Chapter 6*

I thought that the chapter this week was pretty interesting. I read a little fact that a frog has receptor cells in their eyes, which only respond to small, dark moving objects. So a frog can be sitting in a big bucket full of still flies, and die of starvation, having never realized it. I thought this was interesting because I didn't know that their eyes just responded to different movements and shades of color.

This goes hand in hand with the chapter because it talks a lot about different perceptions you get from you eyes. It also talks about how you see things differently based on the way you look at it. This is not only true in the actual "looking" at something sense, but also in a more hidden sense.

This week we did a lot of activities with optical illusions and different eye tricks. These are interesting to experience because they make you take things into a whole new perspective. This happens because things you usually think are happening or that you are seeing, are not really there.

I also thought it was interesting to learn about the different tastes that people prefer. Just like if you put a sour taste on a baby's mouth, they will have to same facial expressions as an adult. Taste is a chemical sense and it is reacted by little buds on your tongue (200 or more) each containing a pore that catches food particles. There are some receptors that respond more to sour foods than sweet foods, and more to hot foods than cold foods. That is because for every different taste that you experience provides a new reaction.

I liked reading this chapter because I learned a lot more about just the "perception and sensation" aspects of our lives all together.

Illusions

The eight different illusions I went to were:
1. Stepping Feet
2. Motion Induced Blindness
3. Snake Illusion ad lib
4. Pinna-Brelstaff Illusion
5. Motion Aftereffect (Waterfall Illusion)
6. Spiral Aftereffect
7. Rogets Palisade Illusion
8. Stroboscopic Artefacts

These tutorials were really interesting to look at. Mainly because they make you think more about what is really happening. I think the big picture from "optical illusions" is that people see things that aren't really there. For example in Stepping Feet, which is the first illusion I looked at, there were two parallel bars that moved across a screen with a lined back round. When you are looking at the bars, it seems like they are uneven and moving at different speeds, when really they stay parallel the whole time. It's really interesting once you know what is actually happening compared to what you think is happening.

It really surprised me how much our eyes play tricks on us. I knew that this happens, because i've heard about optical illusions and I have seen them performed before by magicians without ever actually knowing what happened. At least with these illusions you were able to sense the illusion and then afterwards you were able to figure out why you saw a certain thing.

I wouldn't these illusions made me "change" my opinion of the world, but it does make you take a look at things more closely. I know at least for me that is true. After looking at the illusions I realized how much I wasn't paying attention to what was REALLY going on. For me that's important because you should know what is going on around you without being tricked by it. A lot of people see the world without ever really "seeing" it. Instead of focusing on things like how the world smells in the morning, or how pretty the sunset is tonight, we focus on what we have to do.. Such as getting to the football game before it's dark, or getting to work on time in order to maintain your job.

These illusions could have an effect on me because it really makes me want to pay closer attention to details in whatever is happening around me. For me this is really something I wish to accomplish because a lot of times I find myself missing details that are obvious to almost everyone else. Hopefully I will be able to use the knowledge I got today to allow me to focus in on things more and notice not just the big things, but all of the little things too.

How to make people believe in Telepathy *summary.

I read this article and it was about how 1/3 of Americans believe in some sort of ESP. The study says that people most likely believe in these "super natural" powers because they are looking for an explanation for all of the weird and random things that happen and cannot be explained.

In a study there were two people: the "sender and the receiver." The sender then telepathically "sent" a message to the receiver who was asked to then say whether they got the "vibes" or not. The study results showed that the people were wrong in their guesses most of the time but their belief for telepathy did become stronger.

So in the end ESP wasn't proven to be true, but in certain situations it was believed to be true by people influenced by the idea. It does make sense to me that people would believe in "ESP" because there are a lot of things that can't be explained, and this could help people get a sort of closure for what is happening.

Chapter 5*

In this chapter I found a lot of the information to be really interesting. One part was Kohlberg's stages of Moral Development that go along with different ages in your life.

The first is preconventional morality: this is before age 9 when most children have a preconventional morality of self-interest: They obey either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards.
*For example this is like cleaning your room because you know you will get a bag of candy if you do.
The second is conventional morality: this stage is early adolescence, morality usually evolves to a more conventional level that cares for others and upholds laws and social rules simply because they are the laws and rules.
*For example this is like a new driver not speeding because they know it could result in a ticket.
The third is postconventional morality: this is a stage where some develop the abstract reasoning of formal operational thought. This affirms people's agreed-upon rights or follows what one personally perceives as basic ethical principles.
*For example this could involve something such as a court case where there may be a law against prosecuting someone for something, although everyone (or some) know that it is the right thing to do.

