Weekly Blog

Today in class Dreier talked about his life when he was obese. He talked about how times have changed at fast food restaurants and new dieting techniques. He said that he and his wife went on weight watchers which I believe is a good way to lose weight except it takes awhile to get in the habit of watching what you eat and counting all the "points". Is becoming obese and social issue or a hereditary disorder because if it is social, you do not think about what you eat because you are busy socializing. With hereditary, you eat what your parents feed you. I know that my parents made me eat everything on my plate before i could leave the table. My step mom makes my step sister do the same thing. With eating everything on your plate your going to want to do that at every meal even when you are full. It is not okay to eat EVERYTHING on your plate! A good way to lose weight is portion control, how can you control your portion size as a kid when you have too much on your plate. I believe that people eat with their eyes.

Disorder articles

The first article that i read was called "The Course of Bipolar Disorder Over Time" by Krisha McCoy. In her article, it states that if people with the Bipolar Disorder do not take their medications and do not follow their doctors orders, their disorder will get worse throughtout life. If people do not take their medications and they don't attend their therapy sessions, they are more likely to have an "episode" once a year. If you do take the prescribed medications and attend the therapy sessions, people are more likely to decrease the amount of "episodes" by half. It said in the article that there is no definate cure to this disorder but doctors believe that with proper medication, therapy sessions, and routine check ups, the disorder can be less noticeable by the patient and witnesses. http://www.everydayhealth.com/bipolar-disorder/bipolar-disorder-prognosis.aspx

The second article i read was called "What is Multiple Personality Disorder?" by Tricia Ellis-Christensen. This article is about multiple personality disorder or now known as dissociated identity disorder (DID). People who suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder usually get it by having a trauma in their life, whether it be childhood or adulthood. Most of the time it is during the childhood, starting with physical and sexual abuse. When the victim has been in a trauma during life, they make up characters to cope with their feelings. The alters can be female, male, strong, weak, young, or old. The biggest thing that doctors look for when diagnosing someone with this disorder is if the patient "loses" track of time. This is because they are acting out another alter. The article states some of the symptoms which include having phobias, confusion, depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, alcoholism, and drug abuse. One of the primary treatments for Multiple Personality Disorder would be therapy (play therapy, art therapy, talk therapy, and hypnosis). Doctors do not want to put people on medication because there is a liklyhood that the patient will overdose. Therapists say that the disorder can go away, not fully, but with years or therapy it is likely that it will go away unless placed in a previous traumatic place. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-multiple-personality-disorder.htm

weekly blog

Today in class, we talked about depression and other disorders. Dreier went through the "desk/pocket book" and said that to be diagnosed the psychologists and psychiatrists must be thorough with their patients background and disorder that may or may not be diagnosed. What i dont understand is that i have recently been diagnosed with depression and my psychiatrist was not in depth with me at all. I saw him the first time for about 20-30 minutes and he prescribed me with depression medication. I have noticed a difference but still, every time i see him, its only for 20-30 minutes. How can he be so sure that i have depression, if he still hardly knows me? While reading the article "Prognosis Negative" and talking to Patrik on googlewave, i realized that my "disorder" might be a new one and might be in the upcoming DSM book. I just have a hard time believing that people can diagnose a person the first time meeting them for atleast half an hour. If you have anything to add that could help me have a better understanding of this, please do...

weekly blog

During class yesterday, we talked about our id, ego, and superego. I have had times where there is a devil on one shoulder and angel on the other. It is hard because you have to weigh the consequences. A lot of times i dont want my id to win because i know bad will come from it. Then again i dont want my superego to win because i dont want to be known as a goody to shoes. I have learned to trust my ego and make sure that neither id or superego wins/loses. I think choosing which way to go happens alot for teenagers because we have a lot of pressure on us and we want to be rebelious. Thats not always the right choice though and that is why we need to let our ego talk.

