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.

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=524944001&sid=6&Fmt=3&clientId=14507&RQT=309&VName=PQD

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.

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=446094311&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=14507&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Personality and a little intelligence...

This week we took personality tests online. For the most part, I believe my results were quite accurate. We discussed our results and what they meant. Although the only problem with these tests was that they were self answered so it was our views on ourselves and they may not be very subjective. So to us they may seem very accurate to our views but they aren’t necessarily.

We also discussed the difference between extroverts and introverts. Extroverts seem to be more sociable and open, while introverts are quieter, reserved, and tend to keep to themselves. I would like to believe that I am an introvert. I believe that I can achieve anything that I set my mind to and really want.

On a side note, Mr. Fischer told me yesterday that he was talking with Mr. Dreier and Mr. Dreier had shown him some of our results from the intelligence tests from a couple weeks ago. Mr. Fischer had told me that he thought my results were really accurate about me and he could totally see me in it. He could easily see the areas that stood out in me. So apparently these tests aren’t always accurate but this one was for me at least.

Intelligence test... Legit?

This week we took some intelligences test. Although I know they most likely are not very accurate, they are still very interesting. I was pretty surprised by my score on the first one. I managed to get a 122. And then when I tried to take the second one, I answered all the questions and then it said it couldn’t get my score and I should start over. That kind of made me mad. We also took the multiple intelligences test and got my results. There were some things that were kind of surprising to me but for the most part, things fell where I thought they would. I am more of a math and science person, I have always known this, and my results reflected this.

We also discussed minorities and their performance on tests. From the article that we read, doesn’t it bring the ACT and SAT into question. The article was discussing how on tests, minorities scored lower if they were asked for their race. Well I know the ACT asked for your race on it. Although you do not have to answer it still asks. From this article, doesn’t that mean that this question has then caused minorities to score lower than they actually should?

Logic Puzzles

Yesterday was probably one of the most fun days of AP Psych. We got to go around stations and try to solve all different types of logic puzzles. The nail one I knew I had seen before but I could not remember the solution. When one of my group members gave us a hint, it all came rushing back to me. The logic puzzle was my favorite. I absolutely love to do them. The coins/people one I have seen and personally done before, so it wasn’t that hard. And finally the record puzzle. This is one I have never seen before. My group had no idea where to even start. Apparently my group ended up doing it wrong but we had an idea and just went with it.

I love to have to solve problems and think outside the box. Although at times it gets annoying and I just want to give up, it still ends up being fun. The “ahh-haa” moments (insight) are the best! I love it when you have no clue what to do and then all of a sudden, the answer just comes to you out of nowhere. This can sometimes be due to priming. When you just see one simple thing, and then subconsciously you connect that to something that helped you solve a similar problem in the past, the solution may just come to you in a burst of insight.

So in the end, this was the most fun we have had so far in this class.

A fun day!

Going through all of the stations today was actually a lot of fun. I have always enjoyed logic type problems and having to think outside the box to solve them. In the nail problem priming was used. Jason was in my group and had known how to do this. After some time, he decided to give us a little hint. From this little thing, everything came rushing back to me. I knew automatically how to do it. I swear that i remember doing this before, but I don't really know where or when. Insight was anothering thing that cam into play. When Jason had given us that hint. The solution automatically just popped into my head. Another thing that we used today was algorithms while solving the logic problem. These are some of my favorite things to do. I used to have books full of them growing up. Algorithms were used while trying to piece the clues together and solve the problems. Heuristics were another thing used while solving the logic puzzle. Using these, I was able to eliminate "solutions" from the puzzle that just didn't make sense and were impossible and quickly solved it.

While trying to solve the record problem, several things got in my way. One thing was functional fixedness. I had never really done anything like this before and had no clue how to. There weren't any instructions given so at first we were very confused. We didn't know that we were supposed to make the record play and that we could actually physically touch the record. While looking at all the pieces given to us, we had a hard time trying to think of ways to use the stuff. We just couldn't get past the functions that these objects usually have. Because of fixation and our mental set, we weren't able to solve this one. We had a hard time seeing these things in a new perspective and just couldn't get past that.

Instant Gratification

This week in class we discussed instant gratification. Instant gratification surrounds daily. All the time, teens are forced to make decisions on whether or not they should do certain things. Most the time teens would much rather have something right away than having to wait for it. The thing would have to be pretty good in order to be worth waiting for. This can be seen through plenty of examples in life. Teenagers have the choice of whether or not to wait to drink until it is legal. I know a lot of kids that are involved in underage drinking. I personally never will. Teenagers are constantly faced with difficult decision involving instant gratification.