I thought that these ideas were really interesting because they pretty much describe people down to a tee. When you are young, you do things because you know that is what "mommy or daddy" said you should do. When you are a teenager you do the right thing because you have realized that trouble with the law comes for those who don't follow the rules. When you are an adult you gain more of a personal opinion and you don't necessarily have to agree with the law if it goes against what you think is right. This does not mean that you can break the law because you don't agree with it, but it does give you the freedom to have your own opinion or possibly fight the law in court if you strongly disagree with it.

Another thing that I found interesting was Erikson's stages of psychosocial develepment. He believed that every stage of life has its own psychosocial task, like a crisis that need resolution.

Infancy to 1 year: Trust vs. mistrust
(When needs are met, infants develop a sense of trust)
1-2 years: Autonomy vs. shame
(If toddlers don't do things for themselves, they doubt their ability)
3-5 years: Initiative vs. guilt
(Learning to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or a sense of guilt comes about)
6-puberty: Competence vs. inferiority
(Learning to apply yourself or feel inferior for not doing so)
teen years-20s: Identity vs. role confusion
(Testing roles to form a single identity, or otherwise becoming confused about"who you are")
20s-early 40s: Intimacy vs. isolation
(Forming close relationships in the search for love, or otherwise feeling isolated and alone)
40s-60s: Generativity vs. stagnation
(Sense of contributing to the world through family or work, otherwise feeling a lack of purpose)
late 60s and up: Integrity vs. despair
(Reflecting on your life and either being satisfied or feeling a sense of failure)

All these things are interesting to reflect on because they tell a lot about the different stages of life and what people are aiming to accomplish at different points.

This goes along with another point that I found pretty interesting. Forming your own identity. Most kids form into a personality that is closely related to their friends. Your peers and social groups shape who you are by the sharing of ideas and the experiences you share.

So who are you? This chapter really made me think more closely about the different aspects of your life and all the factors that go into it. So make a positive change if who you are is not who yo really want to be. :)

Current Events*10-22-09

This week relating to the chapter was caught my interest more than it related to me. This is because most of the chapter is about developing through the years, which is hard for me to relate to currently.

I can say that I related in the fact that I am only able to remember back to a certain point in my life. I mostly can remember from 2nd grade pretty accurately and a little bit before that. I remember a lot of small things like going for four wheeler rides, and my brother breaking his ankle on the dirt bike... But I don't remember all the little details of my childhood as I'm sure no one does. This relates because now I can probably tell you almost every detail of my life for the past about 7 years.

Also relating to the chapter is that my great grandma ended up dying from Alzheimer disease. Like the book says, this disease basically strips you of your memory slowly. As hard as this must have been for my grandma, it was also hard for my whole family watching her memory slowing drift away right before us. It even got so bad that we eventually had to put her in a nursing home so they could take better care of her. When she died it was one of the most sad events in my family in a long time, so this disease takes its toll on everyone.

I can also talk about the ages that children are moving from adolescence to adulthood. My older brother moved out when he was 18 and moved in with some of his friends for awhile. He is now living with us again. He doesn't have to pay rent, pay for food, clean, or worrying about anything. I think he took this route as an escape from dealing with the real challenges of adulthood. He told me that it's hard to live on your own because you have to pay for everything yourself and that's pretty much where all of your money goes.

I guess you could say that my "week" doesn't really relate to the chapter, but overall my life does pretty well.

Current Events *10-16-09

This week for me has been pretty uneventful. Relating to the chapter, I have noticed a lot more differences between myself and my parents that I have never thought about before.

For example: I am a lot like my mother in a lot of ways, such as how we are both stubborn, but at the same time we can be very passionate about many things. I'm not really sure if being stubborn is a "genetic" trait.. But I definitely am like my mom in that way.
Like my dad I take a lot of pride in the things I do and trying to do them correctly and completely. Like everyone, there are times when things I do are not always perfect or up to perfect standards, but overall I try pretty hard.

To me genetics that are inherited from our parents are more like the structure of our individuality. I think this because your genetics make you who you are pertaining to your different traits such as eye color, hair color, ect. After you get over the genetic part of yourself, there is a lot more to deal with. By this I mean that you become your own person based on your experiences outside of your home, more than things that happen in your home.
For example I know that my personality reflects about 10% of my parents and about 90% of my friends/ others. This is because I am more comfortable around my friends because they share a lot of the same experiences with me, and are also around me on a more personal level.

Although there are some kids who are close to their parents, not all are like that. I know a lot of people who are loud and outgoing at school (around friends) and more quiet and reserved at home (around family). This is why I think my theory makes sense.

Overall I tried to be a pretty well-rounded person. By this I mean taking a lot of values that I have learned as a base from my parents, and applying it to my everyday life where more of my personality comes out around my friends.

