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!

Personality Assesment


There are many people in this world and none have the same exact personality as one another. They might be close and resemble each other in some ways but never identical. In the branch of personality psychology psychologist try to study and understand how personality is developed in each individual. They try to ponder and see if past experiences and events have shape the personality of a individual.

What is personality:
There is not a set definition for personality but many personality psychologist say that personality is composed of a individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Personality tests:
There are many personality tests out there especially on the internet that people can take and get some  pretty accurate feedback on their type of personality that they have. Durning a personality test you will be asked a bunch of questions and all the answers and information you input will but put together and give you certain characteristics of what certain type of personality you have, for example a leader or a passionate person etc...

How personality is used:
Personality is used in many places and one of the most common place it is used in is a workplace. In the U.S. about 13% of employers utilize personality test when hiring new employees. The most well known test that these companies use to hire employers is known as the Myers-Briggs test. Employers use this test and many other personality test for these reasons, they help determine which candidate is best fit for the job, These test are less Time consuming for the employer since it is more than likely on line, and last but not least it will pull out the weaknesses and strengths of the individual taking it.

My take on personality:
Yes I believe that many people have common personalities but no one has the same identical personality, so I personally don't really take a personalities test score to heart because I don't really believe it is accurate enough at least for me. I also do believe that a individuals past expeirence and the events they have lived through have shaped their personality in some sort or way. At the end of the day everyone has their own unique personality and it is amazing in its own way.

Sources:
https://www.geteverwise.com/human-resources/why-employers-use-personality-tests/
http://www.apa.org/topics/personality/
https://www.simplypsychology.org/personality-theories.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_psychology
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-games/201712/what-does-your-signature-say-about-your-personality


Monday, February 19, 2018

Developmental Psychology

Nature-Nurture Question
the nature-nurture question has been an on going debate that is still active to this day regarding whether a persons development of certain biological and regular characteristics are determined strictly on their nature (genetics) or nurture (how they are raised and by who).

Nature side of the debate
the nature side of the debate claims that the genetic makeup of the person will always develop the same no matter how that person is raised and brought up. For example the nature side of the debate claims that if a new born baby that has really tall curly hair blue eye biological parents were to be adopted by a Mexican short straight hair brown eye family that the child would still develop the genetics that were given to him by his biological parents.

Nurture side of the debate
The nurture Side of the debate claims that even though a child is handed down certain biological characteristics they can be altered with by the way the child is raised and brought up. For example lets say there was a couple who loved to smoke and drink, and were very angry people. They got to work and the girl got pregnant but upon having the baby the husband was put in jail and she died during the childbirth so the baby was given up for adoption. A loving christian family was granted the custody of the child and they raised it with their morals and beliefs. The nurture side of the debate claims that the child would grow up and have the same characteristics and morals as the non biological parents who raised it instead of having the biological characteristics of the biological parents.

Examples
here are some of the most popular examples that keep the nature-nurture debate alive and active.

  • Homosexuality 
  • Personality
  • Intelligence 
  • obesity 
  • occupation 
My personal take
After reading a few articles and learning about this topic my personal take on this debate would have to be a mixed one. I don't believe one is fully effective while the other is false. I believe that their is a combination of both the sides that take place. Let me give you an example I don't believe that just because a child with really tall biological parents is given to a short family to be raised that all of the sudden the child is going to be short. But on the other hand I do believe that if a child that has really aggressive drug addict parents is given to a Christian family that the way the child is raised will be dramatically different then how the parents act and are.

Sources
http://nobaproject.com/modules/the-nature-nurture-question
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/nature-vs-nurture-examples.html
http://www.softschools.com/examples/science/nature_vs_nurture_examples/482/
https://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html

Monday, February 12, 2018

Teen Brain vs Adult Brain


the brain of a teenager and the brain of an adult differ partially causing them to think differently on different things and that is perfectly normal. The brain of a teenager has not yet developed fully in the way that the adult brain has, teenagers lack many of the nerve connections that tie the frontal lobe to the rest of the brain limiting their ability to think ahead.
I interviewed my little brother and my youth counselor from church who is twenty four and what I acknowledged from the answers each one of them gave for each scenario was that the teenager would just give me an answer for the most part and not really give an explanation why, but the adult would not only give me an answer but would break down why he gave that answer with a strong explanation. I gave the same eight scenarios to the teenager and the adult and asked them to tell me if they think each one of these scenarios was a good or bad idea in their opinion. I discovered that since the adult that I interviewed is still a young adult and was a teenager a few years ago, he would tell me that when he was younger he would of said that many of these scenarios that he said today are a bad idea would have been a good idea. I always knew that the brain of a teenager and adult differ because teenagers mostly think in the moment, while adults think of the consequences that may occur in the  future from their actions, but I had never interview them both and I thought this was really interesting and fun.

