Category Archives: Methods

Changing Study Habits

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The concept of memorization and the different types of rehearsals and processing associated with learning was discussed in lecture. Memory is actively learning something, and then storing that information just like you would store the old stuff toys that you played with as a child. Remembering is when you retrieve that stored information and rebuild it within your mind. With memory, you first use your sensory memory and that information will either be short term memory and long term memory. Whether it will enter the long term memory storage or the short term memory storage is dependent on how that information was processed. This lecture was a particular interest to me because I am taking a couple of courses that is really memory based and for some reason, I could not get any information to stick to me. I admit it; I do cram however, only for some classes and when I do cram, I try to cram about three days in advance.(Still no excuse I know)However, it is really frustrating for exams that I have been seriously studying for but when I take the exam, all I have in my head is a blank slate. I also went through the tip of the tongue phenomena, which is knowing that you know something but not being able to recall that information. I tried changing my study habits as well as reviewing the notes on a daily basis, so less cramming, yet still the changes didn’t show on my exam grades. Obviously I wasn’t doing anything right, but at the same time, I did not know what I was doing wrong. Not knowing what was wrong made it really difficult. How can I change something when I don’t even know what to change? Apparently it was a couple of things. It was my habit of listening to music while studying as well as the daily review. First of all, the music was blocking the effective processing of information from the start. Even though I was not listening to the words, my brain could still understand the words and basically my brain was split in two since it was trying to process the music lyrics and the actual words that I was trying to learn. In the end, I was not efficiently learning anything and adding work to my brain. The daily review was only maintenance rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal is just repeating the information over and over again until you memorize it, however, after a certain period of time you lose that information because that memory enters the short term memory storage. It really was an eye opener. I started listening to music that had no words to it and when I reviewed the information on a daily basis, I made sure to go over the information, really try to understand it and make sure I learned it so it had some meaning to me (web of association) and then recalled that information. When I study in my room, I try to reteach the information to myself. I recently took one of my exams for a class that I REALLY needed to do well in, and got an A. If only I knew this earlier.

Studying Suggestions

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Learning how to study correctly is something that is very important to do while you are in college.  In order to get and maintain good grades, you have to develop good study habits.  In class we learned about a lot of really good study suggestions and pieces of advice that can be helpful to anyone.  One piece of advice/information that was talked about was attentional blink.  This concept that that switching attentions between different things can be time consuming while you are trying to get work done.  College kids are surrounded by electronics that have social media on them which can be extremely distracting.  Constantly getting updates on your phone, having several texting conversations, checking Twitter, and Facebook, and Instagram can make staying focused very difficult which will make getting your work done take much longer than it should.  Even if you think you are just going to quickly text someone back or look something up, it is very easy to get side tracked and spend way more time than you think on that little task.  I have definitely noticed this to be a problem not only with my own study habits, but with my friends as well.  I have tried to study with my one friend for a class that we have together and it is almost impossible because he is constantly checking Facebook or his phone.  It takes us twice as long to get our studying done because he gets distracted and then it distracts me.  When I really don’t want to study for something or something that I am reading is really boring, I am constantly checking my phone.  This makes everything take so much longer and then I get stressed out because I don’t have enough time to get everything done that I have to do for the day.   After we talked about study habits in class, I tried turning off all of my electronics and putting them away while I did homework and studied one day.  I had a lot of work to get done so I decided to try this out.  I was able to get so much more work done and felt like I really understood everything that read and studied.  I also used the method of studying really hard for 30-50 minutes and then taking a short break and this definitely helped me retain more information.  I will definitely be using these study tactics again when I need to get a lot of work done.  I would suggest this to anyone that needs to work on their studying skills to get better grades.

Psychology: The Crossroads of Physiology and Philosophy

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We mentioned in class that psychology is a combination of two other schools of learning; physiology, the study of how living things work, and philosophy, the theories behind why living things behave the way they do.

When I was in highschool, we had a section of our writing philosophy class dedicated to the idea of determinism. In the theory of determinism, every action and decision man makes is determined by his past, determined by every event that has influenced or shaped him in some way. In this theory, everything from why one would want to go to law-school to why one has a strong desire for hot cocoa on stormy nights is determined by past events that have shaped him to “choose” things the way he does. For example, I want to become a physician’s assistant. This is not a random choice, nor is it random in any way, shape, or form according to determinism. I am choosing to become a physician’s assistant for various reasons, all of which have been meshed together in my subconscious and influenced me to make this decision. Maybe it is because my father is a doctor, maybe it is because I get positive reinforcement from my peers when I come to their aid, maybe it is because I have been raised to think I should help others, or because people in medicine are regarded highly. Of these reasons I am not sure, but my choice is not the result of my free will, it is a result of my previous experiences.

