Final Learning Reflection Blog

Overview

During the first module we researched all the different types of psychology, and also wrote personal blogs about ourselves. It was very interesting reading everybody's personal blogs and getting to know them. Not only did I learn a little about their personal lives, but I learned a little something about them just by their blog layout. Also, I really enjoyed learning about all the different types of psychology. The one that I found most interesting was Sports Psychology since I plan on being a Physical Therapist. Sports psychology would be the best fit for me to study, with the career path I've chosen.

In Module 2 we went over the brain, sensation, and perception. My favorite part of this module was learning about the brain. I wrote my blog over all the lobes of the brain and their functions. The human brain is just so interesting to me, and I really enjoyed researching into detail about it. With sensation and perception I enjoyed looking at all the optical illusions, and interesting experiment videos.

The third module was all about Developmental Psychology and personality. I specifically enjoyed Developmental Psychology, because it was interesting learning all the different stages of life and what defines them. For personality I researched into depth about Sigmund Freud's theories on personality. For example, the Personality Structure Theory and the Psychoanalytic Theory.

Module 4 was all about memory and learning. The most interesting thing to me was Pavlov's experiment with the dog learning. After studying this, I realized that this was a huge breakthrough when it came to actually training dogs. I also really enjoyed researching into the concept of memory. Specifically memory disorders.

The fifth module was about Motivations, Emotions, and Social Psychology. I really loved this module because I got to tell my mothers story about her living with Multiple Sclerosis. Many people do not know how brutal this disease is, and how it can brutally affect someones mental health. 

Module 6 was very interesting because it was all about Psychological Disorders and Therapy. I really loved this module as well because it was interesting learning the different types of therapy and psychological disorders. I also loved telling my sisters story about her disorders and the therapy she went through. 

The seventh and final module was all about positive psychology. I enjoyed all the activities we did in class, and even the experiential assignment. Personally, I am not the most positive person. Since this module I told myself I will use all the things we did to make myself be less negative. 

Standouts

The last three tasks really stood out the most to me. I loved telling my personal experiences with my family and their stories. I think that stories like this, people tend to be embarrassed by, but in reality shouldn't be. In fact more stories like those need to be shared. They can really help people understand what they go through, or even help them figure out whats wrong with them. Lastly, positive psychology had a deeper impact on me than everything else. I worked really hard on trying to stay positive, and seeing the "light" in darker situations. Because I can be so negative I can be bitter and even mean sometimes. I have wanted to change my negativity for some time now so the experiential task I did, which was writing down three good things every day, really helped me kickstart my change. I am hoping I will continue to try my hardest to be more positive, and because of this I will always remember this module in particular. 

The most interesting student led activity was the positive psychology one. My group got to go around the campus and head out candy. This was very fun because we got to make peoples day, and put a smile on their face. 

My favorite blog posts are a tie between the psych story and therapy. I really enjoyed adding a little personal touch to my blog and including my families struggles. They really enjoyed me telling their story, and they agreed that this was a great thing to do for class. My family has been affected directly by mental health and therapy, so being able to truthfully explain how it affected them was amazing.

The experiential task that stood out to me the most was False memory. In this task I read out word lists to both of my friends, and they were supposed to write down as many words as they could remember. It was interesting to see how many they could remember, but they also wrote down a few words that were not on the list, but fit the categories on the list. It was a very fun task to do, my friends really enjoyed it. They also really enjoyed learning about the concept of false memory. This task caused a lot of laughs, and it was very memorable. 

Classroom Lectures & Videos

The most insightful class meetings to me where when we had the therapy dogs come in with their owners and talk. One reason is because I am a major dog person, and the fact that they brought a little puppy to run around the room. But besides that, I really enjoyed learning about that because it made me realize that animals can significantly help humans. After that class period, I researched even more and I realized that I could use dogs for Physical Therapy.

