The New High School Musical...?

This week in class we started to watch Across the Universe. It is a musical featuring a bunch of songs from the Beatles. I feel this movie is like the next High School Musical. It seems like every 5 minutes the characters break out into some random song and dance number. By far, the weirdest one to me was the one with all the army guys. It was beyond strange to me. So far the movie is just really weird. There have actually been plenty of times where Patrick and I have looked at each other and have been like, "What the heck?"

The one thing I wonder know is why was this movie chosen. I know Dreier wanted to pick a movie where they was plenty of psychological stuff happening, but why this movie... The whole thing just seems so bizarre to me. I can think of plenty of more normal movies that could have been picked to watch rather than this one.

The AP test!

This past Tuesday we took the AP Psych test. Going into it I wasn’t actually feeling too nervous about it. I was feeling confident that I knew the information and I knew all that I was going to know. In the weeks leading up to the test, I had been doing a lot of studying so that I was prepared. This definitely lessened my nervousness and stress as the test approached. I wasn’t stressed out at all the day before the test while most of the time before a test I start to freak out a little. After the test I feel ok about it. I don’t think I did as amazing as I wanted to. I hope I did ok. I am really glad it is over now though. Now class (school) is going to be a breeze for the rest of the year.

Now all this class is going to consist of is working on our project and discussing a book we are reading. I am actually kind of excited to write a paper for my project. I think I have a really interesting topic and am excited to find out more about it. I also was able to find a couple books off the list that i might enjoy so I can't wait to see what book I am going to read.

Performance and Pressure...

Today we talked about our performance under pressure. In the reading, it said that on easier tasks people will perform better than normal but on more difficult tasks, people will perform worse and much slow than normal when being watched by others. I can definitely relate to this fact. On some types of math problems, I have no problem doing them. I can do them no problem even when people are watching me over my shoulder. But then there are certain things that are newer to me and take me more time to do. And then when someone wants to watch me do it, I usually will get a little nervous and it may take me even longer than normal.

We also discussed how people will be faster when racing others rather than racing the clock. I would definitely agree with this fact. For example, for me when it comes to swim, it is very obvious. Sometimes during practice when we have to do sets on a certain time interval. There are some days that I find it more difficult to come in on time. But when it comes to a meet and racing others, I will get best times and usually do much better than the intervals. I find that I am much more motivated when there are others racing against me. This is mainly because I want to beat them and get a better time, which is plenty of motivation for me.

Real vs. Fake Smiles

Yesterday we took two quizzes on our ability to identify fake smiles and emotions based on facial expressions. I took the fake smiles test first. I think I did fairly well on this one. I got about ¾ of them right. On the second one, I had a slightly harder time. I only got about half of them right. I was hard to indentify contempt one of the times. Also it was difficult to decipher between fear and surprise when the pictures were only flashed.

Mr. Dreier had been talking about whether or not it had been a good idea that he had taught was how to identify a fake smile. We brought up movies. I already know that what happens in movies isn’t really and the people in them are faking. That is why they are called actors; it is their job to act. Also I don’t really play attention to whether or not an actor’s expression is real or not. I am usually more focused on the storyline and what is taking place than I am on what the actor’s look like.

He also brought up being able to identify fake smiles when people are with you. For the most part, I feel that in real life I am able to identify fake smiles. Also if you can’t really tell if their smile is fake, you can usually tell from the way they are acting. If someone is just trying to be nice, they usually go a little overboard and at that point you can tell. Also some people can come off sarcastic, which is another give away.

So as far as that goes, I am not too worried that Mr. Dreier has given away the secrets to real smiles.

Disorders and Therapy...

This week we put together skits about certain disorders and therapies that could help with some of these disorders. This was actually a really fun assignment/activity. I had a lot of fun coming up with our skit with my group. We even shared plenty of laughs in the process. Anyways, I think this was a very good idea in helping us to learn and better understand this info. First of all, having to research and come up with a skit caused us to make sure we knew what we were talking about and make sure we had a pretty good grasp on the subject. And then when we were able to watch the other groups perform their skits, it definitely helped me to get a better understanding of what certain therpies actually are. Having someone act it out helped me to see what these disorders and therapy sessions may really loook like. And then having Mr. Dreier afterward explain more in depth about the thearpy solidified everything for me. He helped to add anything the groups might have missed and further explain something the group may not have been clear on. Now at this point I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the disorders and their therapy. At least a much better understanding than I had after only reading about them in the book.

So I think that this was definitely a really good idea for an activity. It only take about one and a half classes and it doesn't involve any work outside of school. I definitely think this is one activity that should be repeated next year.

OCD (part 2)

There was a young, 8 year old girl names Elyse that was staying up half of the night to finish her homework because it had to be done perfectly. About one third of adults with OCD say that their symptoms started during their childhood. Elyse’s father also has OCD so he noticed the symptoms right away. After starting weekly therapy her symptoms went away, but returned with major life changes. When she started high school, it began to get really bad. She stopped eating so she had more time for her homework. She claims she had an unbelievable high level of anxiety. Her parents then became so worried that they admitted her to the hospital for three weeks. The family is a key component to the treatment. The parents of young patients are told to encourage their children to confront their fears. So if a child would have to wash their hands 30 times before leaving the house, the parent would have to remind the child of another time when they didn’t wash their hands and then nothing bad happened. Researchers at Duke found that for the best results, a combination of medication and behavior treatment is best. Early diagnosis is very important because treatment is going to be most effective if the rituals and obsessions can be stopped early. Elyse kept her OCD a secret until sophomore year when she was told to write a personal essay and read it aloud to the class. Her OCD is not completely gone, it never will be, but there is definitely a big improvement.

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OCD

Adrian Monk is known to solve murders but is also known for his Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This is a person “is plagues by recurrent and persistent thoughts or ideas that serve to increase anxiety and that have no basis in reality.” Most commonly, a person will have come sort of fear or concern dealing with dirt/germs or a need for exactness. Then a person may need to repeatedly do actions over and over again to make sure that they did it right. This may include things like excessive hand washing and repeatedly checking the door to make sure it is locked before being able to leave your house. Dr. Kelda Walsh, a child psychiatrist at IU School of Medicine, has said that OCD is simply a malfunction in a pathway between different areas in the brain causes them to not work together correctly. Basically a chemical imbalance cause something to short-circuit information processing which will then cause a sort of “mental hiccup.” And so then thoughts or actions are repeated. Genetics may also be a part I the development of OCD. Stress may also sometimes trigger OCD and can cause the disorder to become worse. Treatment for OCD includes both medication and behavior therapy. Antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) enhance the brain’s ability to use the chemical messenger serotonin, which is then thought to help regulate the repetitive behaviors that are exhibited as well as treat the depression that can occur.

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