Monday, May 7, 2018

Final Blog Post!

Through out this semester I have gained so much knowledge and understanding of psychology and I know it will benefit me in the long run. I wasn't ever required or suppose to take this class but I'm grateful that I did. Our amazing professor who I could tell from the first day cares so much about us and all my awesome class mates made this one of the funnest classes I have ever been a part of.



From module 1 to module 7 I learned and experienced so much! To start it off I learned all about my fellow classmates, where they came from, what they like to do, their age and so much more that would be impossible for me to remember. I was exposed to the different types of psychology that I didn't even know where out there, it was so cool to see how they all have the same goal of helping out people in need and contributing to a long and happy life. If I had to pick my favorite branch of psychology I for sure would pick positive psychology because it is so powerful and in this day and age we sometimes take positivity for granted and avoid using it. Im a finance major but I am still not sure what kind of job I will pursue when I graduate, so when we did that activity where we had to pick a branch of psychology that we think would benefit us in our future job I chose positive psychology. It is literally a universal tool that will help in anything you do, and on the plus side it has been scientifically proven to make you live longer, be happier, and comes with so many other benefits.  learning about the brain was also a really interesting topic for me because it is so complex in not just how it works, but also in its structure so getting a little better understanding of the brain was definitely something that caught my attention. I like how the brain is formed of different areas that control different activities in the brain and how such a little thing in our body controls our lives. It's just so mind blowing how we make memories and how our brain transforms when we learn it's truly amazing. In one of the powerpoint that Dr.Pris shared with us It had a sentence with two "the's" in it and when I first read it I didn't notice that, she later explained that the reason my brain did't catch that second "the" was because it automatically corrects and skips that second "the" without me even realizing it, that blew my mind because I don't remember teaching my brain to do that, it just programed itself to correct errors like that after many years of reading and learning. The video of the gorilla also demonstrates that we can also at times be so focused on one point that we miss a completely obvious thing happening right in front of us. The video told us to try and count how many times the people in the video toss the ball to one another. Everyone was so focused on trying not to lose count that half way through the video a big gorilla walked right in the middle of everyone and beat his chest without many of our classmates and myself noticing. When the video was played again sure enough the gorilla was right there and I didn't even notice it! 

We also learned about developmental psychology and personality. Developmental psychology was a very interesting topic because it shows how we all grows. Developmental psychology is the study of age related changes In behavior and mental processes and stages of growth. There is a lot of really interesting things in this topic such as that a baby recognizes the voice of its mother when it is still in the womb, also how fast vision develops from birth to the age of two. A really interesting thing that was shared in one of Dr.Pris powerpoint that made me realize why I used to sleep so much was that when you are a teenager you sleep so much because that is around the age that we go through puberty, and puberty is triggered by changes in the brain and the release in hormones that occur only during sleep. Also I learned about nature vs nurture which I knew nothing about. After researching and reading articles for a hour I learned all about nature vs nurture and I am more on the nurture side. Yes I believe that you will always have that personality that you were born with, but the way you are brought up and raised and the experiences you face throughout your life will mold you in a way. 

Learning about learning was also very interesting. When you learn a new skill it is very beneficial for you. It not only adds a new tool for you to use in your life but it improves many other areas such as better working memory, better verbal intelligence, and increased language skills. As you would assume at first when you are taking on learning a new skill it takes your brain a little more effort to process and learn that skill, But later on as you continue to learn a practice that skill it takes your brain less work to accomplish it. The reason for this is because as your brain gets better at the skill you are learning, your brain is actually strengthening itself. The science behind how the learns is this; the more that connections between neurons in the brain are formed the more we learn and the more information we retain. We are still learning about how the brain functions and we will be for many years to come because of its complexity, but this is just some of the knowledge that scientists have accumulated by studying how the brain learns.
The little Albert baby video was so funny and really got the point of it's video across. Your brain starts making connections to things as early as when you are a baby. In the video the guy would make a loud noise whenever the little baby would reach for the rat. Little Albert's brain made a connection to the noise and the rat, so now when little Albert saw the rat he was scared to reach for it because of the new connection his brain had made.
I also learned that memory is is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. these are the three steps in creating memory. First encoding is converting information from the outside world into mental representations. In order for the encoding process to be successful you must pay attention. The second process in memory is storing. The information that you have encoded can be stored in three different places the sensory, the working, and the long-term memory. Once the information is encoded and stored it must be retrieved in order to be used which brings us to the last step, retrieving. Retrieving is the reconstruction of the stored information by the firing of the same neurons used to encode it. 