The Ted Talks and reading were very helpful to me. It made things easier to research, and it also showed different ideas for each topic. One specific video that stood out to me was The Rubber Hand Illusion. This was very interesting to me because I wrote about it in my it in my sensation and perception blog. It was really interesting how to see first hand how the brain perceives things, and it was also funny seeing peoples reactions. 

My favorite blogger comments came from the comments on my blog about my sisters mental health story. They really made me feel good about telling her story. At first I was skeptical on telling her story because she is still uncomfortable with the whole situation, then seeing their comments on it really made her day. Those comments made her feel good about herself.  

Personal & Professional Life

The topic of positive psychology stood out to me the most. For seven days straight I sat down before I went to bed and wrote down three positive things that happened to me that day. Even when I had the worst day, it made me feel a whole lot better. This task help me see more than one aspect to a situation, and even lifted up my mood. I hope that I will be able to keep up seeing the more positive things in life instead of the negative things. 

The topic that stood out the most during my professional life is whenever the therapy dogs came to class. This made me see a whole different aspect of Physical Therapy. It made me see how dogs can have a big impact on humans. I realized that I can use dogs to assist in physical therapy. It is just an idea, but I love dogs so much that this would make me very happy. 

M7 Experiential Task: Positive Psychology

Reflection

I really enjoyed doing this task for the past seven days. I think it really helped me get through the week. Some days were not the best, but I also had some good days. Instead of just noticing all the negative things that happened in my day, this made me appreciate the little positive things each day. For my good days, it just made my day even better being able to reflect on it in this way.  This allowed me to take a step back and realize that my days could have been worse. I tend to be a very negative person, and I know that is something I need to work on. This task helped me, and I may try to continue to do this at least a few times a week. Overall, this proved to me that some methods with positive psychology really make a difference! 

M6 Experiential Task: Psychological Disorders & Therapy

My family has never been one to take up counseling. They like to bottle things up, and I must admit I am a little guilty of this as well. A few years ago there was a traumatizing situation in my sisters life, and it broke the bottle inside of her and all emotions came out at once. Even though she ended up on the right side of the situation, she had to live with the affects and in constant fear of that trauma. I saw my sisters demons appear suddenly at the age of 28, and I saw her completely broken down for over a year. Now she has become significantly better with her mental health. She still struggles, but she is definitely back to the sister and daughter we used to know. This is her story.

My sister became extremely depressed, had severe anxiety, and even turned to alcohol to try to make herself feel better. She lost over 40 pounds from depression. Before the was on average weighing about 130 and she jumped down to 90 pounds. She was at an all time low. She even turned against some of us family members, and completely shut us out. I was the only one who was actually there for her anymore. When I realized she needed more than just my help, I told her to think about counseling. I told her I wouldn't tell anyone else, that just me and her husband would know about the counseling. She would have to drive about an hour and fifteen minutes to San Angelo twice a week for this. I helped baby sit my nephew on these days until her husband got off of work.

My sister started her mental health journey. She went to 8 months of counseling. The entire family started to see improvement after about 4 months. She wasn't completely back to herself, but she came around more and she was opening up to us again. However, she still couldn't put down the alcohol. She went out with her friends one night and she decided to drink and drive. She ended up being in a horrible car accident, and committing several hit and runs. She is lucky to be alive. It was this moment, when she finally realized she wanted to actually get better herself. She put her whole heart into it. She started going to AA meetings, and she started taking up activities on her own time to keep her busy, and still continued her counseling.

She finally decided to tell the entire family about everything that went on in her mind, and about the counseling. Both of us were nervous about how our family would react to it, and to our surprise they all listened and supported her entirely. This was another key moment in her journey that really helped her get through everything. The amount of support and love we showed her was so wonderful. She will tell you today that counseling saved her life.

