OCD Psychological Disorder

OCD is a disorder that people tenatively tend to be neat; grooming themselves, cleaning things, washing their hands, or having and absolute distaste for for being dirty. Other types of OCD include making movements and such that can't be controlled.  They have obesessions which are unwanted thoughts that occur throughout the day and then there are compulsions, which are repetitive behaviors.  Some theraputic ways to treat this disorder include social cognitive and active listening therapy, where the the therapist just listens to the patient and asks questions; rather than giving advice to help stop.  This helps the patient help themselves rather than just giving them a solution to their problem.  The biomedical approach to helping this disorder is medication that increases the seratonin in the body.  This helps relieve the bad thoughts that OCD patients get when they are obsessing, which helps them not compulse.

Social Disorder- ASP

Antisocial Personality Disorder is a disorder that is found to be linked to many male criminals.  They are very deviant and have no remorse for others.  They don't care how other people feel and only care about their actions.  Some of the examples in the book said that murderers would say that, "killing was just another habit, like smoking a cigarette."  I found this very disturbing how people can be like this.  For more info, click the link attached to find out more about Antisocial Personality Disorder. 
 http://djbrenwall.edu.glogster.com/false-3157/

The Need to Achieve

I thought it was interesting how people with a need to acheive, would pick the trash can to shoot at that was most likely to be accomplished.  People with no need to achieve would choose the one thats the farthest away so that they would have a crutch to blaim the fact that they missed.  I didn't know this before doing this demonstration.  I found out that I have a need to achieve because i shot for the one that i would make a decent amount of hypothetic money on and that i would be attainable at making.  My thought process was similar to the theory, but when i realized it, i was hindsightly biased.  This is the connection that i formed after this experiment.  I'm more likely to take moderate risks instead of huge risks, because i'll always want to succeed.

Have we stretched the idea of intelligence too far when we relate it to emotion?

Daniel Goleman gave examples of why EQ is important.  social neuro-science; default reaction is to help. Why wouldn't we help? Because empathy and emotion is put aside when we are focused on ourself and what we need to have done.  Perceiving emotion is when you take time to recognize what emotion people are showing. Understanding intelligence is when you can understand what emotion the person is sharing. Managing emotion is when you can apply the meaning of the emotion the person is showing. Using emotion is responding to someone who is showing emotion.  Goleman states that there is zero relation between IQ and emotion, ex. Santa Cruz Strangler.  But I personally believe that being intelligent is a combination of IQ and EQ.  People with high IQ's are very smart in their own ways; but can't relate their information or ideas to others as well.  The truly intelligent people are the ones who have high IQ's and high EQ's.  They can work together with people and think about abstract topics and new ideas to share with other people. Golemans idea that a high EQ will save all is irrational.  What will save all are smart people who can translate their ideas to others.

The Signing Ape!

A Scientist in this video introduces us to Koko the talking ape and describes further than what the book explained about apes and apes using sign language.  The scientist tells us that there are signs that the primates can learn that stand for certain words and when they are introduced to a new object that they dont have the sign for, they can combine words that they already know to make a compound word for their new object.  For example, in the video they use watermelon; the ape calls it drink-fruit.  It's close to the actual word, but not it.  This shows that the animal has a good understanding of the signing they are learning and its not just the animals repeating words for treats; they actually understand which sign means what.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmuu8UEi2ko

Spring Break Blog

Derek Brenwall

Spring Break Blog

1)      Chapter 1

a)      Survey= a method of recording data that asks people to report their opinions or behavior.

b)      My experience= When I was in Madison during this spring break, I was walking along State Street I went to a restaurant called Potbelly’s and at the table I sat at, there were surveys to ask how the service was.  This is an easy way for them to get feedback from their customers. 

c)       Relation= This was an easy way for Potbelly’s to see how they can improve their business and improve their business without having to go and interview people. 

2)      Chapter 2

a)      Reflexes= automatic responses to stimuli.

b)      My experience= When I was working, I had to fill up the sink with warm water to wash the bar glasses, but I had the hot on all the way.  When I went to wash the first glass, I burnt my hand and before I knew it, my hand was already jerked away from the sink. This reaction was a message that was sent to my spinal cord all the way up to my brain and my body reacted before I could even process what had happened. 

c)       Relation= This is a great example of a reflex because it shows exactly what a reflex is.  When your body reacts to external stimuli that is harmful or irritant to your body, it reacts before your mind can process what has happened. 

