Chapter 13~ Personality

To me my personality is one of a kind and unique, but pretty much everybody says that about their personality. Some of the things that influence my personality are my love for sports, my family and friends, and society. My love for sports makes my personality competitive and a hard-headed type personality. Sometimes during a game or practice I become mean but that's just the athlete inside me. My family isn't very close so part of my personality is being an individual and doing things on my own. When I am at home I'm always by myself so I have no way of really showing my fun and outgoing personality. The people I hang around with definitely affect my personality. I choose the group of people I hang out with because they all have an outgoing and crazy personality just like mine. You won't see me hanging out with the emo's at school; their personalities just don't clash with mine. I tend to hang out with the "jocks" because we all have sports in common and I guess I consider myself a "jock." The test I really enjoyed was the Big 5. The first time I took the test it was dead on with my personality but the second time I took it, the test was not so close. I think the kind of questions they asked could really help them to identify what kind of personality you have. I thought the North Dakota Null-Hypothesis Theory was a fun one. At first I thought the questions they were asking were stupid and pointless like the question that asks "Does spinach make you feel alone?" To me those questions were outrageous but after I research why the test was designed I understood. I found out that those questions were designed to test if you had brain damage; I'm not sure how they can tell if you have brain damage or not through those questions. I watched the traits video and learned that our personality traits may not be the same as your actual personality. In the video an adult when from being a Marine to being a counselor. He took the trait theory test and he found that he would be good at mentoring people. He changed his career goal just because of what the theory told him. I also learned that personality is effected by heredity. I'm not sure if I believe that because my personality is so much different than that of my parents. Both my parents aren't very outgoing and they like to stay home and not be social. I am completely different. I take every chance to get out of the house and socialize with other people; I enjoy meeting new people.

Chapter 8~ Memory

This chapter was very interesting because I got to test my memory, which I learned is not very good at all but that is old news to me. In the memory activities we did in class, I noticed that the one she made us count down from 21, I couldn't remember any words from that activity. I knew that once I had to count from 21 to 0, my mind would be taken off the words that I just tried to memorize. When I watched the eyewitness testimony I was shocked that she got her rapist wrong. You would think that because she studied him during her rape, she would know every detail about him and she would be able to pick him out in a crowd of millions. She did indeed pick him out twice; once in a picture line up and once in a live lineup. It turned out that her memory led them astray and she chose the wrong guy. He spent 11 years in prison because of it. I wasn't able to watch the eyewitness testimony part 2, the one that explained why she mixed them up, but I am guessing that her memory mixed up certain details about her rapist. This makes me wonder if my memory has ever done this to me and I didn't know it. The fact that our memory can mess up observations just scares me because if I was ever in the position of the woman in the eyewitness testimony, who knows if I could give the police the right information.

Chapter 9~ Thinking and Language

This chapter wasn't my favorite but the part I was most interested in was the section on animal thinking and language. I was always interested about how animals communicate with each other. I learned that animals are smarter than we think. Chimpanzees are said to have brains like humans. Chimps can remember and tap numbers in ascending order. They are very good problem solvers and have become natural tool users. What I found really interesting and surprising was when I read that dolphins use marine sponges to protect their noses when digging through the sea floor for fish. I also learned how animals communicate with each other. For example Vervet monkeys have different alarm cries for different situations or predators. Dolphins use eco location to find each other and some species of penguins use sounds to identify their babies after a long trip. I know that dogs can also communicate with each other and humans. People who have severe seizures own trained dogs that can sense when they are about to have a seizure. When the dog senses a seizure coming on they bark or howl a certain trained sound. I saw on Riples believe it or not a dog that could talk. I remember it said I love you and hello. The dog reminded me of Scooby-do.

Chapter 7~ Memory

1. This chapter was very interesting because I got to test my memory, which I learned is not very good at all but that is old news to me. In the memory activities we did in class, I noticed that the one she made us count down from 21, I couldn't remember any words from that activity. I knew that once I had to count from 21 to 0, my mind would be taken off the words that I just tried to memorize. When I watched the eyewitness testimony I was shocked that she got her rapist wrong. You would think that because she studied him during her rape, she would know every detail about him and she would be able to pick him out in a crowd of millions. She did indeed pick him out twice; once in a picture line up and once in a live lineup. It turned out that her memory led them astray and she chose the wrong guy. He spent 11 years in prison because of it. I wasn't able to watch the eyewitness testimony part 2, the one that explained why she mixed them up, but I am guessing that her memory mixed up certain details about her rapist. This makes me wonder if my memory has ever done this to me and I didn't know it. The fact that our memory can mess up observations just scares me because if I was ever in the position of the woman in the eyewitness testimony, who knows if I could give the police the right information.