I learned a lot more, but If I were to type it all I would be here forever. This was definitely a new expiernce in writing blogs for me and I kind of really like it now that I know how it all works. I loved this class and it taught me a lot that I can apply today to my life. Thanks for the great semester guys and I love all of you all. 







Monday, April 30, 2018

M7 Task

For my M7 task I did the three good things 
from 4/20/18-4/27/18


  • 4/20/18
1. J Cole dropped his new album KOD.
- J Cole one of my favorite artist of all time stunned the twitter sphere when he tweeted that he was releasing a new album on 4/20/18.
2. One of my coworkers bought me buffalo wild wings.
- Me and my coworker were arguing about what was the special at buffalo wild wings on Tuesday and we bet that whoever got it wrong had to buy the other person wings, and I won.
3. Rockets won game one
- As you may know the NBA playoffs are currently going on and I really want the rockets to win it all this year and I was happy because they won their first playoff game against Minnesota


  • 4/21/18
1. I got a good leg workout.
- Lately I have been having some pain in my left knee and it bothered me when I would hit legs, but for some reason It did't hurt this day and I got a really good leg workout.
2. 3 Dubs back to back on fortnite.
- I hoped on with the boys on fortnite and we ended up getting three victory royals back to back something I have never done before.
3.I got a oil change.
- after avoiding it for a while I finally decided to get a oil change for my car and it just felt really good to have gotten that out of the way and have one less thing to worry about.


  • 4/22/18
1. I went to ASU
- I went to ASU to check out the campus and just hangout with some of my friends that go there and it was just a good time and really fun. We hooped talked to girls and got some wings.
2. Mom cleaned my shoes.
- when I got home from ASU my mom had washed my shoes and they looked like new.
3. I won $20 on a scratch off
- I had to get something from HEB and when I was paying I saw the scratch off tickets and I had not played in a while so I decided to purchase one and ended up winning $20 bucks!


  • 4/23/18
1. I Got a A on my personal finance exam.
- I was up really late the night prior to this exam and I was so stressed out, but I killed it and got a A on it.
2. I made good money at work.
- I made over $140 in tips at work.
3. I got a new guitar strap
-My dog had recently chewed up my guitar strap which I was not happy about so I ordered a new one online and it finally arrived.


  • 4/24/18
1. My mom made chocolate chip pancakes.
- I had been telling my mom that I have been craving her chocolate chip pancakes and she surprised me with them when I woke up.
2. Taco Tuesday.
- I go to Rosas cafe almost every Tuesday for the taco Tuesday special.
3. I finished all my art homework
- I take art online and the professor has the homework all open and I finished up all the assignments left and now all I have to do is take one more quiz which should be cake.


  • 4/25/18
1. Class canceled
-One of my professors canceled class which is always amazing
2. Haircut
- I got a very much needed haircut
3. Filled up my tank
- I get a certain satisfaction in filling up my car tank and it makes me happy.


  • 4/26/18
1. New Tv
- I upgraded my tv and bought me a new sixty inch one which is huge!
2. Psychology class was fun
- Me and my partner presented and it went really well and also we had a guest speaker and the activities she had us do were really fun.
3.INFINITY WAR
- I had bought the tickets for this movie a month before it came out and I had been anxiously waiting for it and let me tell you, it was worth the wait! It was soooooooo good if you haven't watched it yet invite me to go watch it again with you.