3)      Chapter 3

a)      Withdrawal= the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug.

b)      My experience= When I was in Madison, I stayed in my cousin’s apartment.  Her roommate Danielle was trying to quit smoking because she wanted to try to be healthier.  She was very shaky and needed to chew gum a lot because she was trying to fight her urge for nicotine.  She had only gone three or four days without a cigarette and it was visible that it was hard for her to fight this addiction. 

c)       Relation= This is a side effect to smoking cigarettes is that you get addicted to the nicotine and it’s hard to break the habit.  Withdrawal is tough when fighting the addiction and makes you do other things to cope with the addiction. 

4)      Chapter 4

a)      Culture= the behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

b)      My experience= Going to Madison, it was obvious that there were many different cultures that make up the city of Madison.  There were many restaurants on State Street that offered food from all over the world.  Also there were clothing stores that had different styles from other countries around the world.  I even caught people speaking different languages when I was at a café getting coffee. 

c)       Relation= Because different cultures can affect how people grow up, it would be very different growing up in Madison versus growing up in the countryside.   Culture is very important to experience because it broadens your horizons on the world.

5)      Chapter 5

a)      Law of conservation= the principle that quantity remains the same, despite changes in shape

b)      My experience= On my tour of UW-Madison, my friend said we should stop for pizza and he made a joke regarding the Law of Conservation.  He said, “I’m not that hungry, maybe we could have them cut 6 pieces instead of 8.”  No matter how they would cut it, there would still be the same amount of pizza total.  He was joking because obviously he knew that, but to a younger child, it would have seemed logical. 

c)       Relation= In the development  of a child’s brain, there’s a time that they won’t be able to tell that the more of something there is, it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more of it because there may be more area on the pieces that there are less of.  Getting this understanding is more obvious the older you get. 

6)      Chapter 6

a)      Signal detection theory= a theory that predicts how and when a faint stimulus amid a background stimulation.  Depends on past experiences, expectations, motivation and level of fatigue. 

b)      My experience= I spent a night at my friend Alli Seibens house.  She’s a girl in my grade and she has a baby named Tristen.  She had me and some of my friends over and we were in her hot tub when she said she thought she heard her baby crying from the other room in the house.  She was the only one that heard him crying and it was a perfect example of the Signal Detection Theory. 

c)       Relation= The reason Alli could hear her baby crying was an example of the signal detection theory because she was motivated to listen for her baby crying and had experienced it before.  Her threshold of hearing was altered to hear her baby’s, which explains why no one else could hear Tristen crying. 

7)      Chapter 7

a)      Classical conditioning= Linking a controlled response to a conditioned stimulus that doesn’t relate to the original unconditioned stimulus that got that same response.

b)      My experience= I was at work the other night and after mixing frozen margaritas in a metal cup I would have to wash it in the sink.  The other bartender was always in the way, so I would put the cup under the sink and I asked her to step on the lever that pumps the water. After awhile, all I had to do was put the cup under the sink and she would instinctively kick the lever.  It was funny because I noticed this and I tried to extinguish it by putting the cup down there and I didn’t wash it and she made a joke and said, “Pavlov’s dogs.”

c)       Relation= I took an unconditioned stimulus of asking for Heather to step on the lever and added a conditioned stimulus of putting the cup by the sink. I got the response of her pressing the lever to turn the water on.  Soon, I didn’t have to ask for her to kick the water on and she would do it instinctively. 

8)      Chapter 8

a)      Rehearsal= conscious repetition to boost our memory.

b)       My experience= Over spring break for my Public Speaking class I have to memorize a 15 line poem.  To practice, I’ve just been reading it over and over again.  This is a prime example of rehearsal; to help me so I can store it in my memory and recover it when I need to present when we get back to school on Monday. 

c)       Relation= I’ve been very forgetful lately and I need help keeping experiences stored in my memory. To do this, I’ve used rehearsal to keep the poem in my head.  Repetition of this will improve my memory of this experience and it will stay in my head a lot longer.

9)      Chapter 9

a)      Algorithms= step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution.

b)      My experience= During this spring break, I’ve had to do a lot of math homework and in doing my math homework we have to use algorithms to solve long math problems.  Algorithms are step-by-step methods to solve long and confusing problems.  The step-by-step method prevents from getting confused and if you screw up, you just go back to the last step and figure it out. 

c)       Relation= In solving difficult problems it can be hard to find the answer, but if you break it down step-by-step its easier to solve.  I was able to get through my math homework a lot easier when I broke it down and took me time in solving each question. 

PSA Blog

http://www.youtube.com/user/appsychology1023#p/u/2/7nz2xIxMmZs
http://www.youtube.com/user/appsychology1023#p/u/8/1JRxprSpJzI
http://www.youtube.com/user/appsychology1023#p/u/11/X66LnToaXz4

Of all of the PSA's i watched (i must have watched 5), i think that Michael, Jacky, and Tom's PSA was the best.  Tom was well dressed in the video and had a very convincing tone in his voice.  They had many places that they visited and it looked like they took a lot of time in their project.  They covered each stage of development and had reasoning behind each stage of why Ashwaubenon could help someone develop in that stage.  They were very convincing to the audience that Ashwaubenon was the best place to live and this is why i think they had the best PSA.

