isn't always good is: it doesn't take into account other controlling factors in life that may influence behaviors.

Chapter 1

I thought, along with a lot of other people, that psychology was just the study of behaviors and the effects they display among other people. I didn't realize it goes more indepth and has many other ways of studying psychology. I learned that once I started to read chapter 1 and the three main components of the scientific attitudes.
I believe that psychology affects my life because I tend to think critically. I always think more into a question or proposal when given. Most people just answer what is asked or say what comes right to their heads. I normally sit there and think about what was asked and I take the question into many different directions. According to my reading thinking critically means that I have a scientific attitude. I also see how psychology can affect my life because I watch people as they progress during school and I see how they react towards a homework assignment or how they interact with other students. Their behaviors amaze me. I question myself to why a person complains about a certain assignment or why a person might treat someone the way they do.
Throughout the reading I did in chapter 1 I found a lot of interseting things, one that sticks out in my head is the case study. Case study is the examining of one indiviual in deoth in hopes of revealing things true of us all. I learned that if you study a person long enough and more in depth you find things out that you never knew. I found this intriguing because I realized after asking a person so many questions they are bounded to finally tell the truth and reveal what they truely have inside. Another thing I learned was illusory correlation. This has happened to me many times and I never knew there was a name for it and that it has been studied. I have believed there was a relationship between two things and then later what I had believed came true. I don't believe that because we are trusting in it that that is the reason why it happens. I strongly feel that because we think there is a relationship we have the mind set that it could happen.

Hello my name is Cheyenne Hoffman and I attend Stratford High School. I am a senior this year and on September 30 I will be turning 18 years old. I strongly believe that my family has shaped me to be who I am today. They have supported me and taught my many lessons in life that will help me successed in life. I don't know what I would do without my family. In my opinion psychology is important to study because it helps people understand certain things about human beings and the way our minds work.