After talking to my sister about all of this here is what she said "At first I thought counseling was for crazy people. But the reality of it is that bottling up your emotions and feelings can be dangerous, and counseling can save lives. Without it I would have truly fallen off the deep end." She still continues to struggle with anxiety, but she no longer suffers from depression, and she has gained all her weight back that she lost. Since she has gotten better, she has not even touched alcohol. We are all very proud of her, and we continue to remind her of how strong she is and how much we love her.

Due to the fact that she is still uncomfortable about her story she asked me not to put any pictures of her, a video of her, and to not use her name. However, she was excited to share her story and spread mental health awareness. 

Sources:

If you are interested in learning about certain disorders or more about mental health here are a few websites you can visit!

https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-conditions

https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health

Psych Story

I don't have a long story to tell you, because my mother has only lived with Multiple Sclerosis for several years now. But I can definitely tell you how brutal this neurological disease is, and how horrible it affects the human body from my mothers perspective.

So imagine a girl and her mother walking through the main aisle of Walmart, just like anyone else. Okay, now imagine a drunk woman walking down the main aisle of Walmart. Everyone is staring rudely, even whispering. Only, my mother definitely isn't drunk. Multiple Sclerosis eats away the body's nerve endings, and causes loss of function in the body. For example, my mom walks like a drunk person. These are even her own words when she explains to people. She always says "I promise I have not been drinking, I just walk like I have been." Not only that she can't walk for long periods of time before her legs go numb and she can't feel them.

She also has problems remembering, because the disease is affecting her brain activity as well. It affects everything she does. She no longer has 100% of her physical and cognitive abilities. There was a time where nobody had any idea what was wrong with her, including the doctors. She thought it was all in her head. I saw my mother extremely depressed, and even suicidal. It was like she went from being Supermom to nothing, in her mind. In such a short period of time too.

Finally we found out what was wrong with her, now she is on medicine and it helps prevent the fast process. There is no cure, but it slows everything down. My mother realized that she cannot let MS tear her down. Although she has a lot of trouble with everyday things, she gets them done at her own pace. She picks herself back up when she falls, with the help of our family as well.

Sooner or later she will not be able to do anything on her own, but like she always says "I am blessed to live another day, and I have to live each day like it is my last." We are very proud of her, and she is still Supermom to us.

If you are interested in finding out more about Multiple Sclerosis, this link will take you to a very useful website.

https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS

Sources:

https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS

False Memory & Serial-Position Effect: M4 Experiential Task

Experiment

My two volunteers for this experiment were Nicole Bloomer, one of my best-friends, and Kylee Dodson, my roommate who is also one of my best-friends. Nicole is actually a Psychology major and she was excited to perform this task. I gave Kylee and Nicole a piece of paper and a pencil so they could write down as many words they could remember from the lists. I read the first list slowly and when I finished they began to write. Nicole only remembered five words out of 14. Kylee remembered eight words out of 14. Then I began to read the words off of the 2nd list and they began to write. This time Nicole remembered 11 out of 27 words. Kylee remembered 12 out of 27 words. I asked both of them why they remembered more words from this list, even though it is longer then the first one. They both agreed that the first list were words they didn't really feel were that important to them. They also agreed that the second list they could associate with the words more because they were about the medical field, and they both feel that the medical field is very important. I asked both of them if they remembered the word "Aardvark" from the first list. They both said no, and they looked at me like I was crazy. They were both right because the word was not on the list. Then I asked if they remembered the word "needle." Both said no, but now that I mentioned it they remembered the word. I told them after that I did not say the word needle. They were both surprised and they agreed that needle could easily have been in the first list because it goes in the same category as the other words, so that's why they thought I read it out loud. I then asked if they remembered the words "pain" and "thread" which were the first and last words of the first list. They both remembered the words and they said they remembered it because it was the first and last words I said. Then I asked if they remembered the words "point" and "sharp" and they both said no. These words were directly in the middle of the list. By looking at their list's I saw that they remembered the first few words and the last few words from both lists. I asked them if they remembered the word "doctor" from the second list. Nicole said she remembered the word and wrote it down. I explained to her that doctor wasn't on the list, and she said it could have easily fit in the second lists category of words. Then I asked if they remembered the word "drive-in" and they both said no. Which that word was not on the list.