The Anatomy of our Senses

While reading and learning about the anatomy of the ear, eye, nose, mouth and one the body, i found that the eye was the most interesting to me.  It enables people to view their surroundings and decipher colors.  This video i found focuses on the eye and the illusions it can encounter.  This I learned, is part of the flaw in our bodies and can be found in this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p26nNgWAleI

Jean Piaget and His Stages

This week in class we spent a lot of time talking about the stages of life from birth to death. These stages were developed by Jean Piaget.  I was confused at first because some of the stages would be mixed together in my mind.  To clear this up i looked on YouTube and found this video to help me sort things out. This is an extension of the work we did in class because it goes more in depth with Piaget's stages and gives real life examples. 

http://blackdragonproxy.com/dragon.php/Oi8vd3d3/LnlvdXR1/YmUuY29t/L3dhdGNo/P3Y9OXlo/WGpKVkZB/MTQ_3D/b14/

Developing Some Questions

1. What are the emotional effects on these girls who are developing faster than the girls around them, and what are some cures for emotional distress?

2. Why haven't boys had the same effect as these girls?

3. Are there other factors that contribute to these young girls acceleration development?

All Iced Up

2/9/11 @ 2:30 pm – When we first got this assignment, I thought it was going to be pretty easy.  Then I remembered that I had to work, and I had the talent show, and I had school.  I didn’t think it would be a big deal because I usually have ice with everything anyways. 

2/10/11 @ 6:55 am – The first problem occurred when I had breakfast this morning.  Usually I have a glass of milk, but I needed to put ice in it.  My parents looked at me awkwardly, but they didn’t ask questions.

2/10/11 @ 8:30 am – In class today, I realized that I forgot to bring ice to school and would have to find my hook-up if I wanted to drink anything today.  First hour: no luck. 

2/10/11 @ 11:30 am – Lunch time and I found out Erik had enough to go around.  It was nice to get some ice cold fluids in me before the end of the day. 

2/10/11 @ 4:30 pm – Going to work wasn’t bad because I work in the bar, because I was able to have an iced diet soda at all times. 

·                                            Lying to parents and friends made me feel very shady and I felt like a bad person not telling the truth.  When you avoid telling the truth it can take over your life and you loose connection with the people who matter.

·                                            I found that I was pretty good at staying under the radar.  I didn’t think that I’d be that good, but my parents didn’t find out what I was doing.

·                                           My friends noticed a change in my behavior when I went to my friend’s house and he asked me if I wanted something to drink and I asked him to get me a cup with ice.  He asked why, and I told him not to worry about it,  It raised suspicion and my other friend told him about the experiment.  

Getting Caught Up!

Being gone for a Thursday, Friday and a Monday, I had to catch up on all of the reading and work in class.  When I returned home from my trip, I did homework until midnight. Not fun.  I'm still behind on the readings and I work everyday from 4-10, so there's not much time for dinner.  Once I get a meal in me, I'm ready for bed.  I've also had to prepare a speech for other classes and on top of all the work I'm still catchng up on, i have to prepare for the Talent Show.  Pretty stressed out now...  As for Psych this week, we've been learning about the brain, hypnosis, nature vs. nurture and the circadian rhythm.  In the sleep stages, they mentioned Sleep Apnea and I thought i should research it more, because my father has it.  I found a YouTube video that explains what Sleep Apnea is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgF6TbeYyYo

Interesting Video I Found on Meth-Amphetamine

I was assigned Meth-amphetamine in class to research for the day, but I took it farther and found a video clip off YouTube and it gave me a 3D view of what Meth-amphetamine in the blood system can do to your dopamine levels compared to other drugs.  This was a pretty informative video that included people who've been on meth before and reassures the fact that there isn't anything more addicting than meth.  This video also reinstates the idea of reuptake in the synaptic gap.

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

The Beginning

When I first heard the anouncement to come pick up the assignment for AP Psych before the class had even started, I was worried. I knew just like any other AP class I'd taken, it is going to take a lot of effort.  When we had to read 18 pages last night and take notes, it wasn't a surprise to me because there was a lot of reading every night for AP Gov and I was expecting it.  After taking the first Moodle quiz, I wish I would have taken better notes on the Prologue.  I thought I understood the material well, but my Moodle score told differently.  Looking forward, I expect this to be a time-consuming and challeging course.  I think that tests will require a lot of studying and memorization.  Hopefully my test scores will be better than my Moodle quiz score.