Chapter 7~ Learning

This chapter, so far, is my favorite because I like to study how people learn and my second career choice is teaching. I learned that people and animals learn by observation. For example if I see my older brother burn himself on something hot I will know, through observation, not to touch that thing because it was hot. Children also learn through imitation. They may see their dad yell at the dog because it peed on the floor and five minutes later the kid will yell at the dog for no reason. Kids also learn swear words and other words from observing and imitating. I also learned that our bodies and minds are conditioned and are on a schedule. Scientist have learned to train fish to feed by using a tone. They sound a tone before they give the fish food and after three days the fish know the tone resembles food. The scientist hope to release the fish into the ocean and once they are big enough to eat they will sound the tone, net the fish, and eat them.

Chapter 6~ Sensation and Perception

In this chapter I learned about thresholds. For example an absolute threshold is the minimum stimulation needed for detection 50 percent of the time. The other threshold is the difference threshold. This threshold is the minimum difference between two stimuli needed for detection 50 percent of the time. I also learned about different laws and theories; like Weber's law and the signal detection theory. What I found most interesting about this chapter is the part that teaches us about the eye. My mom had laser eye surgery to perfect her vision and ever since then I have always been interested in the eyes. I also enjoyed reading about all the senses and how they work. What was really interesting in this chapter was ESP. I have always been intrigued by ghost stories and scary movies so this part of the chapter was interesting to me. One of the varieties of ESP is clairvoyance and there is a local band called clairvoyance; I just think that is interesting and now I know what the band name stands for!

Chapter 4 Blog

Did anyone get the heritability website to work? I didn't see any of the graphs; it showed a box with an x in the corner. After reading three articles for the twin studies I learned that when one twin dies the other co-twin suffers more than normal siblings do. And what was interesting is that identical twins take a loss of a co-twin harder than fraternal twins. One article was about mistaken identities and twins getting mixed up at birth. Twins would be given to the wrong parents in the nursery and the hospitals would get sued for millions of dollars. This freaks me out because if I have twins I will be making sure the nurses give me the kids I gave birth to. I learned that separated twins share the same characteristics as if they never were separated. For example, two girls were separated at birth, one lived in England and one live in the United States. They haven't seen or known of each other for fifty years and fifty years later they somehow cross each others path. Both twins have the same hair style, wear the same clothes, husbands have the name. I also learned that each culture had different norms. For example personal space; in America we like our space but in Italy even men hug and kiss as a greeting.

Chapter 4~Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity

In this chapter I learned all about twins. In our high school we have four sets of twins. The set in my grade is a set of fraternal twin girls. I remember in kindergarten, when they looked allot alike, they switched classes and their teachers didn't figure it out until lunch time. In this chapter, the book asks if we think its right if twins should be split up in school and I guess I don't agree. Chelsey and Robin, the twins in my grade, did just fine being split up. I think they liked it better that way because they got more individual attention. I think it is interesting how twins, that have been separated at birth, turn out to still like the same things. I saw a show on TV once about twins that were separated and later found each other. They had the same style of hair, same style of clothes, they liked and disliked the same foods, and they had the same style in men. In a way that is just creepy how twins sisters hadn't seen each other for 30 years and they have so much in common. I agree with the book when it states that children will grow up to be just like their parents; look at all of the doctors, allot of their kids turn out to be doctors as well.

Chapter 6~ Sensation and Perception

In this chapter I learned about thresholds. For example an absolute threshold is the minimum stimulation needed for detection 50 percent of the time. The other threshold is the difference threshold. This threshold is the minimum difference between two stimuli needed for detection 50 percent of the time. I also learned about different laws and theories; like Weber's law and the signal detection theory. What I found most interesting about this chapter is the part that teaches us about the eye. My mom had laser eye surgery to perfect her vision and ever since then I have always been interested in the eyes. I also enjoyed reading about all the senses and how they work. What was really interesting in this chapter was ESP. I have always been intrigued by ghost stories and scary movies so this part of the chapter was interesting to me. One of the varieties of ESP is clairvoyance and there is a local band called clairvoyance; I just think that is interesting and now I know what the band name stands for!