What They Learned

I began to explain the concept of false memory to both of them. I even told them the story that Dr. Selvaraj told us about the boy who was kidnapped when he was little from his stroller, but turned out that he never got kidnapped at all. They were both very shocked and appalled. I also explained to them some of the techniques people use to remember things. For example, how they associated the
categories of words in the list. They seemed very interested in learning about this.

Both Kylee and Nicole said that they enjoyed this experiment and learning about memory. Nicole was especially interested since she is a psychology major herself. They said they give this experiment a thumbs up!

Memory

Memory is the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc. or recalling or recognizing previous experiences. Most of us don't realize how important memory is to our everyday life. Without it we as humans couldn't be able to function.
We have both short term memory, which is usually less important things, and we have long term memory, which is where we have stored things to remember the rest of our lives.

Thoughts on Improving Memory-Tests & Strategies

There are many ways that we can help improve our memory. For example, by making up rhymes, using symbols, or even using humor. I think it is very important to want to improve your memory. With age a person's memory begins to decay, some faster than others. Even if a person doesn't have Alzheimers or Dementia, a person's memory still gradually gets worse. Using these techniques and tools in following link can help you slow down the process!

https://www.mindtools.com/memory.html

Thoughts on Memory Related Disorders & Forgetting

Often times memory disorders can result from neurological damage, such as concussions. There are also cases that are genetic which are called Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is generally diagnosed around the age of 65. It is a progressive, degenerative, and even fatal disease. The usual symptom of Alzheimers is often forgetting long term memories, such as a past experience or even forgetting who a person is when they look in the mirror. Another symptom includes is not being able to have short term memory. 

Personally, I have had personal experiences with Alzheimer's. My great grandmother had Alzheimer's really bad. I was a child, but I remember that my parents always had to introduce her to me, because she didn't remember who I was, even though I might have just seen her minutes before. Sadly, my grandpa's memory is deteriorating from it as well. His memory isn't very bad yet, but I know with time there is no avoiding it. 

Sources:

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/memory?s=t

https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/memory

https://www.mindtools.com/memory.html

http://www.human-memory.net/disorders_alzheimers.html

Learning

The definition for learning in the world of psychology is the modification of behavior through practice, training, or experience. There are 3 types of learning in the field of behavioral psychology: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.

Classical Conditioning

This type of learning is in which an association is made between a neutral stimulus and a stimulus that evokes a response. Ivan Pavlov conducted an experiment to see how much the dog would salivate when it came to food. The smell of food would make the dog salivate so this was the neutral stimulus. Then later he paired the sound of the bell with the food. At first the bell had no effect, but the dog began to learn that the sound of the bell signaled food. So then the bell produced a response, which was salivation. 

Operant Conditioning

This is the process in which the probability of the response occurring is either decreased or increased due to punishment, or reinforcement. Edward Thorndike was the first to study this and later B.F. Skinner. They discussed that reinforcement led to increases of behaviors and punishment led to decreases in behaviors.

Observational Learning

The process in which learning occurs from observing or the imitation of others. There are four important things that are vital to effective observational learning: attention, motor skills, motivation, and memory. Albert Bandura was the first to suggest this process. Bandura conducted the "Bobo Doll" experiment. First he showed an adult using violence on the doll. Later he showed the children and based on what they saw from the adults they began to express violence towards the doll. 

Personal Learning

I think the type of learning that stood out to me the most was observational learning. I think this is one of the most understood ways to learn. I believe this is very important when it comes to raising a child. Children are constantly observing the world around them whether they know it or not, so it is natural for them to imitate certain actions, whether they are good or bad. 

Sources

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/learning?s=t

https://www.verywellmind.com/learning-study-guide-2795698