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.