  • 4/27/18
1.Congreso 2k18
- Every year my church takes our youth group to a event in Waco called congreso. I have been going since I was like fifteen and it is a amazing experience, it really charges your spiritual battery and gets that fire In your heart to worship and server the lord going.
2. Jazz eliminate Thunder
- the Utah jazz eliminate the thunder in game 7 to move on to the semi conference finals.
3. Church time
- After the event and concert at congreso we all meet up in one of our hotel rooms and discuss and reflect on what we learned that night. Also I play the guitar and we all sing worship songs.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

#CounselorsHelp

Counselors are a very affective tool that we should all utilize when we need them, but they don’t really get the credit that they deserve and I feel like they definitely deserve it. 

I have a friend name Johny  who has always been a really reserved to himself kind of guy. He doest say much in class and only speaks when he is forced to. I have know him since we were in kindergarten and are really close friends and have been hanging out since we were five years old until this day. This story is about how a counselor helped out my friend Johny. 

It was our junior year in high school and me and Johny would usually hangout pretty often like four to five times out of the week, but I remember the week before easter he started trying to avoid making plans to hangout or me going over or him coming to my place. I knew something was wrong but didn’t really want to ask and get all in his personal business so I decided to leave it at that and hope whatever he was going through would pass eventually. Well it didn’t. Johny stoped coming to church, he stoped coming over, he never wanted to play basketball anymore he just wanted to be left alone and be alone at home. Finally I went over to his house to talk to him and see whats up and his mom opened the door and she let me in. I was walking towards Johny room when his mom stoped me and told me he’s in his grandmas room. I walked to his grandmas room and knocked. He opened the door and was surprised at my being there, but when he opened the door I saw his grandma just laying on her bed looking almost lifeless surrounded with all sort of medication. He then told me that his grandma had acquired terminal cancer and that she didn’t have long to live. 

Later that week that I went to his house and found out about his grandma, she passed away on a Thursday and alfonso texted me about it and I knew he was going to take it hard. I tried to text him and hangout as much as possible but he almost never answered me. I remember at school one time he asked me if I could hold a bottle of painkillers for him because he was afraid he was going to take them all. I knew my friend needed some help and so I told him about going to the school counselor and he just laughed and said “i already feel dead there no reason to waste anyones time.” I Finally convinced him to go just one time to see if it would help and he agreed. 


He went and I didn’t see a difference at first and I expected that, i knew this was going to be a time consuming process if it was going to work. He continued to go to get help.  mrs.jordan the school counselor really helped out my friend and he started to talk to me about how he was feeling on certain days and he now wanted to get out of the house more often. He slowly started to become his old self again the friend I knew and I know for a fact if it weren’t for mrs.Jordans help he would of struggled a lot harder to find his old self again. Counselors are a great tool for people with not just psychological problems but all kinds of problems. We should be so grateful we have them and use them anytime we need them!


Monday, April 2, 2018

M5 Task

My inspirational story is about a motivational speaker and former football player by the name of inky Johnson. His story about how his whole life changed in a matter of seconds is truly motivating and amazing. 