six terms from chapter 9

I think on the station where we had to put all ten nails on a nail stuck in a board uses mental set because if we have done that station before and it worked we will keep doing it that way. We wouldnt be open to a new way to do the problem if we already know a way that works.
The station that had the logical problem with the cars, college, person, and money, that would use confirmation bias because when we read the facts on the bottom of the sheet, we read too much in depth and dont realize what is right in front of us.
The station where we had to make the record play uses a prototype, because we all know what a record player looks like and we have simple knowledge of how one works. To get all the materials together and try to make a record player takes a lot of time. At this station, i was uasing fixation because a couldn't see it in a new perspective like my group members had. They knew what had to go where and why it had to go there and i just kept picturing a regular record player.
The station where we had to find a way to get all the quarters on one side of the paper and the pennies on the other without having any stuck would use algorithm. We couldnt have two pennies in a row then a quarter, because the quarter wouldnt be able to move any farther. It took a certain method to intertwine the coins together without getting them stuck. This station also uses insight, because you have to use strategies.

weekly assignment 4

Today in class we took two different tests of memory. I did good on the first test but on the second test where we had to remember faces, I had some difficulty on it. I work in retail and I still dont remember faces. Ill help somebody then an hour later they will check out, I will not remember them unless I have something (a bag of theirs, a hold, etc.). I start to memorize faces when I start to see them over and over again on a daily basis. Even in my family, I dont see half my side because they live too far away. Recently one of my cousins stopped me to say "hi" and i didnt even realize it was them because I havent seen them in a long time. I personally dont think that it is part of my memory skills but of the fact that it has been so long and they have changed. I think if I were too work on my memorization skills I might be able to recall more faces.

weekly assignment 3

Yesterday in class, we had discussions aout classical conditioning. When I went home yesterday i pet my cat and sat on the couch. Every time my mom gets home from work at around 4:30ish, she feeds my cat. This happens everyday and my cat got so conditioned to this that she waits by the door. It is very hard for my cat to adapt to the weekends because my mom is always home. My cat thinks that everytime she seesmy mom, she will get food. She will sit by her dish, waiting to be fed and if she doesn't she starts crying and it gets really annoying. Also another example is that in the morning before my mom leaves for work, my cat gets a treat. Her treats are stored under our kitchen sink where her brush is also stored. At around 6:30 every morning she sits by the sink and waits for her treat. Recently, I went into the cupboard to get her brush. She was so confused because it was later in the day and my mom wasnt the one giving her the treat. When i tried calling her to come get brushed she sat and looked at the sink and cried. She is getting so used to the schedule at our house that she knows where and when to sit and wait for her food. I think that these are two good examples of classical conditioning that appears to take place in my household.

weekly blog 2

I know I am late on this one but hey, atleast I'm writing one. HAHA! During class on Monday, Wollersheim's dad came in and talked to our class about his work with Harry Harlow. I thought that was so cool because, Harry was a huge deal back then. It would be like meeting a famous celebrity. Wollersheim's dad talked about his job in the lab and I feel like thats what i have. It is not the best job in the world but it pays. He had to pick up after the monkeys', I have to pick up after old ladies and people who just don't care. He did mention that if we are going to major in psychology, we should have a Plan B. Reason being is that there are not many jobs to be just a psychologist. That made me think about my goals in life. I wanted to be a psychologist but now I am thinking that I might major in elementary education and minor in psychology. I learned alot from Wollersheim's dad, from schooling to work to major events. When he told us about the bombings at his college, it made me somewhat scared. What happens if I end up doing research that people don't approve of and they want to stop the research. I really liked what he had to say about his career, it was very interesting.

PSA recordings

I think my two favorite PSA clips that I watched are Sara, Candice, and Lauren's. I liked how they had the wide variety of activities not just for young children but for adults. I felt that they would persuade me into moving to Ashwaubenon. There link is http://www.youtube.com/user/appsychology1023?feature=mhw4#p/u

My second favorite would have to be one from Wollersheims class. It is the PSA from Claire, Hope, and Joey. I think that this is a good commercial to persuade people to come to Ashwaubenon because they use a common song that most people know. I think that the "jingle" they used is really good because it is upbeat and exciting to hear. If I didn't live in Ashwaubenon, i would probably move hear because it is very convincing and funny. There link is http://www.youtube.com/user/appsychology1023?feature=mhw4#p/u/8/kftyKy61g0U

http://www.youtube.com/user/appsychology1023?feature=mhw4#p/u/10/84ZBxXJ2Hm0
This is the link to our (ali, grace, and stevie) PSA. I hope that everyone thinks ours is very persuading!

