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.