Author Archives: Joceline'sCollegeBlog

Motivation: Why I chose Austin College ?

Motivation is driven by many different factors ,whether physical or emotional. Choosing where I wanted to attend college was definitely driven by motivation. I have lived in Sherman, Texas ever since I moved to the United States when I was 5 years old. Ever since I was little and my family and I would drive past Austin College I would always say “that’s where I want to go to school.” Throughout my high school career I got involved in many different health care related classes and I became fascinated with the idea of becoming a doctor. After I attended a tour on campus I fell in love with the environment and the fact that everyone was so nice. My decision was definitely driven by the incentive theory of motivation as we talked about in class. The incentive theory describes how people accomplish things do to different intrinsic or extrinsic incentives. To me knowing that I could be a part of such a great pre-med program at Austin College and become a doctor later on was motivating because I was associating my hard work as being paid off later on by the reward of fulfilling my dream of becoming a doctor. I could also attach my decision of attending this school to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. My basic need was first graduating with a high gpa from high school in order to be accepted into Austin College and receive a good scholarship, and the higher levels are accomplished as I surpass all the prerequisites for medical school. The further along in my pre-med career the more higher level needs that are accomplished. As Maslow explained, there is a combination of needs on this pyramid of hierarchy that drive our behaviors, and as for me the highest need would be achieving my dream of becoming a doctor and attending medical school once graduating from Austin College. All these are positive things related to my motivation, but at times I can find myself lacking that motivation. When dealing with so many deadlines, lab reports, and exams I question whether or not I am capable of this. Like any typical college student I stress and I have a mental breakdown every week ( or maybe once a day). They way that I can continue pushing myself is by working through with a reward system and knowing that if I stick to this it will pay off in the end. When I breakdown and I question my capabilities, I always sit down and talk to myself about the pros and cons of becoming a doctor. Most of the time there are definitely more pros and I can relate this back to the incentive theory. The satisfaction I get after getting a good exam grade, or meeting a deadline is what drives me and fulfills my needs that continue pushing me. I just think about me receiving my diploma and one day being able to wear that white lab coat with pride. The satisfaction of all these things is what I use everyday to continue pushing me until I accomplish the journey I set out to do.


Spotlight post: Divorce

 

When it comes to the topic of divorce there are many opinions on what the repercussions of the situation can be on the kids involved. Divorce is a very common topic in many American households in this time period because it has become more socially acceptable.  I think society has become more open minded as time  has progressed which has caused families to see divorce as an everyday thing. In many families; such as in minority families, the topic of divorce is very controversial because family ties and reputation is very important. Marriage in Latino communities for example is highly tied with God and religion therefore making it harder to approve of divorce. I think that Americans are more likely to consider divorce because they have a more liberal mentality than compared to minorities, in my opinion. Today I found 4 different online sources that talk about this controversial topic and differ on the idea of what the divorce consequences are.

In a college study that took place in Bridgewater State University , the student talked about the effects of divorce on academics. Based on this source I discovered that divorce leads many children to face depression while the divorce process is taking place which in turn causes a detrimental decline in their focus on their education. This source mentioned how the behaviors of the parents affected the actions of the children during childhood and how it could continue on into their adulthood. This source also used a lot of quotations from different scientific studies to back up their data. Another point mentioned here was that the emotions and behavior of the children are highly tied with how strong their relationship is with their parents. Another source that talked about the negavtive effects of divorce was one from public.iastate.edu. This source mentioned that one of the major effects of divorce is the pressure that it places on children to decide which parent they want to have their custody. It mentioned how the limited amount of time spent with the parents drastically effects the ties  between parent and child relations. This post mentioned that children that go through divorce are more likely to develope social problems and have a harder time maintaining intimate relationships due to what they experienced at home. These two sources both urge that divorce is highly detrimental to the behavior and state of emotion of children that experience custody battles and the unhealthy pressures of divorce. I think these two sources are credible because they back their statements with many research papers, books, and journals. They base their ideas around primary sources that present the effects of divorce.

