Author: krp5381

Katie Perry

12/11/19

Extra Credit Blog Post

 

Conforming to New Peers 

In the Lecture 23, social influence, we learned of the concept of Conformity. Conformity is described as changing your own behavior to match others’ behavior, even if it is subconsciously. I am from a small country town in western Pennsylvania, and I feel as if most of my friends I have made since coming to Penn State have been from the Philly area. They all use the same slang terms and just the manner they speak in. Many of my Philadelphia friends’ voices and the way the say words with the letter A in it are all the same, just because the area they are from. Since this summer when I began college, friends and family from home have been telling me of changes in my tone, new slang I have started saying that leads back to me taking after my new friend’s ways of speaking. These changes happened subtly and subconsciously to me; I did not even realize the changes in the way I talked until someone pointed it out from my hometown. This happened through the Chameleon Effect, which is when the behavior changed comes from unconsciously mimicking other’s expressions, postures, and tones, which describes my situation exactly. The chameleon effect is also known to help feelings of empathy. Without realizing, I began to change my actions to relate to my peers more and I just picked up their actions and slangs. Learning about this topic in our lecture I immediately was able to find a relation to it and making this connection to my real life began to help me realize how common Conformity is.  

 

Blog Post 3 

krp5381  

11/15/19 

Depression 

 

In the current lectures, we learned about disorders, one of which being the major depressive disorder. Depression is a very common disorder, around 16.2 million American adults have a depressive episode in a year. Depression is a very real, common, and very scary thing, and many people seek professional help following symptoms. I have been witness to this mental disorder since a young age. Having a close family member suffering from a mental illness as major as depression has been a very hard thing to face, especially growing up not quite understanding yet. Symptoms of depression include lethargy and tiredness, feeling of being worthless and the loss of interest in friends, family and activities that once had interested them. It was hard as a child trying to figure out what my family member was going through and wondering why they seemed so sad. Why they would be okay one day, and the next be gloomy and handle situations in a maladaptive way. Depression slows the individual down and even can bring thoughts of suicide, which was a hard concept for me to grasp at first, how and why it happens. As I grew up and learned more about what this illness does to an individual, it made much more sense to me and I learned ways to help my family member cope with this disorder when dark times came 

. Depression is also described as a response to past and current loss. I not only was open to depression in my family, I watched and helped my best friend with her struggle with this mental illness disorder as well. Her struggle got worse as she lost her aunt that she was very close to, to cancer. Losing a loved one is going to bring anybody sadness, but after months passed, I noticed she still was withdrawn to many things, always was tired on both the inside and the outside, and just had an overall loss of interest. It was hard to have to sit and watch someone close to you grieve and feel like you could not do anything to really help, besides being a friend. Therefore, professional help is so common in depression. 

One thing about depression is that it isn’t just being a little upset after a fight with a parent or being discouraged that you failed a test. Depression disorder is raw and painful. It is the darkness an individual diagnosed with deals with their life. A sign is the symptoms lasting multiple weeks, not just crying and feeling temporarily sad following a breakup. Major Depressive Disorder should be thought of with care and empathy towards people with this illness. Although that being this close and exposed to this disorder has been difficult for me as well, I feel glad I am more knowledgeable and can understand better just what Depression is. 

Katie Perry 

10/18/19 

Blog Post #2 

Josh Wede 

Encoding Specificity & State Dependent Memory 

In lecture 10, we learned about the concepts of encoding specificity and state dependent memory. Encoding specificity is when your memory is best when the condition of encoding matches the conditions of retrieval. For example, if you learn something while underwater, the chance you recall it is better if you are in the same condition of being underwater. It would be harder to retrieve if you were on dry land, because of encoding specificity. State dependent memory is very similar to encoding specificity. State dependent memory is described as which memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed. For example, not being able to remember something you encoded while you are sober, while you are intoxicated. It can even be vice versa as well; you can better retrieve a memory drunk if that memory was encoded when you were in the same state of intoxication. I have witnessed both concepts in real life, without knowing they had a name to it. At family parties, my uncle drinks and he will remember where things were at that he had misplaced the last time he was in that state. That is an example of state-dependent memory that I had witnessed. I have experienced the concept of encoding specificity myself though. In high school, I did better on tests where I studied in the room where I was going to take the test in. I noticed that I had done better on the previous tests when I had studied in class, or in the same room. Every time I had the opportunity to study in the Health room, I did because the theory of encoding specificity helped me retrieve information I had studied when it came to testing time. Both storage and retrieval theories are ones that I noticed in real life and have even experienced first hand.  

Katie Perry 

9/19/19 

Blog Post 1 

Professor Joshua Wede 

During the fall, Halloween season, it is always fun to go to haunted trails or houses. What is better than paying to be scared out of your mind? This past October, I went to a haunted trail with two of my friends. It was safe to say that was one of the times I had been most afraid. I experienced the ‘fight-or flight’ response that night. When one of the characters had heard my friends say my name, a creepy “murderer” with a scary mask and fake axe had heard and came up close to me and began singing my name. Even though I knew that it wasn’t real, and I was safe, the two thoughts in my head were to either sprint away screaming or to stay and get ready to fight. I choose the flight response and my friends and I took off the other way. Fight or flight response is when the body’s sympathetic nervous system becomes active when hormones are released. Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, and Breathing rate increase because of this rush of adrenaline in response to acute stress. Other reactions may be dilated pupils, pale and flushed skin and trembling of the body. I took the haunted trail character as a threat, so my body went through these reactions as I decided between running or fighting. Fight or flight is important because it plays a role on how we deal with threats or immediate stress. The tensing of muscles prepares the body to act against the danger, if it needs to start running or beginning to fight. This stress from the potential threat can help you be prepared in a situation when you need to run or act quickly to because your body has already begun to go through physiological reactions. I remember my heart had been beating rapidly the entirety of the walk through the trail. This was because my body was automatically beating rapidly to provide energy and oxygen to the body in case I either had to run or fight. The fight or flight response overall prepared me when I was in a time of fear to be ready to react if I needed to. My body went through the fight or flight response when I was in fear and through this reaction I was prepared in case I had to act quickly.