Sunny's AP Psychology Blog

Method used to study for the test

Close Reading: I read over the chapter once, stopping when I didn't understand a part and waiting until I did.

posted by 미카 @ 7:34 AM 1 comments

Learning and Teaching

The learning and teaching technique we used in class was effective in the sense that it made all of us have to closely study the parts we were to teach, and trying to fully understand a part of a chapter involves understanding the chapter as a whole. The presentations themselves were somewhat uninspiring, but they were informative.
I feel that I understand the chapter enough. The content is rather straightforward, so I have no difficulties in understanding it.

posted by 미카 @ 6:02 AM 0 comments

Best of the Century

Psychotherapy has broadened in many senses. It has become accessible to a larger portion of society, and is now used to treat a multitude of ‘problems’ including depression, shyness, substance-abuse problems, anti-social behaviors, etc. Like all the other areas of psychology, psychotherapy’s applications have spread through many aspects of society (especially in structured environments such as schools and offices). It has also diversified in terms of methods of treatment, and appropriate treatment for different cases, as well as consideration for patients’ backgrounds (ethnic, religious, etc) has improved the quality of psychotherapy.
Of the twenty great breakthroughs in psychology listed, I thought that the experiment on children’s perception by Jean Piaget, the demonstration of people’s fear of breaking rules by Milgram, proof of the unreliability of eyewitness accounts as shown by Loftus, Zimbardo’s exploration into the extent social roles define behavior, Selve’s identification of stress as well as the varying methods of dealing with it are the 5 most important.
The discovery that children have no concept of conservation demonstrates how we had to develop ideas taken for granted. It has implications for the nature-nature debate, strongly supporting the idea that our characteristics and skills are developed through learning, as we mature.
Milgram’s demonstration is quite significant as it demonstrates how human behavior is conditioned through societal norms and expectations. The human tendency to follow the majority perhaps reflects a herd-mentality, and also gives insights into how absurdities become widespread beliefs and practices.
The memory researcher Elizabeth F. Loftus has possibly saved a multitude of people from unjust punishment, and cleared up confusions in many aspects of society: reliance on eyewitness accounts as truth may have confounding impacts on business, news reports, scientific experiments, religion, etc.
The way the students in Zimbardo’s abortive experiment transformed is a chilling indicator of how humans change according to circumstances. Atrocities in times of war and crisis can partially explained through the effects demonstrated, and it may also have implications for therapy and the reeducation of criminals and addicts.
Stress is a hazard to human health, and the wrong way of dealing with it could have disastrous effects. I think Selve’s statement that different people require different levels of stress in their lives is an important indicator of variations in individuals. The recognition of stress as a health hazard would also allow medical professionals to better help their clients. As a side, it would be interesting to determine how genetics and environment can influence a person’s reactions to different kinds of stress.

Focus: what comes to mind when I hear the word ‘psychology’
- brain
- sleep
- bells
- a couch and an old man with glasses in a chair with a notepad
- marijuana
- yellow
- music
- inkblots
- mentally retarded children
- emotions (love, anger, etc)
- effects of tone
- human resources
- eating habits
- animals
- stress

posted by 미카 @ 12:40 PM 0 comments

Control Demonstration

We did a mock experiment in class today. The experiment was on how reaction rates vary according to sex, and Mr. Anthony's hypothesis was that males would be faster than females. He demonstrated how biases could introduce confounding variables into an experiment and manipulate the results. Mr. Anthony allowed a male student to pick the hand he caught a measuring stick with, to sit down, and to predict the drop time, in contrast with the disadvantages the female student was subjected to. With a second pair, the male student was able to predict the time of fall, got praise, and was asked whether he was ready.

posted by 미카 @ 12:07 PM 2 comments

Test Results for Introduction

I expected a 14/15, since I was pretty confident that I had known the answers to most of the questions and that I had good odds on the ones I was unsure of.

Turned out I got 15/15 :) happy happy~

posted by 미카 @ 5:37 PM 0 comments

Response to the discussion
I had a low belief in rationality and stability, and leaned slightly towards nurture as opposed to nature. Most of the class had a relatively neutral view towards the nature-nurture question, and i do believe that both play an important part in forming a person, but predistposition (genes) can only go so far. I was somewhat surprised that there were some people who believed strongly in the rationality of human beings - in my view, people are often confused about their thoughts, emotions and motivations. There was an overall belief in change, which was possibly suppported rather strongly by personal experience. This belief in the potential for change is rather prevalent in today's world.
Response to the 'Careers in Psychology' video
Psychology covers a multitude of scientific areas studied and fields of application. If I consider pursuing a career in psychology, psychiatry appeals to me the most but psychology as a pure science seems a more interesting branch to look into. Whether or not any of us continue to pursue this area of study in the future, it is evident that what we learn here will be useful.

posted by 미카 @ 5:22 AM 1 comments

On wednesday's class, we all took a simple pop quiz to see how true some of our beliefs were. The majority of the class scored terribly, as had I when I first took a similar quiz at the start of General Psychology last year. And although I could identify most of the statements as fact or fiction, I still didn't fully understand why some of them were true or false, such as the jetlag question. I got that jetlag is worse in a certain directon, but I am clueless as to why that is so. I failed to understand several issues in last year's course, and I intend to fix that this year.

posted by 미카 @ 5:44 AM 0 comments

My Motivations for studying Psychology

I'm interested in people. I like them (or at least, most of the ones I've met so far). I would like to understand their motivations and emotions. While psychologists do study animals often, these studies are relevant because of the significance they bear for humans, and so psychology is ultimately a study of humans. I hope to understand more about people, including myself, through this course.
I lack organizational skills in writing. As psychology is a science, and will most likely involve deducing facts from evidence, I hope to improve my ability to go from evidence to conclusion in a coherent manner through this course.
Lastly, I am intrigued by the various theories psychologists have come up with so far. Though varying and rarely correct, existing models and study results give certain insights into the mind and into the way the various psychologists who came up with them thought. Although I may feel somewhat sick of psychology by the end of the course, at the moment I am eager to learn more about existing theories and the rationales behind them.

posted by 미카 @ 6:21 PM 1 comments