On the contrary, their are many people that believe that divorce does not have a long-term effect on children. A source that backs this up is an article from Scientific America titled, ” Is divorce bad for children?” The main topic behind this article is that children only undergo a short-term effect when presented with a divorce. This article backs this idea up with the 2002 study from psychologist E. Mavis Hetherington suggesting that the negative reactions to the divorce often diminish after the second year. This article suggests that with discipline and adjustment these children can become well adjusted adults later on. A second source supporting the idea that children can endure the effects of divorce is one from Kidshealth.org. This article claims that having a routine and adjusting to a new living environment right away can properly help kids understand the situation they are in which makes it easier for them to adjust. This article mentions that encouragement, support, and consistency help children cope with the idea of a loss of union in the family. Even though these two sources take an opposite stance on the controversy of divorce they are credible as well. These sources are credible because they use back up support from many psychologists, research, and online organizations that deal with helping families with divorce.

When presented with these two different views I think that I agree that divorce can be very harming to children. I can take this from personal experience. Many times my parents have had conflicts and many times I have been scared of them getting a divorce. I think that if my parents were to get a divorce I would greatly be affected emotionally, mentally, and academically because the bond that I have with both parents would be broken and I would be exposed to a negative view on marriage that could possibly later on take a toll on my investment with relationships.

 

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-divorce-bad-for-children/

http://m.kidshealth.org/en/parents/help-child-divorce.html?WT.ac=

Odenweller, Bri any. (2014). Does Parental Divorce Have an A ect on a Child’s Education?. In BSU Honors Program eses and Projects. Item 48. Available at: h p://vc.bridgew.edu/honors_proj/48 Copyright © 2014 Bri any Odenweller

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rhetoric/105H16/cova/jlscova.html

 

 


Week 9: Intelligence

When we talk about intelligence my brain instantly triggers me to think of someone who is not “naturally smart”, to me intelligence represents someone who has been shaped by their experiences and has gained knowledge through their failure. I personally think that social experiences and our surroundings play a greater role in our intelligence than our genetics do. I have always thought that everyone has the ability to be intelligent if they work hard enough to achieve what they want. Some people become disappointed when they do not receive a high score on an exam even though they did not put in the effort to achieve a high score. I think that perception is very important because like the Pygmalion effect demonstrated, if others have high expectations of ourselves then that will influence how we also perceive ourselves, and it will trigger us to do what it takes to meet those standards. I think that this applies to me because I am a pre-med student. Even though, I chose my own career path I still work harder each day in order to “make my parents proud”, as a pre-med student they have really high expectations for me. At times these high standards do become overwhelming because when I get a low score on an exam it makes me question what they will think of my intelligence and it triggers me to reconsider if I am truly smart enough to be on this path.

Another way that social experiences shape our intelligence is through stereotypes and discrimination. In my point-of-view I think that the brown eye vs. blue eye experiment that Jane Elliot did with her students was highly unethical. In my point she did not have the need to put those children through all that hatred against one another, but her study did show that power is what drives discrimination. That need to feel superior and more intelligent is what has driven our country to be facing issues related to discrimination even now in 2017. feeling inferior can definitely take a toll on how we perceive ourselves. If others consider us to be inferior that can start causing us to worry less of our performance because there are no standards to be met. This also ties in with the stereotype threat. Sometimes people’s fear of failure and discrimination is what causes them to perform badly on a given task. I can relate to this because many times I am scared to answer out-loud in class when I am hesitant of an answer because I am scared of people laughing or making correlations between my ethnicity and my level of intelligence.

Even though genetics can play a role on how intelligent we are I think that humans are more widely defined/shaped by their social experiences and their interactions with their environment. In a way being seen as more intelligent will make us feel that way which in the long run can cause us to be more adapted to our surroundings.


Violence in Video Games:

The usage of video games in the United States is at a high rate with video games available to all ages. Personally, I think that video games do play a part on the behavior of the people playing them , but I do not think it is the main reason why there is so much violence in society. I think that the environment the children are exposed to at home plays a major role in how the child behaves. Being exposed to violent situations at home may cause the child to see these behaviors as “normal” in turn causing them to become violent themselves. Although video games are not a major reason as to why children become violent they still play a minor role because the kids are being exposed to killing, blood, guns, and gore for the “fun” of it.If parents allow their kids to play violent video games for hours they are allowing their kids to grow up learning that killing people for “fun” is okay both in a fictional as well as the real world setting.

I think that video games should not be banned because they provide entertainment to many different people. I think it should be the parents decision and responsibility to prevent the younger kids from playing these violent games because they may not be aware of the situation. Younger kids at times are not able to comprehend what is real and what isn’t and in turn it could cause them to behave as the characters in the game do just because they are being taught that this is normal or cool in a sense. All video games provide information to let the parents know what age groups should be allowed to play, and that is why the parents should pay more attention to what their kids are actually playing.