This theory was immediately brought to the forefront of my mind when we discussed the theories of psychoanalysis and behaviorism. In the theory of psychoanalysis, early childhood experiences and trauma are believed to influence how a man behaves later on in life, influencing his personality. In the theory of behaviorism, an individual is shaped by how he is nurtured. External stimuli lead the individual to behave in a certain way. Both of these theories strongly relate to determinism. As a strong determinist, I am intrigued by these theories, and believe strongly in both of them. There are many aspects of my current life and of my personality that I can strongly trace back to childhood events and certain definite shaping events of my life. For example, I was a very fat child and got teased and chastised for it. Now, as an adult who is still on the larger side, I can trace a lot of the elements about how I feel about my appearance, how I judge appearance, and how I behave in regards to physical activity and diet back to the events that occurred during my childhood.

Just as play-dough can never return to its original shape once moulded, just as it is constantly changed, shaped, and turned, so too are our minds. Shaped by the past, these mouldings are outwardly projected as our behavior. As predicted by determinism, and as observed and studied in behaviorism and psychoanalysis, our past truly does determine our future.

Naturalistic Observation: Managers v.s. Employees

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In class we discussed the research method of naturalistic observation and its benefits and advantages. Naturalistic observation involves studying the behavior of people or animals in their natural setting/environment and the concept of how they will change their behaviors in different settings. The main goal of naturalistic observation is to study and observe the peoples or animals behaviors in their natural setting with no intervention. This type of research is often used when laboratory research is unrealistic, cost prohibitive or if it would knowingly affect the subjects behavior. This research is often used because it is fairly easy to conduct and its cost-effectiveness. Naturalistic observation offers advantages such as allowing researchers to study things that cannot be manipulated in a lab due to ethical concerns, and it helps support the external validity of research since the researchers is actually observing the behavior. Some of the disadvantages of using this type of research method are that people will often act differently if they know they’re being watch or studied and that different observers may draw different conclusions from what they observed.

One form of naturalistic observation that I have experience in life was the relationships and behaviors of the managers and employees of the grocery store I used to work for. In almost every job someone has a manager that overlooks the employees and makes sure they are doing their job correctly and not breaking rules. The managers usually will sit and observe the behaviors of employees on the registers from a back room where the employees’ can’t see if they are being watched and then evaluate the employee’s work ethic and behavior. This is shows a good example of naturalistic observation because the managers observe their employee’s behaviors in their natural setting.

Often when I used to work at the grocery store, other cashiers and I would occasionally talk and goof around at the cash registers when the managers and customers were not present although we are supposed to clean registers and always stay busy while working. In contrast, there were other times when we were aware that the managers were watching us, at that time we had tendencies to change our behaviors so we would not get written up. This is a good example of naturalistic observation because it involves managers observing their employees behavior in their natural work setting.

Illusory Correlaton – Superstitions

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When we, humans perceive a relationship of two variables is called an illusory correlation. Our minds make connections that actually don’t exist. We think we see a correlation but in fact it is not there. On popular type of illusory correlation are superstitions. We, humans make connections and interpret things to form understandings of life; this is what we called superstitions. There are superstitions about a lot of things like health and luck. For example, they say if you find a four-leaf clover, you will have luck on your side. But this is not necessarily true. Finding a four-leaf clover has no relationship to luck.

 

Since I am born of an Asian family was traditional and has lots of superstitions. I grew up hearing this will cause this and what not. But in fact, the two variables have either extremely minor or no relationship at all. “If you don’t finish all your rice off your bowl, you will marry someone one who is ugly and face filled with freckles and pimples” is something my parents would say to me when I was young. As a young girl, I had no idea so I did what I was told. I will never leave one peck of rice on my bowl. No matter how full I was, I stuffed my face with the rice. But growing older, I realize that not finishing one’s rice has nothing to do with one’s marriage.

 

Not only that, I have always been associated with the number eight. Why you might ask? Of course, it has to do with Chinese people’s superstitions. It is very popular among Chinese people to have the number eight in everything like phone numbers, house numbers, car plates and more. Eight is believed to be a lucky number since the pronunciation of eight in Chinese sounds like prosperity. This is why many Chinese people are willing to spend money to change their digits and other stuff since it is lucky. For example, people who gamble by playing the lottery would try to buy numbers dealing with the number eight. When they do win, they believe it is because of the number eight. But, when they lose with the presence of the number eight, they don’t even account it and continue believing that the number eight is lucky.