Weekly Assignment 1

Today's class discussion was focused on Alzheimers disease. I am going to relate this to my grandfather you died of Alzheimers. It is very difficult to see somebody starting to lose all their memories. I can't even imagine how my grandmother dealt with it. He always thought that she was a stanger in his house and would just scream at her. It was hard for myself and the rest of my family to see him in the nursing home, fighting with the nurses because it wasn't the right medication (it really was though). I know I look like my mom but im never called "Sherry"; that is what my grandfather called me his last couple months. He was just so out of it. It didnt really mean anything to me when I was younger but now that I am starting to learn about Alzheimers, I realize that I can be at a high risk of having the disease. Dreier was talking about how we should, as we age, start exercising our brain by reading and other ways. I know I will be reading more when I am at the age of being at risk of Alzheimers.

MDMA (Ecstasy)

The drug MDMA is a potent indirect monoaminergic agonist.

What it does to the brain:

MDMA exerts its primary effects in the brain on neurons that use the chemical serotonin to communicate with other neurons. The serotonin system plays an important role in regulating mood, aggression, sexual activity, sleep, and sensitivity to pain. MDMA also causes excessive release of serotonin from its neurons. MDMA can produce confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, and severe anxiety. These problems can occur soon after taking the drug or, sometimes, even days or weeks after. In addition, chronic users of MDMA perform more poorly than nonusers on certain types of cognitive or memory tasks. Research in animals indicates that MDMA can be harmful to the brain.

What are the long term effects?

MDMA produces feelings of increased energy euphoria, emotional warmth, and distortions in time perception and tactile experiences.

What happens if MDMA is abused?

MDMA can be dangerous to everybody's overall health and it can even be lethal. MDMA can have many of the same effects as other stimulants (increase in heart rate and blood pressure) such as cocaine and amphetamines; other symptoms include muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision, faintness, and chills or sweating. In high doses, MDMA can interfere with the body’s ability to regulate temperature. On rare but unpredictable occasions, this can lead to a huge increase in body temperature which can result in liver, kidney, and cardiovascular system failure, and even death.

http://www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/ecstasy.html

Unit One Test

So, I think that the next test that we have, I need to study harder. I honestly was expecting it to be a lot harder because it is an AP class. I am just glad that I got some of the answers correct. Also, I am very happy that we got to correct some of our answers that we got wrong.

Youtube

I thought this was a cool way to do our homework. It took alot of time for my group to complete but it was worth it. I think that i am diversified enough to do alot more homework on the internet. It was fun to see ourself and the finished product in class.

Technology

By recieving and using the netbooks, we will have much more access to the world from the classroom. I am very excited about getting to use these first hand. Plus, we are the first students at Ashwaubenon to use these netbooks. It is something different and very interesting at the same time. Today was a little difficult getting everything set up on the netbooks but I did okay. I am very excited to use the netbooks in the near future!

Writing Assignment 1

My expectations for this course is hopefully getting a passing grade. I hope to branch out in the psychology world and learn many new things that i can apply to my life and my future studies. I knew this class was going to be hard but once it started I then noticed that it was very fast paced and a lot of reading was going to be accomplished. Since taking the Moodle quiz, i realized that i am going to need to try a lot harder. I thought the test was pretty hard but i was able to complete it. I am very excited about analyzing our dreams and learning about how we as humans develop and think. I like learning about the people who influenced psychology and what they researched. Reading the Forty Studies book made me think alot about what was said. This class will be a difficult challenge and it will make me think alot. I am very excited to be in this class.