Final Learning Reflection Blog

OVERVIEW

Week 1&2

Week one and two was basically the intro to this class and psychology itself, which was very interesting to me because I have never really been one to pay attention to psychology and the meaning behind it. It was all over the science of psychology, behavioral and mental functions, and the actual question of “why” for psychology. I enjoyed these two weeks because of the newness of the material and the true effect it the brain has on everyday activities. I believe that if you can truly understand your own brain and be able to function without distractions, you will have a huge advantage in everyday life.

Week 3&4

My favorite weeks. In these weeks, the focus was on the brain, sensation, and perception. Some cool aspects that stood out to me were that the brain could never stop learning, various stimuli can cause different reaction times, and that the mind can play tricks on us because we try to go so fast and fill in false information that really isn’t even there. Also, unlike many other body parts, the brain is always changing and growing, to me that is so interesting.

My favorite aspect of these two weeks, and honestly the whole semester, was probably the stimuli tests. It was cool to see the effects they had on the overall reaction time.  Literally other senses that are in our bodies can take over and make up for the loss of another sense to help the reaction. I found this so interesting because I have always loved sports and reaction time is a huge aspect of every sport. So, learning about the various stimuli was super fascinating and will for sure be something I continue to look into after this class.

Week 5&6

These two weeks were very entertaining to me as well as they talked about developmental psychology. In this, the nature vs nurture question is put into debate. The nature vs nurture debate was very interesting to me. I could see how both aspects could affect the way someone is and how they act. I believe people inherit traits just from their parents and how they are raised while also having interests that that their own personality desires. But at the same time, I personally feel like the community you live in can play a major role on how you act and what you believe in. With this, when it comes to raising my own kids and that I can make a huge difference in how they are and what they believe in.

Week 7&8

Learning and memory were the big topics in these two weeks. We talked about Alzheimer’s and the effects it had on the brain, including that there was no cure. But the biggest thing for me in this week’s lessons was the idea of bundling. Just the different ways of how to retain information was very fascinating to me as a college student. As one, I’m always looking for ways to learn and study to get the best grades as possible. By bundling items, I can simply the process and break things down easier and it allows myself to retain the information. I will for sure be using this method as I continue my education and even beyond that.

Week 10&11

Motivations and emotions were discussed here. I enjoyed it because these factors are witnessed in our everyday lives. This was one of my favorite blog posts because I got to talk about my mom, and I am even going to use it for a Mother’s Day gift, so I’m excited to do that.

Motivations are huge for me. They have a huge impact and can really drive you to do extreme things. Personally, I can motivate myself and have no struggles doing anything. But I do look up to my mom, as explained in my blog post. Emotions I believe are very huge and can drive people to the extreme in all circumstances. I believe that if someone can maintain and control their emotions, life for them can be much simpler and they can enjoy it more.

Week 12&13

Week 12&13 were about all of the various types of psychological disorders like anxiety and OCD. Learning about the disorders was very interesting and to see how most were chronic, just like anxiety. It’s crazy to me to see this and not understand how there is nothing to do about it. It makes me feel for the people who have to deal with it, I haven’t so I cannot even imagine what it is like.  OCD was very interesting as well. Sometimes I consider myself to be a little OCD simply for the fact that I like to be organized. But I am truly nothing like the actual disorder where things are extreme and have to be done a certain way every single time.

Week 14&15

The last weeks of the semester were over positive psychology. To me, positive psychology is huge. I personally try and not worry about anything and simply live free and happy. I think it works too, I am a very happy person and it shows. I am always enjoying what I do and I believe life is just great. I think if everyone had a positive mindset this world would be such a more enjoyable place.

By taking this course online, it not only introduced me to psychology information, but technology information as well. This was my first time making a blog, so that was a new skill I learned. But really, I was just introduced to various skills I can improve to help make my posts, and future presentations more detailed and have higher quality.

The experimental task that I enjoyed the most was seeing how fast the brain reacts to a stimulus. Basically, I had to grab and friend and test his reaction time with different variables. I’d start by simply dropping a ruler while he was watching and see how long it would take him to catch. Then I would do the same thing with the ruler but have him close is eyes in one and grab when I said a key word. Another variable was to have him close his eyes, but the key to have him grab the ruler after it was dropped would be a tap on the shoulder, with no words. It was just interesting to me to see how the variables effected the reaction time. In my case, the test didn’t very that much. The reaction time with the variables were slower than him just looking at the ruler, but neither had a major difference. Maybe I just had a super good test subject.

The blog post that I enjoyed the most was definitely the one I got to write about my mom. It really made me realize the impact she has made on my life, but from a psychological standpoint, it showed the importance of having a role model and someone to influence you in your life. They can truly make a huge impact on how you do everyday tasks and how you live your days.

I found Heidi Moser’s blog most helpful because we are two completely different people with different backgrounds, so seeing her posts opened my eyes to new perspectives and made me see things differently. It was interesting to see and learn things about her background that I would have never even thought of.

http://heidimoser.blogspot.com/

The comments were a big part to the blog posts for me. They would show if I could correctly explain the new information I learned and could even encourage me. Like Cindy’s, reading her comment was so nice and made me feel like I was truly doing a great job, it is always nice hearing positive feedback over something you work hard for.

A few learnings from videos that I enjoyed were actually from the learning and memory week. It was interesting to see how like in the videos case, the dog learned to know when to come to food by learning and repeating the ringing of the bell, followed by food. Basically, we can train ourselves and get into habits. Memory can be similar but has its own pattern, mnemonic devices, organization, rehearsal, and retrieval. This was very helpful to me because I can apply it to how I go about learning new information for my future classes. They describe clearly how to apply and perform each task.

https://youtu.be/TMOtNCuwqfQ

The topic that stood out to me the most would have to be the positive psychology. From this I learned the effect of how being positive can have such a major effect on your mentality. Having this positive mentality is something I have been working on even before this class. I have found that I am overall just enjoying life more when I am not worried and simply focusing on the good things in life. For me, communication I feel like is a huge strength for me, and by focusing on being happy with that positive mindset, I feel like a can grow even better and stronger relationships with other people.

The topic that would affect my professional life the most would have to be the motivations. I learned just how important they are and that they can come from many different aspects from many different people. It really showed me that I need to be a natural motivator. Some people may not have external motivation like I do, so if I can be that source I feel like people would find that motivation to be as productive as can be. This is big for me because I like to be a leader, if I’m not a natural motivator, not many people will just automatically come and follow me. Academically I learned to find a motivation in anything to get the assignment done, even if it’s a simple snack as a reward. This should help me greatly because I love snacks.

Overall, I really did enjoy this course. It was super organized and easy to stay on track and caught up, with the structured lessons and assignments. I have already suggested taking this class to other. I’m very excited to get to use all the information that I have learned throughout the semester and apply it to my daily lifestyle.