How Rewards Can Backfire and Reduce Motivation. *Summary

This was probably one of the most interesting articles that I have read on Psyblog so far!

In this article a group of psychologists got a group of 51 preschool children who liked draw and did the "reward experiment" on them. In this experiment the children were divided into three groups: Group1: the children were told about a reward beforehand and then told to draw a picture. Group 2: the children were not told about a reward beforehand but were given a "surprise" reward after they were done drawing. Group 3: the children were not told about a reward or given a reward after they were done drawing.

The results of this experiment ended up turning in to the children who were told about a reward beforehand now always expected a reward, and found less fun in just drawing just to draw. The children who received a surprise reward were somewhat less likely to continue drawing (now hoping for a reward), and the children who had not been told/ given a reward continued drawing about the same amount.

This may seem confusing, but it actually makes a lot of sense. What happens is once someone is subjected to getting a reward for something, they find the action to be less fulfilling. This can be related to things that children may not like doing such as getting a reward for finishing all of their vegetables, doing all of their homework, cleaning their room, ect. This is when getting a reward comes in to play when you are doing something that you may not want to do, but you have to do anyways.
This concept also affects adults: Just like going to work to make money (the reward) but the job becomes tedious and tiresome. If you liked to paint just for fun and were discovered and then paid for your talent, the fun turns into work aka: something you HAVE to do rather than want to do.

To me this concept makes a lot of sense. This is something that I never really thought about before, but once you realize it.. It's kind of like a Eureka! moment... At least that's how it was for me! I hope you can see the sense in this too!

Chapter 4*

This chapter was pretty interesting to read because I learned about different interactions between males and females relating to sexual attitudes and different preferences. I also thought it was interesting to read about the different factors contributing to twins and their similarities and differences. Another thing I found interesting was the part about adoption and how much adopted children inherit there traits from their adoptive parents.

I thought it was interesting to read about how males are more likely to have casual sex with one or more women at the same time and be okay with it. This was more interesting than surprising to me. This is because I had an idea that males had less of a problem with committing to someone than females, but I didn't know that it was actually a fact. It's also interesting to know that men are more likely than women to get jealous over their partners having sexual relations with someone other than them.

It was very interesting to learn about the different twin traits because it's something that I have never really thought about before. My favorite part was to read about how twins can be separated at birth (without any knowledge of each other) and still turn out strangely similar. Right down to the name of their wives.. I just think it's bizarre that things like that can happen. This is a result of shared genes and the way your genes come into interaction with the environment. Your experiences shape who you are, but you still have the basic foundation of yourself which comes right back down to one thing: Genes!

The reason that the adoption section was interesting to me is because I've been around the "situation" before. My dad is adopted and we have always wondered how different things would have turned out if he had been raised by his biological parents. For one: I probably wouldn't be alive. This is because with different parents, there are always different situations and different experiences. For another, I am the only one in my family with red hair. If my dad was not adopted ( and I still had been born) then we would possibly know where this "odd" trait came from. This is odd because on both sides of my family I am the only one with red hair and as far back as we look, everyone has had either blonde or brown hair. This is interesting because in the book it says that genetic traits are inherited from biological parents, but different parents provide different values and experiences for their children.

I liked this chapter because it was very informative about a lot of popular topics that the typical person doesn't know a lot about. I like to think that I have a better understanding of why people are the way they are and how different factors can affect the way you turn out. Weird, but cool.

Chapter 3*

One thing that I learned in this chapter was the different facts about consciousness. This made me think about the fact that the more comfortable you become with something, the less you pay attention to it, which then allows you to focus on other things around you that you may have missed before. But along with noticing new things comes almost a complete absentmindedness. This happens because when something that you do every day i.e. driving to school becomes a habit, you don't think necessarily about the steps in getting there. It's just a natural habit to turn on your turn signal at the right road and all of a sudden realize that you have no idea where you are although you drive that way every single day.

Something I found interesting or surprising was the circadian rhythm. It's interesting to think that your body runs on your own internal 24-hour cycle. I mean it's common sense to know that your body in continuously running (heart, internal organs..) But to think that it has it's own biological clock is interesting. This clock keeps track of all of the "happenings" going on inside you. Such as when a woman reaches a certain age where having children could start becoming a risk they say that her biological clock is "ticking." This clock also keeps your body in a rough synchronization and also changes your body temperature. For example: Our body temp. rises as morning approaches, peaks during the day, dips for a time in the early afternoon (such as when you take a nap), and then begins to drop again before you go to sleep. This also effects how when you get older you might have a tendency not to stay up as late and to wake up earlier in the morning.