Inky Johnson is a black male who lived in a crime and drug infested neighborhood. He grew up in a two bedroom house with fourteen people. He slept on the ground most of the time with roaches and rats, but got the opportunity to sleep on a bed once out of the week. At a young age inky declared and made up his mind that he didn't want to be just like his five uncles living in that house that were in and out of jail constantly. He told himself at a young age that he wanted to go to the NFL and get him and his family out of poverty. He went to his big cousin and told him about his goal of reaching the NFL, and that he knew it wasn't going to be easy so they had to start working for it right now. 
He made his big cousin promise that every night before they went to bed they were going to race in the street from light post to light post barefoot. One night while inky and his cousin were racing in the street, a coach drove by and asked Inky and his cousin if they would like to join his football team. Inky and his cousin said they would really like to but that their mom could not afford it. The coach told inky not to worry about it and signed not just him and his cousin up, but all the kids that lived on that street. After practice all the players would go home except for inky who had to wait for his mom who worked at Wendys to get off. When his mom showed up it would be ten to ten thirty at night and inky would just be sitting there waiting for her. When she finally showed up Inky would jump off the bench and sprint over to his mom and tell her that if she didn't mind, if she could turn on the lights of her car so he could do some extra drills so he could make it to the NFL so she wouldn't have to work another day in her life. Inky knew his mother was tired, but every night when she would go pick him up she would turn on the lights of her car and sit there for a hour and a half while inky did sprints, feet drills just chasing his dream to go to the NFL.
 Later in his life Inky went to Grim high school one of the lowest performing schools in the whole state of Georgia, the drop out rate was higher than the graduation rate. His first day he walked through the doors the metal detector cop asked him whats your plan little man and inky told him he wanted to go D1. The metal detector cop laughed at him and said yeah right you'll probably end up in cell block D1. Inky told him nah you got the wrong guy. After his freshman year inky's mother and father decided to transfer him to a better high school that told him all he has to do is come play his next three years there and they would guarantee him a scholarship to play football at Georgia. Inky begged his parents to leave him at the high school he was currently at, one of the lowest performing high schools in the state of Georgia. He told them he could get a scholarship playing there. They told him inky nobody goes to college from there, but he begged them to let him stay there. They transferred him anyways.
 First football game he tore his ligaments in his ankle and was out for the season and ended up in a wheelchair. He begged his parents again to transfer him back to his other high school, one of the lowest performing high schools in the state of Georgia. They transferred him back and that year they had gotten a new coach. He asked Inky what school do you want to go to? Inky said I just want to go D1. His coach said son you don't understand, what school do you want to go to? Inky said I just want to go D1. The coach told inky after the first couple of games we will put a tape together and see what happens. After the first couple of games inky had nine touchdowns and thats all she wrote. 
The university of Tennessee offered him a full scholarship to play football for them. His freshman year he played special teams, his sophomore year he broke the starting line up and had a really strong sophomore season. The summer heading into his junior year inky was watching film in the film room when his defensive backs coach came up to him and told him, inky I have some good news for you. Inky said what is it? He told Inky your projected top twenty draft pick son, all you have to do is play the next ten football games and you'll be an automatic multi millionaire. Inky went out of the room and called his mother and grandmother on a three way and told them, after this season there will be no more struggle, he said they would never miss another meal again. First football game Inky played great. Second game they were playing against air force late in the game fourth quarter the airforce QB drops back and throws it to a receiver coming down inky's sideline. Inky went head up with the guy and as soon as he hit the guy inky said it felt as if every breath left his body. inky went completely limp and he blacked out and fell to the ground. 
When inky's eyes opened his teammates ran over to him and said ink get up lets go. inky said I can't, I can't move. They said what do you mean you cant move, your our lock down corner we need you lets go. Inky said I know man but this time I can't move. Inky put his head up to the sky and said God surely nothing has happened in this moment that can alter my life. They took Inky to the hospital they ran cat scans and all in a fifteen second time frame the doctor came running into inky's room and said HEY WE HAVE TO RUSH THIS MAN INTO EMERGENCY SURGERY HE'S ABOUT TO DIE! Inky said what? He said son you have busted a artery in your chest your bleeding internally, we have to rush you back take the main vein out of your left leg plug it into your chest in order to save your life. When inky opened his eyes from surgery the same doctor was looking over him and said son I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is we saved your life. the bad news is there is a strong possibility you'll never be able to play the game of football ever again. Inky said no way. Inky said no disrespect to you doc but I've been working for this ever since I was seven years old. Inky said no disrespect to you doc but you weren't at the park with me and my mother late at night, no disrespect to you doc but you didn't come up in that two bedroom home with fourteen people living in it.
 Inky would never go on to play another down of football but he took a bad situation a turned it into a career. Inky is now a business owner and a motivational speaker who travels all over the country sharing his story and motivating  people to use every bad situation for a positive outcome.

Monday, March 12, 2018

Memory


How does Memory work:
Memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. these are the three steps in creating memory. First encoding is converting information from the outside world into mental representations. In order for the encoding process to be successful you must pay attention. The second process in memory is storing. The information that you have encoded can be stored in three different places the sensory, the working, and the long-term memory. Once the information is encoded and stored it must be retrieved in order to be used which brings us to the last step, retrieving. Retrieving is the reconstruction of the stored information by the firing of the same neurons used to encode it.