We also discussed intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and rewards. Extrinsic rewards can work for some time but aren’t necessarily the best. Whether people do certain things for the right reasons comes into question. For example, our class wants to bring in a bunch of money to have a pizza party. The real question is then, are we bringing in the money to donate to Haiti or just for the pizza party? This is where intrinsic and extrinsic motivation comes into play. Another example would be when it comes to donating to any type of charity. I know if you were to donate to ASPCA, they will give you a bunch of free stuff, like t-shirts and book bags. This makes me wonder how many people will donate just for the free stuff or actually do it for the cause.

Classic Conditioning is all around us...

Lately in class we have been learning a lot about learning and conditioned. I have come to realize this week, that our lives are filled with classical conditioning. Every day when I come to school, I have learned and been conditioned that after second hour, I go to lunch and eat. This becomes a problem on half days. Even though second hour gets over a lot earlier than normal, I become very hungry and in want of food. Also in the world, advertisements are always using classic conditioning to make people want to buy their product. Companies may try to associate their product with things that would normally make people happy, such as peaceful beach scenes or cutie puppies. This way then when people see this product, they will become happy and will want to buy the product. Also Jason has become very conditioned in class. Now every time Mr. Dreier walks towards the door, Jason automatically shuts off the lights. My dogs are also very conditioned. My dogs have learned that whenever my dad is about to take my dogs out, he puts on his jacket. Now when he puts a jacket on, they assume they are going outside and get very excited. They have also learned to associated their food bowl with food. Now if i ever took their bowls to move them, they come running to the kitchen because they think they are going to be fed.

Since I haven’t taken any psychology classes before, I never really knew much about this. Now, after learning this, it makes a take a whole new look on the world. I can now easily find many examples of classical conditioning. And I will for the rest of my life. It’s a brand new view on the world and why we do some of the things we do.

Anatomy...

Lately it seems like we have been putting a lot of focus on the anatomy side of things. This makes sense, since we need to know the basics in order to build off of them. Don’t get me wrong though…. I am not complaining. I love learning about the body and how it functions. This is why I absolutely loved anatomy and physiology class. I catch on to those things very easily and it was shown in my grade for the unit two test in psych. This is why I am definitely considering a career in medicine. Anyways, I have been loving psych lately.

Because of what we are learning lately, there have been a lot of optical illusions it seems. Throughout my life I have loved looking at these. Every since I was little, they have fascinated me. I find them to be a lot of fun and very entertaining. I love find out how they work. In conclusion, I have really been enjoying psychology class lately.

PSA!!!

My PSA can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qoY_5ymOo

The PSA was made by me, Mariah, and Patrick.

These were two of the videos I really enjoyed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Cz6l2IL2I
http://www.youtube.com/user/appsychology1023#p/u/0/6F09d5fzO44


I really liked the first one (Kelsey, Meghan, Allen's). They had a lot of pictures showing what Ashwaubenon has to offer. They could easily be understood. I liked how the pictures were taken by them and not just off the Internet. They were shown all around the community. They also have everything they were supposed to. All of the different pictures the video contained helped to keep my attention. The second video (Sara, Candice, and Laure's) also was filled with many pictures. It was very easy to understand them and they covered everything necessary. They made Ashwaubenon sound like a wonderful place. Overall I think these were definitely two of the best. They had everything they needed, they held my attention, and most importantly, were easy to understand.

Adoption

Recently in class we have been discussing how our parents pass down certain traits to us through our genes and how our environment affects this. This whole thing has made me think a lot about myself and who I am. I am personally adopted when I was only a few weeks old. I wonder how much I am like my biological parents and how different I would be if I lived with them still. My mom was only 13 years old when he had me. I can’t even imagine being raised by someone that young. Just that fact makes me think that I would have to be different from who I am now if I were raised by my biological mom. Because I was adopted I was able to be given everything I needed and deserved while I grew up while I think this would have been a lot harder had I stayed with my biological mom.

I also wonder how much I am like my parents. I know I got a lot of my looks from my dad, especially my dimples, from the pictures I have seen. But I mean personality wise. In the book it said that an adoptive family doesn’t really affect who I person becomes and this simply makes me wonder where some of my traits are from. Someday I hope I will be given the opportunity to find out, although that seems doubtful.