 

These superstitions in my life are examples that show illusory correlation. We humans try to find a relationship to prove our own understandings. Just like in Professor Wede’s class, the example of how the increase of ice cream sales correlate to the increase of murders. Two completely unrelated things are combined to form a theory. As he said, Correlation has nothing to do with causation. The increase of both ice cream sales and murders are only a pattern we perceived in our environment. We just make up our own relationships through our minds which in psychology is called illusory correlation.

Illusory Correlation

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An illusory correlation is the perception of a relationship between two variables when no relationship actually exists. For example, people sometimes assume that because two events occurred together at one point in the past, that one event was the cause of the other. Stereotypes are also a good example of illusory correlation. It is very common for humans to stereotype especially when it comes to race or skin color.

 

I grew up in a suburb of New York, which comprised of a diverse population. I’ve had friends ranging from Asian to African American. Living in New York was definitely a great experience for me because I was able to meet people of different cultures, which opened up my horizon on cultures.

 

I have a friend in college who is from the United States but went to boarding school in Japan. He had a great experience going to school there especially because he was able to explore the culture and meet different people. He said the toughest thing for him being Japan was communicating with the people there since he was a white male who did not know much Japanese and was also not used to the customs and culture.  When I first met my friend freshmen year, the topic of traveling arose in conversation. He started to tell me about his experience going to boarding school in Japan. After he was done telling his story, I of course asked him questions about his experiences of attending school in another country. The question that I asked that pertains to the illusory correlation was, “how did you perform academically especially because Asians in general are known to be hard workers when it comes to academics.” My friend smirked for a second and told me that he has been asked this question many times before. He told me even though he was coming from the United States that had no effect on how well my friend performed as a student. He told me he was always the first in his class when it came to academics when attending the boarding school. I of course was shocked because I assumed that if the majority of Asians from where I lived did well in school then all Asians in general did well in school. After that day I realized that I couldn’t make assumptions or hold the illusory correlation for different races. Just because someone is from a particular race and is a hard worker doesn’t justify that all of the people from that race are hard workers.

My Neighbor Socrates

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I have a neighbor. This neighbor exceeds all societal norms and is completely outside of the box. Living in a red home artistically decorated with peace sign light fixtures, large antique items resting on her uncut brown grass, and garbage all over the place, this woman is not what society would label as a Randolph resident. My neighbor follows the same ideals and rules as Socrates and Pluto when it comes to psychological beliefs. Socrates and Pluto in 300 BC believed that psychology was learning about oneself by looking within. Finding the deep meaning, if you will. These two emphasized on introspection, which is the actual term for looking within yourself to find out material. Our thoughts, ideas, and characteristics are inborn, we are who we are. Nothing else. My neighbor obeys these preaching’s because she looks within herself and everyone else to understand psychology. Being a psychologist herself, my neighbor invites patients who are more on the earthy side, more hippy like. These people believe they are who they are and nothing else. Why change a life style when you’re born to be something? My neighbor looks within people to find his or her true potentials and to understand maybe an issue him or her is going through. Because she is so out there people tend to distrust her.
I remember one time I went over to her house because my mom wanted to say hi for her birthday. Going over was scary; she barely cleaned her house. The second I walked in, the curious gaze her eyes locked on me scared me. I was already having a bad field hockey practice and wasn’t in the mood to look at this crazy lady. The woman, Peggy, took me by my hand, and walked me into the other room before my mom could even say happy birthday. I sat down on her tree bark chair and she asked me to look at myself in her mirror. So I did. I saw my sweaty hair, tired face, and exhausted skin. I said “Okay, now what.” Her response wasn’t a surprise to me.
“I want you to look at yourself deeper. Look beyond your skin, your hair, and your eyes. Look at the issues that are boiling inside of you.”
I just pretended so she could shut her hippy mouth. Without hesitation, she told me everything that was wrong with me. I didn’t think I had this many problems.
“Well, since you’re not even trying for me, I will tell you what’s going inside that sweaty little head. You’re tiredness from field hockey is causing your energy levels to decrease making you angry and aggressive towards others. You need to relax. You need to come hang out with me. Do some yoga? Do you like that?”
“Um, no thank you. I’ll just go to sleep early tonight. Thanks Peggy!”
The short conversation between Peggy and I proved to me that she isn’t a normal psychologist She doesn’t just sit there and ask me what I see in an inkblot, she noticed the second I walked in I needed to rest more just by being able to look “within” me. Peggy utilizes Socrates’ and Plato’s introspection theory to gain information about her patients and people in general. She might be a little out there and colorful in different ways, but she uses ancient psychological ways of thinking and it proved to be accurate.

