Chapter 3 Blog

From this chapter I learned about different levels of awareness, sleep, and other things that can effect the mind and the way it works. The levels of awareness affects me because it is important that I know what level of awareness I am at and know what I am doing. Sleep of course has a huge affect on me, and it has shown me how sleep is affected by cycles and the brain. It has also shown me how important sleep really is to us. People are on a kind of biological clock, it can be thrown off easily, but it is important that people are able to be on schedule with their biological clock. Sleep can affect happiness, concentration, slower reactions and thinking time, and many other functions necessary to people. Something I found surprising was how active the brain really is when we sleep. Most people assume that when we go to sleep, everything just kind of shuts down. This chapter showed that our brain is sending out different waves at different amplitude and frequency. There's really nothing I disagree with in the chapter, it all makes sense to me.

Chapter 7 Blog

The thing I found most interesting in this chapter was Classical Conditioning and how simple it really is. It is amazingly easy to train someone or something based on the natural tendencies that organism already has. I also think it is interesting how many of us think of something like this as no big deal, so what if the dog learns to come to the bell? But yet Pavlov noticed a pattern in his dogs and decided to study it. It really is amazing how well it works too.

I can also think of many examples of Classical Conditioning in my life. The first and most obvious is how all students, me included, learn to move to the next class at the sound of the bell. Now anytime I'm in school, if I hear the bell I know it means its either time to leave class or time to get there. Another thing I find interesting is that here in Greenwood, there are 3 bells before 1st hour, but all of us students know what each means with out even having to think about it. Each bell, though they sound the same, comes naturally to us.

Another example I can think of is at my house whenever we pick up a container with many small, hard pieces inside it, our cats come running, expecting food. They've learned the sound their food bin makes and now come running to that sound every time.

Pavlov's Classical Conditioning is by far my favorite learning style, because it's so easy to make an organism learn with their natural tendencies.

Chapter 5, Parenting Styles

After reading the section on parenting styles, I started thinking about people I know and how they act based on the style their parents use. It says how Authoritative is the "just right" style. From what I've noticed that seems to be true. But comparing the Authoritarian and Permissive styles is interesting. Children growing up with Authoritative parents seem to learn more from them, they're lifestyles develop with parents input. But with the other to parenting styles, people develop more based on their peers.

I can honestly say my parents are more permissive than anything, although they sometimes seem to use both other styles. My sister, who grew up with kids that were frequently getting in trouble, got in fights with my parents, threw tantrums, didn't listen, etc. My brother grew up with more responsible, smart friends. He always listened, worked hard, got good grades, and rarely fought with my parents. I'm kind of a mixture of the two and, to prove my point, I hang out with people who are never in trouble and people who are always in trouble.

It seems to be true for everyone I know. I can think of two different people under the Permissive style, one that grew up with more responsible friends and one that grew up with friends who were often in trouble. The first friend is responsible, has very good values, and gets excellent grades. The second friend is always in trouble, does very stupid things, and doesn't care about school.

I can also think of two different people under the Authoritarian style. And just like two other two, one has more responsible friends, one was more irresponsible friends. The first gets good grades, works VERY hard, and is very self disciplined. The second, also works hard and is self disciplined, but gets in a lot of trouble and seems to rebel more against his parents.

Thinking Critically

1) Research is important because with out it, we would know nothing. We use research to study various things in our world, and the results of that research will help us grow and survive.

2) Research on Asthma and similar breathing problems relate to my life because I have Asthma. Research can help find new kinds of medications and breathing techniques that can help with Asthma. It can help by finding ways to prevent it, to decrease the amount of attacks, or to even completely eliminate it.

3) From the Thinking Critically Chapter I learned:

a) People tend to be over confident and over estimate themselves all the time. It is important to understand this because we need to be aware of when someone really knows what they're talking about or when they are simply "talking big." We also need to be aware that even our own minds are over confident. We need to realize when we really know what's happening and how often we are just making things up.

b) Curiosity is the main cause of all scientific experiments. This is important because we need science to survive. Without people's natural curiosity science wouldn't be used and our society would not thrive.

c) Research, statistics, and many other scientific principals are used in everyday life. Regular people are able to find out things that can greatly help our society. Scientists aren't the only ones making discoveries.

Introduction

Hey!


My name is Melissa Hebert, I'll be turning 17 in October and I'm a junior at Greenwood High school. One thing that has shaped me as a person started when I was in fourth grade. My parents started doing foster care, which is when I made the not-so-easy transition from the baby of a quiet, happy family, to the middle child of a zoo. We adopted a now 10 year old boy whom I have never really gotten along with. Then my mother started doing day care so I had to adjust to even more kids. It can be frustrating having so many different children in your home. Weather it's the children or families of the children, there is always some difficulty. There's conflicts with the way we live and the way the children live. I've also had to deal with becoming attached to children, and then watching them leave. The experiences with all the children have had a huge impact on me. It's changed the happy environment I grew up in to something very stressful. I've learned to be more patient and accepting, I've learned that unexpected moments in life can change things forever. The biggest thing I've learned is how to take care of myself.

I think psychology is everything to do with the human mind and behaviors of people. The way we act, talk, think, live, etc. It's all part of psychology. Studying it is very important because it helps us learn how to live with other people, and our world is full of very different people who do very different things. Psychology helps us understand the ways other people act, and it even helps us understand how we act.