Personally, if I was a parent I would not allow my kids to play violent video games because they are being exposed to preposterous situations. The violence in the games can have a minor effect on the kids, but no matter how small the games are still glorifying violent situations ;therefore,  making the children want to behave like the characters do because that is what is in “style”.


Week 7: Synesthesia

Daniel Tammet’s Ted Talk about sensation and perception opened my eyes to see that there are many ways of taking in our surroundings. I have never heard the word “synesthesia” before but I found it fascinating how one factor can activate another in our brains. I have always thought that one thing can have many different meanings depending on a persons perception, and this was made clear to me by observing how Tammet was able to create abstract paintings from one simple number. I would have never imagined that a person could see color or emotion behind something so insignificant to me. The way he described a shape for each number made me realize that there is lots of things that I am missing out on because I do not take the time to place meaning behind them. It was also interesting how at first, when Tammet presented his three questions I was going about my normal learning techniques to figure out the answer. After listening and seeing how synesthesia works, I was able to compute the answer to the questions in a way that strongly deviates from my normal day to day thinking process. I was fascinated how a 10 minute TED talk was able to impact for an instance the way I was processing information. I think that people who learn through this process have a highly more “active” or in a sense more vivid perception of their surroundings. Being able to make connections between things in our world makes them have more meaning ;therefore, allowing us to place more value to those things. Sometimes I go through my day thinking how boring it all has been, but if I were to see color behind numbers, to place emotion behind words, I would definitely take in more about the world around me than I usually do.


Week 5: Memory/Studying

This week in psychology we will start to study about memory. One very important topic for college students that is closely related to that of memory is study habits. The way you study is very important because it can determine how well you will do on your exams. Different people have different ways of retaining information but it is always important to learn and understand the material rather than just memorizing. I think just memorizing the material without any true understanding will only allow you to retain it in your short-term memory. Learning the material in a timely manner and allowing yourself to process the information little by little will allow you to remember that information for a longer period of time.

Personally, my study habits have drastically changed from my first semester as a freshman to now as a sophomore. I usually start my week by writing down all my due dates for assignments in my planner. On a separate sheet of paper I make a weekly schedule where I include all the assignments I have to complete for each class as well as when I need to be studying. Last semester I made the mistake of studying the night before every exam and my grades were not all that great;therefore, I challenged myself to change that. This semester has been such an improvement for myself because I study my lecture notes daily and allow myself time to process the material before the exams. For example, for psychology I study the lecture notes every night , read the textbook and place sticky notes on important parts of the chapter, and make  notecards for all of the vocabulary . Giving myself time allows me to take things slowly which in turn allows me to understand the material more in depth.

As a college student I have a very busy schedule, but I have made it my priority to find time for studying. Having a job, being a part of many different organizations on campus, and being a pre-med student is really challenging, but I think it keeps me on track in order to accomplish my goals.

 

 


Development: Parenting Styles

As members of society we all question what makes a good citizen? The way that we respond in society in my opinion has to do with the way that we are raised by our parents. The big dilemma is knowing what is the perfect method of raising our children so that they will be happy, but they will also be productive adults in society.

Based on my own experience I think that children have to be raised with a mixture of parenting styles in order to get a well balanced outcome. In society we see two main parenting styles that are found on very opposite sides of the social spectrum. Some parents tend to be very strict while others seem to be very hands off and trustworthy of their children’s decisions.  Children should be treated with respect, an acceptance for responsibility, and the idea that great rewards come with hard-work. I think that at an early age children should be taught to be responsible for their actions because that helps build their character, and it shows them that their bad behavior can have many repercussions. It is important to always make children feel that they are respected because that makes them understand that their character is how we present ourselves to the people around us. By laying down a strict hand on children, they are able to see that life is not all fun and games, and that they must  be responsible for their actions. Placing a little bit of fear in children allows them to really think twice about their decisions. By fear I mean a fear that they can harm themselves or others around them. Most children grow looking up to their parents that is why the establishment of good character comes from the actual behaviors of the parents.