Illussions Blog

The first illusion I looked at was the stepping feet. It looked like the blue box was slowing down but it turned out that the yellow and blue boxes were going at the same pace. When I changed the color of the lines to gray the boxes didn't change pace. The second illusion was Stereo kinetic Phenomenon. The yellow circle apparently wasn't moving but it looked like it was moving to me. The third illusion I viewed was the Hermann Grid. this one was interesting because when the grid had strait lines i saw black circles in the crossings but when the lines curved the circles vanished. The fourth illusion was the Pyramid Illusion. It started of with two squares and more and more squares appeared. In the end it looked like there was a big x on the screen but it was just really really small squares. The fifth illusion was the Rotating Snake. When i focused on one circle that circle wasn't moving but when I looked at all of them with my peripheral vision all of the circles were moving. The sixth illusion I looked at was the Flash-Lag Effect. When i looked at the cross in the middle a blue circle would rotate around it. It would change to yellow every once in a while but when you actually look at the cross you would see a crescent in the circle but it changed color completely. The seventh illusion i viewed was the Enigma. When I stared at the purple circle in the middle for about a minute the black and white stripes seemed to rotate but they really weren't. The eighth illusion I observed was the Perceive your eye moments. This one was interesting because when i looked at the illusion the middle circle looked as if it was moving back and forth but it wasn't it was just in place.

Exploring Human Development

I actually enjoyed doing the go animate. It took a little while to figure out how to work it but once I did I couldn't stop goofing around with it. I did my animation on the parenting styles because I remember learning about them in parenting class. My parents are Authoritarian. My mom says yes within reason and my dad just agrees with her. I would like to have permissive parents so I could just do whatever I want but you can't have everything. I always thought it was interesting that girls are two years ahead on maturity than boys are. My brother is two years older than me and growing up we had the same maturity level; everyone thought we were twins. I learned that infants and children become attached to their parents and don't want to leave them. That's why kids cry when their parents leave them.

Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity

Did anyone get the heritability website to work? I didn't see any of the graphs; it showed a box with an x in the corner. After reading three articles for the twin studies I learned that when one twin dies the other co-twin suffers more than normal siblings do. And what was interesting is that identical twins take a loss of a co-twin harder than fraternal twins. One article was about mistaken identities and twins getting mixed up at birth. Twins would be given to the wrong parents in the nursery and the hospitals would get sued for millions of dollars. This freaks me out because if I have twins I will be making sure the nurses give me the kids I gave birth to. I learned that separated twins share the same characteristics as if they never were separated. For example, two girls were separated at birth, one lived in England and one live in the United States. They haven't seen or known of each other for fifty years and fifty years later they somehow cross each others path. Both twins have the same hair style, wear the same clothes, husbands have the name. I also learned that each culture had different norms. For example personal space; in America we like our space but in Italy even men hug and kiss as a greeting.

Conscienceness and the Two Track Mind

I learned that when people dream they are in a state of sleep called REM sleep. During REM sleep they eyes jerk back and forth. When the eyes do that, it is a sign that the person is dreaming. I also learned that dreams are psychologically meaningless which is good to know so i don't get worried about my dreams. I found it interesting that our bodies have their own circadian rhythm. I agree witht the circadian rhythm because I have noticed it. On weekends when I finally have the chance to sleep in, I still wake up at 7 like I do everyday for school. There is a part in the dreaming section that asks can we learn a foreign language by hearing it played while we sleep? In the book it says no we can only associate a sound with a mild electric shock. I think that would be awsome if we could learn a language in our sleep but I don't see how it is possible. I'm not sure if I agree that hypnosis can be therapeutic. It says that a woman had suffered from open sores all over her body for over 20 years and after hypnosis she was cured. I think that was all in her head but thats just me. I want to know how it feels to be hypnotized but I also would be scared to because I wouldn't know what the person would tell me to do; I don't want to unknowingly embarrass myself!

