Author Archives: Sarah M Frankel

Post #3-Taste Aversion

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In class, we learned that if someone eats something and then later gets sick, they are likely to avoid eating that food either for a long period of time or forever. This concept is called Taste Aversion. The example in class used was how wolves became afraid to come near sheep after they got sick from eating them. When talking about this, I found a direct connection to my life.
When I was younger and got sick, my parents would give me medicine. The medicine they gave me was cherry flavored and in the form of a liquid. I had always hated taking medicine but would be forced to for the sake of my health. However, every time I took the cherry-flavored medicine, I would become sick afterwards. It was almost an immediate reaction. My parents started to realize that I could no longer take this flavor of medicine and instead gave me flavors such as orange or grape. I would be completely fine after taking those flavors. As I got older, I found myself avoiding anything that had to do with cherries. I would not eat cherry-flavored candy, cough drops, ice cream, or even the fruit itself. I still continue to do this today. If I accidentally eat something cherry flavored, I immediately realize it and have to spit it out or throw it away. It brings back the memories of when I was child and how I got sick from this flavor. I’m not entirely sure if I would still get sick if I took cherry medicine today, but I am so traumatized by taking it as a child, that I do not want to test it to find out. It really does not matter to me that I have this problem with cherry-flavored medicine, because it is easy to avoid eating something of that flavor. I always buy mint-flavored cough drops, I don’t buy cherry flavored candies, and I eat mostly all types of fruit but cherries. I feel as though if I had a taste aversion to something that is more common in food, such as egg (whether it be the egg it self or used in a recipe), it would be harder for me to eat the things that I love. My hatred and avoidance with anything involving cherries has not impacted my life in a dramatic way but I know that is something I will probably never grow out of.

Blog #2 Infantile Amnesia

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Blog Assignment #2
In class, we discussed the different types of memory. There’s sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. When we learned about long-term memory, we learned that the capacity for it is relatively unlimited. However, when we learned about infant memory, we saw that it is hard to trace back every single memory before the age of three. There are memories from before that age, however, it is just very difficult to retrieve. Another term to describe this is infantile amnesia. Between the ages of one and two our brain structures that are involved in memory storage are not fully developed.
I was born in New York City and lived in an apartment until I was around the age of two. We moved to New Jersey and have lived there ever since. A lot of times, my family will bring up moments from the old apartment we used to live in, but I have no memory of it at all. To me, the house I lived in when we decided to move is the only place I am familiar with. This is because I was far too young to be able to recall any memories from living in New York City. If my parents told me about a specific event from when we lived there, I would have to believe that it actually happened because I do not know otherwise. When we go into the city and walk around the old neighborhood, I would be shown the building I used to live in and the park I used to play in and the nearby restaurants my family would go to. To me, it all seemed new and unfamiliar even though I had been to all my places my parents told me about. My brother, on the other hand, is older than me and might have a better memory of the old apartment. He was around the age of three or four when we moved. His memory at the time was more developed that mine so he might be able to remember certain events from living in New York City, although he might not remember all of it. My earliest memory comes from living in New Jersey and going to preschool in my town. My brother’s earliest memory could have come from living in the old apartment. As we have learned, the average person’s earliest memory is from when they are about three years old. I will never be able to remember the early year or so of my life and living in the apartment in New York City.

Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic

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Sarah Frankel

Psychology 100 003

Blog Assignment #1

5 February 2014

Psychodynamic studying means focusing on the unconscious and early development of people. This is the modern term for psychoanalysis, which takes a look into the early mind. It is the belief that childhood experiences greatly influence the development of later personality. Psychoanalysis emphasizes unconscious conflict and past events and early childhood trauma.

Every since I was young, loud noises such as music at a concert, fire drills, and thunderstorms had always bothered me. I would start to scream and cry whenever I heard any of those noises. No one else growing up with me had these issues and I would get made fun of for this. I feared the days in school when we had routine fire drills and even when there was a small chance for a thunderstorm I would refuse to go outside. This had a huge impact on my life and did not really go away until I got older. I remember my first ever concert. I was four years old and I had no idea what to expect from it. The second the concert started I started to freak out and cry. My dad had to take me outside of the venue and we ended up missing the entire show. That’s what started it all. I did not like being surprised by loud noises. At school I would want to be warned before a fire drill and when there was a thunderstorm, I go into the basement of my home to try and prevent myself from hearing it.

Growing up, this fear I had became a part of me and affected my personality. One moment I could be totally fine, the next I would be panicking. It really affected the people around me too. They would have to constantly worry if I was okay or not. My parents even made me go to therapy to try and get rid of my fear but it did not work out. As I got older I was able to actually grow out of most of these fears. I matured as I got older and realized that there wasn’t anything to be afraid of. Thunderstorms still scare me but not to the extent to which it did when I was younger. When I know a storm is coming, a little piece of me still gets anxious. This is from all of the fear that I had when I was younger and how some of it still stuck with me.

This psychology theory applies to the fears and traumatic events I’ve had when I was little and how even today it is still a part of my life. Maybe as I get older the fear will completely disappear, but I do believe that some of it will still stay with me because that is how my mind perceives it. I was affected by my fears so early on in my life that it is imbedded into my thought processes.