Neuroplasticity

In Old Brain, New Tricks I read about neurplasticity and rewiring the brain. In the article, a researcher developed a way to rewire a person's brain using only a camera and a postage stamp-sized plate that is placed on the tongue. He was able to give blind people vision again. For pulses were sent through the tongue into the brain depending on the colors that the camera picks up. These pulses would be known as the sensory imput and so would be sent to the parietal lobe of the brain, which is the sensory cortex. But since the person is see this, the impulse has to some how be sent to the occipital lobe that contains the visual cortex. So the sensory cortex would need to send this information to the visual cortex in order for this to work. The best part about this whole thing is that the parietal lobe and the occipital lobe are right next to each other so they would esaily be able to communicate with each other. All that would be needed are a few interneurons to transmit the pulse from the sensory cortex to the visual cortex. Over time, the sensory cortex would grow and become stronger, soon almost taking over the visual cortex.

Pramipexole

Pramipexole is also known as Mirapex and Mirapexin. It can be used to aid in both Parkinson’s disease (stiffness, tremors, muscle spasms, and poor muscle control) and restless leg syndrome. Normally the basal ganglia are affected. This has a very high amount of dopamine releasing nerve cells. This then, in turn, activates several dopamine receptors. In Parkinson’s disease, the neurons deteriorate and cause the receptors to no longer properly receive dopamine signals. This then causes the basal ganglia to no longer have the ability to regulate body movement efficiently and causes motor functions to suffer.

One long term effect of pramipexole is an overall feeling of tiredness. Also patients that are put on Mirapex as a medication can be put at risk for getting orthostatic hypotension. This is where a person’s blood pressure suddenly drops very low when they stand up. This can cause a person to have a sense of dizziness and feel lightheaded. Mirapex can also cause a person to experience hallucinations.

Pramipexole is an agonist for dopamine receptors in the brain. It directly stimulates the dopamine receptors that are underfunctioning because of Parkinson’s disease. This then, in turn, helps to restore the dopamine signals needed to the proper level and help the basal ganglia to again function properly.

If the symptoms of Mirapex become too much the patient should slowly get off the drug. It is highly discouraged that the patient stops taking it cold turkey. They are encouraged to take less and less of the drug a little at a time. If the drug is misused, it is recommended cutting back on the dosage. Most likely with misusage, the person is going to experience extreme sleepiness, especially if Mirapex is being taking with other medicine for colds and narcotic pain medicines. Again they should slowly work their way off the drug a little at a time, and hopefully they should return back to normal.

http://www.rxlist.com/mirapex-drug.htm
http://www.drugs.com/mtm/pramipexole.html
http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands_split.jsp?pg=/ppdocs/us/common/dorlands/dorland/nine/100012758.htm

The Test!

My test went better than expected. I went into the test on Friday slightly nervous. I wasn't really sure what to expect and just hoped that I had studied enough the night before. While taking the test, I felt like I was doing alright and that i would probably come out of it with an ok score. I did better than i had expected and am very happy with my score.

After this test, I feel like I can relax in this class now. I am not as nervous about the future now and am fully ready to continue on. I now know what to expect on tests. I am fully confident that I will be able to succeed in this class.

Views on the YouTube Project

I personally enjoyed the YouTube project. I had fun being able to video tape the interview. I find it much easier on me to video tape rather than having to do it in real life in front of the class. Although it seemed like a lot of people were having technical defficulties, I had none. Everything worked right away from Patrick and I, and we had no problems getting this project done. This was a quick and easy away to learn about abunch of psychologists. It was also much more entertaining than just having to read and take notes on all of them. This isn't like a normal project and it made learning and little more fun and entertaining.

Technology

So we just got our brand new netbooks. They are pretty sweet and definitely going to make for a different type of learning experience. Some things are going to take a little time to get used to but i don't think that will take that much time. I hope that this will make for a better learning experience and I think it will. Technology is a wonderful thing...

The Beginning...

The reading from last night I found to be slightly long and boring. It seemed to drag on. I don't understand why they put the study habits thing at the end of the reading. They tell you to not read it all at once but by that time, it was a little too late for that advice. Anyways, there seemed to be a lot of information in the reading. The info seemed to be slightly scattered. I also had a hard time keeping all of the types and people straight. There were just so many. Next time I think i will just take some more notes and concentrate more on the vocab words that were given.

This class is definitely going to help me prepare for the future. I will have to make sure to keep oraganized and make sure i use my time wisely. Procastination is definitely one thing i am going to want to avoid in this class. But this class will definitely help me on into the future. I did expect this class to be on the more difficult side like most AP classes are. And when i got to class, it was mostly what i expected it to be. The quiz did slightly change my views but it will also help me to know what to focus on. But for the most part, I am not to worried. I am definitely looking forward to the future and when we get to begin using the netbooks. It will be an all new, interesting way of learning.