Sources:
http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/07/25/the-difference-between-teenage-brains-and-adult-brains/
https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/teenage-brain-development-behavior-explained-frontal-lobe-function.html

Sensation And Perception

Sensation/Perception:When you think about it the brain is truly a complex magnificent masterpiece that could not have been created by anyone but God himself. The average human brain weighs about three pounds and is fairly small if you think about it, but the power it has can rearrange whole landscapes and turn mountains into open highways, its ability is limitless. The average human has five senses that consist of sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing. These five senses are all unique in their own way. The process of sensation is occurs when your sense organs are engaged in transduction, the conversion of one form of energy to the other. The brain can not understand what Is happening until that physical energy that you are feeling is converted into electrical stimulation, something the brain can understand. This physiological process of converting physical energy to electrical stimulation causing the brain to makes sense of the stimuli is called perception. 

Synesthesia:
From the videos that Dr.Pris gave to use to watch for this blog the one that most caught my attention was the one about Synesthesia. I just find it so interesting that certain people can combine two sense to connect one to the other, for example in the video the guy said that there are some people with synesthesia that when they think of the letter J the think of the color purple or when they think of the color red they automatically relate it to the letter A. The development of how someone aquires Synesthesia has not yet been discovered but it has been suggested that it develops in a person's childhood.  

Signs and Symptoms:
 It is reported that the people that have synesthesia don't really know they have it until the realize that other people don't have the same experiences as them. Although stereotyped that synesthesia is a medical condition, synesthesians don't believe that and the majority think its pretty cool and unique. 

Types Of Synesthesia:
There are two overall types of Synesthesia, projective synesthesia and associative synesthesia. 


Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/synesthesia-hear-colors
https://www.thoughtco.com/synesthesia-definition-and-types-4153376
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3759026/

Monday, February 5, 2018

Brain And Behavior

From watching some of the ted talks and some 
extra research I have found out many interesting things about the brain and its behavior. The brain's main function is to control our movement the ability to keep our balance and send information all throughout our body to do everyday things we don't even think about. For example sending information to our eyes giving us the ability to see,  sending information to our ears allowing us to hear and sending information to all of our other sensory organs allowing them to do what they were made to do to keep us alive. The brain connects to the muscles using motor neurons and goes through what I think is a complicated process. When the motor neurons inside the spinal cord fire an impulse goes down the axon, a very thin long extension of that single cell and It releases a chemical causing our muscles to contract and stretch allowing us to be able to move. Like I said this seems like a very complicated process but our brain is so powerful and fast that this process happens at about 268 miles an hour. I really like the story of the first TED talk that I watched about the guy that became paralyzed due to a car accident, but was able to deliver the opening kick at the Fifa World Cup in Brazil. He was able to do this because a group of neuroscientist created a robot skeleton suit that could receive commands from the brain of the person wearing the skeleton suit and take those commands from the brain and put them into actual movement. In the TED talk the guy gives a ton of information of how this is possible through a machine created by humans and many other elements of what it took to build this skeletal brain suit. I understood a good amount of it but my knowledge in neuroscience is not very developed so some of his points just went right over my head, but in saying that I like how he explained why a paralyzed person can't move. He tells us that the brain is still sending demands to the body, but that there is no connection because the spinal cord has been damaged and is out of order. For example lets say I go to class on the second floor of Abilene hall everyday and the door is always open, but one day I go to class and Dr.Pris locked herself out and no one has an extra key I am not going to be able to get inside the class room because the door is locked. Just like the demands the brain sends, they are still being sent but they cannot get into the spinal cord because it is damaged (the door is locked).

Sources:
http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/faqs/how-does-your-body-move-does-the-brain-send-it-messages/
http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=1950
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072574/
https://www.ted.com/talks/miguel_nicolelis_brain_to_brain_communication_has_arrived_how_we_did_it#t-558461

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...