Memory related disorders/forgetting:
Memory loss can rage from sever to mild causes, but they all result from some kind of neurological damage to the structure of the brain. Memory loss can be progressive like some of the well known disorders like Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease or it can be instant such as if someone were to be in a car accident and take dramatic impact to the head. But most disorders are causes by ageing. one of the things mentioned in one of the videos that really made me think and got my attention was when it was mentioned that why don't we forget what we look like, that why when we look at the mirror we remember that it is ourselves. The answer to that is of course because of our memory. If we were to lose our memory every other minute than we would not recognize ourselves in that mirror.

Real world connections:
Memory loss is a part of our everyday life, from mild to very sever cases. One case that I can think about is our dreams. I can relate to this because it happens to me all the time! I have a really weird or sometimes scary dream and I try to remember it so I can tell it to my friends and family when I see them, but sure enough as the day goes on I start to forget it little by little until it completely vanishes  from my memory.

Sources:
http://www.human-memory.net/disorders.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_disorder
https://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/memory_disorders/
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/centers_clinics/memory_disorders/conditions/index.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvIlVy2J2bU&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMOtNCuwqfQ&feature=youtu.be

Monday, March 5, 2018

learning


How do people learn, and is it a simple process? Well considering that the brain is one of many complex subjects that is studied by many scientist I would have to say that the learning process is not a simple one.

Science behind learning:
When you learn a new skill it is very beneficial for you. It not only adds a new tool for you to use in your life but it improves many other areas such as better working memory, better verbal intelligence, and increased language skills. As you would assume at first when you are taking on learning a new skill it takes your brain a little more effort to process and learn that skill, But later on as you continue to learn a practice that skill it takes your brain less work to accomplish it. The reason for this is because as your brain gets better at the skill you are learning, your brain is actually strengthening itself. The science behind how the brain learns is this; the more that connections between neurons in the brain are formed the more we learn and the more information we retain. We are still learning about how the brain functions and we will be for many years to come because of its complexity, but this is just some of the knowledge that scientists have accumulated by studying how the brain learns.

What stood out to me:
What really stood out to me was the video that Dr.Pris showed us during the lecture on Tuesday about the baby little Albert and the experiments conducted on him. I know it's pretty obvious to assume that a baby can be frighten and begin to cry with the slightest of noises so I wasn't surprised that every time the scientist would bang the steel bar when the rat was presented little Albert would cry. What did stand out to me is the effect that the noise of the steel bar left on little Albert. Since the steel bar was banged only when the rat was presented to little Albert, little Albert connected the rat to the noise. So now when the rat was presented he would become scared even though the steel bar was not being banged.

Real world Applications:
After learning about this subject there are many real world situations that are connected to the way we learn and the science of it. For example lets just go back to the little Albert experiment. Even though he was a a baby and didn't really have a lot of logical thinking at that point in his life to understand why noises and animals were being presented, he made the assumption and connection that every time he saw the rat there was going to be a noise. Why? because that is what he learned. We do the same thing with many other situations. For example lets say you let your buddy borrow five dollars and he never pays you back. If you have some type of logical thinking you are going to assume that he isn't going to pay you back again if you let him borrow another five dollars. We learn by expeirences and how they affect us.

Sources:
http://www.clomedia.com/2016/12/23/cognitive-science-behind-learning/
https://lifehacker.com/the-science-behind-how-we-learn-new-skills-908488422
https://numberworksnwords.com/global/blog/the-science-behind-learning-and-having-fun/#.Wp4iLrbMwaw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBfnXACsOI

Monday, February 26, 2018

Poster Board

Doing this poster board was low key a little difficult because I don't really think about my past on a daily basis so reminiscing and finding memories that I think shaped my personality to what it is today was a challenge. Overall Im proud of how my poster board came out and I hope you guys enjoy it!

Final Blog Post!

Through out this semester I have gained so much knowledge and understanding of psychology and I know it will benefit me in the long run. I w...