Illusory Correlation

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For most of us, trying to make sense out of the chaos that is our life is a daily struggle. It’s one of the ways we’ve come to cope with how random it can really be. We’ll try to discern patterns in things that are seemingly devoid of patterns. We’ll come up with ideas to clear up confusion. This has really helped to keep us going along as a species, yet it doesn’t always work out the way it seems. Yes, it does work sometimes, but those sometimes only matter if they can happen all the time. The rest of the time it’s just mere speculation or superstition. In psychology, this occurrence is called an illusory correlation. In the random events that continually happen in our lives, some will have a pattern that seem to have significant meaning, but this only happens because of the large scale of events that occur for the few to have had a chance to seem connected.

An example would be when I attempt to catch a ride on the CATA bus. My ipod touch only has wifi access, so the only time I have access to the internet is where I can get a connection through PSU’s wifi. This is important because I like to use the CATA-bus app to keep track of how far away the buses are from my stop, but this requires access to the internet. Luckily, I’ve been able to connect to the internet at the bus stops that I regularly waited at. This led me to believe that the bus stops had a small device that provided wifi for people to gain access to the internet in order to use the bus app. What I didn’t know was that the bus stops I regularly waited at were beside dorms and other such buildings that were the source of the wifi. It wasn’t until I had to wait at other stops that I realized that I was wrong. A couple of coincidental occurrences had led me to believe that a particular thing was true, but really, it was only because I was trying to make sense of the randomness of it all. Wifi near bus stops depended on the buildings near them to provide wifi.

The Unconscious

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In class we talk about psychoanalysis, which means that psychologist believe that our early experience could affect on our later personality. this made me thought of a friend of mine who barely shows emotions , towards his family or friend. When people talk to him  about his emotions or anything that has to do with affections, relating to others he would respond in an uncomfortable way. sometime he would even avoid the topic or question. No one understood why he was like that and he will always claim that he was “born” that way. He thinks that showing emotions is a negative thing to do. and people who is around him thinks he is very harsh, sometime cold blooded. His emotionless behavior was not only towards his friend but also towards  his family, i once asked him about his past, and he told me that when he was younger he would always come home from school or hanging out with friends and talk about his day to his parent and sharing his experience with them. But they never seemed to care about what he has to say , they would usually ignore him and tell him to never show his weakness to his friend. After years and years of living in a household that wasn’t open to their feelings. He became a strong emotionless person that holds everything in and who never show fear or love to anyone. Therefore using this example i absolutely think that our past make who we are today and everything we do and act has an influence from the past unconsciously. Many people, just like my friend think that they have always been like that or was ” born ” that way . But what he did not know is that he was influence by the environment and the people around him . In my opinion, psychoanalysis is a very important factor in psychology because to understand one’s behavior we always need to understand their past.

Stereotypes – Illusory Correlation

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Since I am Chinese, my friends usually assume that I will get the “Asian glow” if I have drank enough alcoholic beverages. For those of you that do not know what I am talking about – the “Asian glow” is basically when an Asian person becomes visibly flushed or red. This is because of biological reasons to counteract the alcohol. It is unfortunate but incredibly true for me, especially in my face. However, the fact is, this is not true for all Asians and happens in people of other ethnicities as well. This stereotype is an example of illusory correlation, in which there is a perception of a relationship where none exists. Illusory correlations probably occur on a daily basis without our knowledge – stereotypes and superstitions are simple examples. If someone was to read and take into account their daily horoscope, the prediction of their day exemplifies superstition. Other superstition examples may include Michael Jordan’s need to wear his college basketball shorts under his NBA uniform, starting the whole long-shorts trend. Many people have superstitions of what gives them luck, just as the Chinese believe the color red is lucky – being Chinese New Year and Year of the Horse, it is said that if you were born in the year of the horse, you should wear red underwear. More common than superstitions is stereotypes – it is almost human nature to judge someone or stereotype someone to a certain degree when you first meet them because (I personally think) first impressions cause one to think about someone else that you have previously met in your life, making one believe that someone you just met will act a certain way because that person reminds you of another. When looking at these examples more thoroughly, one will notice that there is some kind of fault in such logic – wearing red underwear will not necessarily make you lucky and just because someone reminds you of another, it does not mean that they are the same person in their actions or values. The important idea to take away is that correlation does not equal causation. Illusory correlation causes one to think that because one event has taken place, another event will be the effect, when in fact this is not necessarily true with correlating data.