In this chapter I agree with a lot of the different facts talking about drugs. I can say this because I've experienced a lot of the effects with having two brothers who used to use drugs. I mostly agree with drug tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Drug tolerance is when you brain adapts to the chemistry offset by the drug which then causes your body to need larger and larger doses to get the same affect.
Withdrawal symptoms are what someone might face if they are a rabid user and then decide to/ are forced to quit using. Withdrawal is side effects due to the drug's absence and can be things such as: Physical pain, intense cravings, and a physical dependence for the missing drug.

Overall I thought this chapter had a lot of interesting information and a lot of stuff that really made me think about things more closely.

Current Events. *10-8-09

This week has been pretty boring for me to say the least. Nothing has really happened and the weather outside seems to agree with the whole "boring and cold" idea. The only actual event worth recalling is Monday morning when I was about to leave for school and the battery on my car was dead! Greeat.. That's what I remember thinking.. For some people they could just call their parents and have them pick them up but mine were gone to work and weren't going to be home until late at night.

So needless to say I ended up just staying home because everyone that lives close to me was at school already and my neighbors and parents were at work! Lucky me!

Relating to this chapter I have only had one dream since I started my sleep log. This dream was one of the most random dreams I had ever had. It was about an African American soldier giving me a tour because we were lost from the rest of our group. We were all alone in this random room and we were just walking around. We eventually found our way back to our group and were all reunited.

This was really random because I don't remember thinking about any soldiers/ tours or even less likely a combination of both before I laid down to go to sleep that night. This is why I wonder whether or not our dreams are really related to anything that actually happens to us? I don't think that in the future I will be getting a tour from a soldier, but I guess you never know what the future holds. I think this is really interesting because I have had dreams relating to my life before, but not all of the time.

So are our dreams related to things that have happened/ will happen to us? Maybe they really are a foreshadow of our future.. But how is that so with dreams with things like monsters and vampires in them? This may be a question that is never fully answered or understood.

7 Sins of Memory. *Summary

This article talked about how our memories are very fallible. Basically what this means is that as soon as an event happens and we place it in our minds, we almost automatically switch some of the details. These details can be anything from a word you switch around or a name you forget. They can be small, but initially they are something that we forgot. This is why when you remember an even that occured it's called a rumor.. But is it not an exact replica of the actual event.

These memory "slips" are classified into seven different categories: transcience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias and persistance. But although our memories falter, it's better than having no memory at all. Such as people with severe amnesia who can't remember their own names or preform simple tasks.

If you ask me I would take a faltering memory over a total loss of memory any day of the week! What about you?

Are You a Liar? *Summary.

After reading this article I realized something that I never really thought about before. That most people lie, just to be polite. This may sound crazy but it actually makes a lot of sense. A "socially polite" lie for example would be like when you ask someone how they are doing and they reply fine when they actually feel the exact opposite of fine.

This article reported that most of the white lies people produce come from lying about emotions to be accepted by others and to narrow the already awkward social gap between people who don't really know each other all that well. In a group test that was conducted people were admitting to lying about 3 times in 10 minutes. This mostly happened so that the person listening seemed to have an idea what was going on and also to impress the person who is talking to you. This can happen when you meet someone new and happen to agree with something they say even though you-- A.) weren't even listening. B.) could care less about what they were talking about. C.) You're just trying to be polite.

So although lying is said to be sinful and immoral.. Think of how much it can clear up our already cluttered social lives. Imagine if every person you talked to complained about all of their problems. That would be extremely overwhelming in my personal opinion.

Are you someone who lies in a conversation just to be polite? If so, then you too are a liar! In some ways we all are.. think about it!

Current Events. 10-2-09*

This week has been kind of a let down for me if i'm being honest. The reason I say this is because i've been sick all week. It's been interesting to learn about our body and all of it's different functions when you're trying to figure out how to control your own.

I guess what I could talk about relating to the chapter would have to be going with John to put his dog to sleep today. He asked me to come along and in my head I thought okay I can do this it's just a dog. But when we got to the vet's it was a completely different story. We were sitting in the room waiting for the doctor to come in and we were petting Lucky for the last time. I then saw John crying and it triggered something in me also. It's like seeing him sad and in pain twisted something in my brain which made me feel the same way. Sadness is just an emotion which when you come down to it is all in your head, so why is it so hard to control?

I think the answer to this is more complicated then it sounds... Emotions are not always things that you can control. They are just natural reactions in your body and can affect you at any time. Although you may be able to act like you never cry, everybody does once in awhile.

Like usual I am glad that my week is over.. It has been a tough one with being sick and having three cross country meets out in the cold.. Hopefully it gets better next week!