Advice for the Future

Dear AP Psych Student, 

    I want you to know that if you truly want to succeed in AP Psych you shouldn't procrastinate. I say this because there is a lot of assignments that we have to complete in a short amount of time so it is best to get a head start on everything and try to finish them as soon as possible. You do not want to be working on vocab the night before it's due because you'll have to spend hours completing it. Manage your time wisely by breaking up the vocab and studying them every day. It would also be wise to make a mind map for each unit before the quiz so you can have something to reference when taking quizzes. 

Sincerely, Mariama

    My favorite project was when we got to make the structure of the human brain out of candy. It was a fun activity because not only did it look cool, but it was also super tasty.

    I think you should leave out the presentations on the different types of disorders. I wasn't engaged in the presentations because they weren't interactive. 

    Next year you should have more activities involving food because it will make your class something that people will look forward going to. Along with that, you should have more hands on projects where students get to construct models. You could also have psychological debates or skits based on the current unit.

Psych Memes

 Cognitive Dissonance - https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cognitive-dissonance-2795012

Extrovert - https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-an-extrovert#:~:text=The%20term%20extroversion%20describes%20an,external%20world%20and%20social%20interactions.

Stress- https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003211.htm#:~:text=Stress%20is%20a%20feeling%20of,danger%20or%20meet%20a%20deadline.

Anorexia nervosa - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/anorexia-nervosa

Self-efficacy - https://positivepsychology.com/self-efficacy/

How good is your memory?

For the picture short-term memory test I was only able to remember 4 objects. I think this test is valid of my short-term memory because I was able to remember a few objects and will remember those 4 things for a short amount of time because I saw the briefly.

For the How is your memory for faces? I would said that the test isn't valid because it comprises so many different parts of the face and mixes them up together. Memorizing faces is generally easy for me even if I have seen a person only once. Since I didn't do as well as I expected I feel this test isn't accurate. I couldn't remember 5 of the face components.

For the Test your memory for an everyday object. I would say that this test is valid because if it something that is used constantly it should be easy to identify. Unfortunately I was unable to recognize the real penny as I was off by 2 of the 4 components. I feel this test is the most valid because it uses things that I will have the most ingrained in my memory.

Here is a cool article about forgetting

 

Social Psych... it's Real Life

Theme: Christmas

Compliance means to go along with someone else's demands, wishes and/or suggestions. A person may decide to go along with their friends in participating in a gift exchange. 

Obedience is a type of social influence that is obtained by reacting to someone's command or direct order. Someone goes to buy gifts for their extended family because their parents told them to.

Social facilitation is the improvement in an individual's performance when working with a group rather than working alone. A mom or dad is decorating the house for Christmas and when the rest of the family joins him or her the work gets done faster.

Group polarization is when a group of like-minded people reinforce each other's opinions and they become more extreme as their discussed. People who love the Christmas season decide to plan a party in which their decision about the party location gets more extreme. They go from holding the party at someone's house to renting out a hall.

Reciprocity norms are the ideas that favorable or unfavorable actions are reciprocated. A teen receives a for phone for Christmas and gives their parents watches.

The Anything Blog

 I chose to talk about a type of depression: atypical depression. Atypical depression affects 15-36% of people with a depressive disorder, so it is quite common as millions of people have depressive disorders. People with this kind of depression can have symptoms such as a greater appetite that leads to overeating, hypersomnia, leaden paralysis, and greater sensitivity to criticism whether it's real or imagined. Another symptom is for your mood to improve in response to actual or potential positive events also known as mood reactivity. Some things that could cause this depression is trauma, genetics and chronic stress and/or an illness. Psychotherapy and medication like antidepressants are able to treat it. A few of the preventative measures are to manage stress and talk about your feelings with someone you trust as well as seeking the help of a medical profession.

Atypical Depression

Senses and Stuff

 Among the 5 senses I chose to talk about our sense of tastes.

Here is the link to the article I chose: Taste

The article discusses the basic tastes of sweet, salty, sour and bitter and what elements or acids each one is associated with. Our sense of smell works in tandem with our sense of taste to produce flavor. More research is being done on what different things we can taste; they are alkaline, water-like, metallic, and fatty. They are different types of papillae located on different areas of the tongue. I think it's really interesting how the sense of smell has a big part in our taste. It is also interesting how there are so many components of the tongue that need to be accounted for for us to taste. I was shocked to find out spicy isn't a type of taste because it doesn't fall in a category of the basic tastes. 

BioHeroes

My birthday is January 6 so my hero has powers related to the hippocampus and endorphins. My hero processes and retrieves memory, helps relieve pain, reduces stress and improves your sense of well-being. My hero is called Emotocon because she makes people feel happy as she is a ray of sunshine; the stronger the emotions the stronger the memories. She can make you feel joy but she can also make you recall painful memories. She pushes away your negative feelings and brings in positive one. Memories as strong as things as the death of a loved one or a serious injury can be relived as if your in a movie. 

She began her story as just a regular person who wanted to make a difference in the world. One day she found a beautiful lake who's water was translucent. She dipped her finger in after which a vortex started to stir up in the water. A seahorse rose from the vortex's center and blasted her with a blue light. Ever since she has been able to just think about how she wants someone to feel better or make someone recall something. The only thing she has to do to enable her abilities is to lock eyes with the receiver of her powers.