The Brain and Behavior

I went on to the epsych website and I found it very useful and interesting. From this website I learned more about split brain patients like the one on the video. I learned that they split the corpus collosome, a part of the brain that transfers messages from the right to the left and vise versa. I learned that the left hemisphere is sometimes referred to as the dominant hemisphere due to its speaking function. I read a little story on epsych about color vision. It was sort of a cartoon; I actually found the story very funny and interesting. The one thing about this chapter that amazes me is the splitting of the brain into left and right. I never would of thought a procedure would have been possible, but with modern day technology anything is possible. If I ever am diagnosed with severe seizures at least now I know that the seizures can be fixed through surgery. This chapter makes me think about how complex our brains are. By just doing the driving activity now I know the basic functions of each part of the brain. I also realize that our brains are constantly working and I wonder how it gets the messages out so fast.

The Man With Two Brains

When I first heard of this man I couldn't believe it because I didn't think a person could have two brains. I couldn't picture it. I was started to get interested when they ran tests. Like the one where they showed a word to the right side and he couldn't remember it but when asked to draw it with the left hand he could draw the picture. I actually tried to draw two different images with my right and left hand and I couldn't so obviously I only have one brain! I think that this procedure will be occuring more often in the future. I think that people with epilepsy will want to do this surgery to help them with seizures.

Thinking Critically

It is important to research because not all questions are answered in general we have to research and do experiments to answer those questions. Sometimes research gives us more data then when we don't research. Research also proves the researcher wrong; they may have a hypothesis and after further research that hypothesis is wrong and a new one is needed. I, like most people, have a horrible memory. I tend to not have a short term memory but I have an excellent long term memory. I read an article called "The Seven Sins of Memory." In this article a Harvard psychologist researched people and how they remembered things. He also researched and discovered 7 things most people have in common, he called them the sins of memory. This article is relevant to me because some of these sins I do allot; blocking. Blocking is where you learn something or view something and then later when asked what happened you can't seem to remember. Blocking happens to me allot. From this chapter, I learned many things. I learned that the scientific method isn't just used for chemistry. This is important to me because now I can use it whenever I research anything. Another thing I learned and found interesting is that the biggest question in psychology is the nature-nurture issue. I can see how is is still a question because there is many ways to go about answering it. I also learned, from the psyblog article, that once people have a memory of something it is almost instantly forgotten. It is so hard to retrieve it, maybe because they are thinking to hard.

The Story About Psychology

I think psychology encompasses studying everything in your mind; your conscience, how smart you are, behavior, feelings, and emotions. There are so many parts to learn about psychology, probably because of how many parts are in the brain! After reading chapter 1 my view has changed a little bit but not alot. After reading the chapter I learned that every little thing you do has some aspect of psychology in it. I also found out that some things can be tested in a laboratory through experiments. Psychology affects my life in many ways. Every decision I make has alot of thinking to it and whenever I make that decision my conscience goes over it again and again to see if I made the right decision. After reading chapter one I think about my emotions more; when I am angry I think why does my brain make me angry. This class makes me think more about my actions and I am more cautious in making decisions. One thing i was really interested in was the part in chapter one that was talking about 911. The book was talking saying that commentators said people in the secon tower should have immediately evacuated after the first tower was hit but they thought it was an accident and didn't think it would happen to the second tower. I thought to myself that if I was in that second tower I probably would have thought the same thing, that it was an accident. In our math class we are going through the scientific method and I thought it was interesting that that is how psychologists ask and answer questions.

What I think about psychology

I think it is necessary to study psychology because we need to know how people think and act. With some knowledge of how people think maybe it will help me to make better decisions later in life and help me stay out of trouble. I think psychology means the study of the mind. To me psychology is when people observe other peoples actions and thinking patterns.

About Me!!!

Hello... My name is Shauna Messing. I am 17 years old and I am a senior at Thorp High School. I play volleyball and softball but my favorite is softball. I have been a varsity starter for softball 3 years. Our softball team has went to state two years in a row but we never took home the gold... maybe next year! After graduating from high school I want to go to college to pursue a career in Physical Therapy. I want to go to either La Crosse or Eau Claire, I have not decided yet. I have two dogs and a cat. My dogs names are Pepsi, a husky collie mix, and Nikki, a collie great Pyrenees mix. My cat's name is Pepper, she is really old. I have one brother and no sisters. My brothers name is Justin and he is currently station on an air force base in Aviano, Italy. He will be going to Iraq next September. My parents and i want to go and visit him in Italy. I love art and I would say I'm pretty good at it. I also like to go four wheeling on my free time. I love four wheeling because I was born a speed demon, my father passed that trait onto me.

About me!!