On the other hand, being too strict can cause children too become unhappy and rebellious towards the decisions of their parents. I sometimes have experienced this because as the oldest child I am responsible for setting a standard of good character for my two younger brothers. Many times I have questioned why my parents are too harsh when it comes to my education and decision-making, but now at an older age I realize they did this so that one day I would be prepared to face the world alone. In order to allow children to be happy parents should give them a sense of trust. If children know that they are trusted they will try to prove themselves to their parents; which in turn will help them make good decisions. At times a greater sense of trust can lead children to make mistakes,but this will allow them to learn how to improve themselves when faced with obstacles. No human is perfect, and our mistakes do actually help us grow into better versions of ourselves. Children should be rewarded with some freedom once in awhile so they can see that their good behavior will bring about positive outcomes in their lives.

All children are different making it nearly impossible to have one universal parenting style. Parents should always be open to new experiences in order to help their children grow, but also let them make mistakes so that they know that life can be hard but there is always a way to make things end in a positive way. The best parenting style is to be strict to allow children to grow, but also have lots of  trust so the children can see that life can always have a bright side, but the choice to be happy lies in their own hands.

 

 


Mythbusters first impression: Do Beer Goggles really exist?

First, we start off with the question what are beer goggles? “Beer goggles”, is the term used to describe the effect of alcohol on the visual perception of an individual, causing them to become more sexually attracted towards someone that is not really considered “attractive”, before becoming susceptible to the effects of alcohol. In the twenty-first century we see how young people are affected with the ideas presented to them through social media. With the fast growing world of technology it makes it easier for young people to become more brainwashed by these ideas. Being a college student, I hear this term being used loosely everywhere around the campus, and its common use leads us to question whether it is actually true.

In the Mythbusters minimyth,”Beer Goggles”, the mythbusters team wanted to test the idea that alcohol truly makes us see people as more attractive than they truly are. The experiment started off by rating a cluster of photos while sober. Each mythbuster got a different set of pictures of the opposite sex, and they had to rate them on a scale from 1-10 in a limited amount of time of 5 seconds. The experiment was ran for a total of three trials these being: sober, buzzed, and drunk. After each trial each team member would be given a new set of pictures to rate, and for each trial a total score was kept in order to compare the different stages of alcohol, and the effect it had on their visual perception. The overall goal of the experiment was to see if the total score would increase along with the amount of  alcohol being consumed.

Like in many experiments, this one had both strengths and weaknesses. First, we can start off by evaluating the strengths and rationalizing if they complied with the use of the scientific method. For an experiment to be plausible it is important to follow the steps of the scientific method, starting off with, “Ask a question”. The question that the Mythbusters were trying to test was if beer goggles do exist. They followed their question by constructing a hypothesis in order to have a foundation for their experiment. The team’s hypothesis was that the score of each of the team members would increase after consuming more alcohol.  Next, they tested the myth with three different trials;each distinguishing a different level of alcohol consumption. Having different trials was a positive side to the experiment because it let them see any differences among the data being collected, and see if the total score of the ratings was actually increasing after each run. After completing the three trials they were able to graph the results and compare the data in order to see if the alcohol was actually affecting their visual perception, and whether or not the results were linear among the three different team members. Another strength was that the group of pictures provided for each team member consisted of a wide range of racial diversity and ages making it difficult for the members to choose a rating during the time frame provided. The diversity in the pictures strengthened the experiment because in the 5 seconds given to rate the pictures, the members had to make split-second decisions which could easily be affected by the consumption of alcohol.

All though the experiment did follow some of the steps of the scientific method, some others were excluded. One of the weaknesses of the experiment was that the team did not do any outside research in order to have some background on the concept that they were testing. In order to have background information the team could have compared the foundation of their experiment with that of others that were trying to test a similar concept. Another major weakness of the experiment was that too many variables were present. The three team members were of different ages, as well as two of them being male and one female. The team should have focused on testing one certain age group or sex because these variables could have affected the results of the experiment. Another variable that was of great weakness to the experiment was providing each team member with a new set of pictures for each new trial. It would have been best to rate the same pictures throughout the entire experiment because changing the pictures could have been the reason some of the scores were higher, and not because the alcohol made the new set of pictures more attractive. Using the old photos would have let the members see the same faces but choose a different rating due to the effect of the alcohol.  Another idea that was not taken into consideration by the team was that each member would require a different amount of alcohol to become drunk. It would have been a benefit to set a different amount of alcohol to be consumed by each member based on their age and weight in order to actually become drunk.

In many aspects, the experiment was well structured and in the end it seemed to be  plausible because the results demonstrated a steady improvement between each trial. Like many experiments this one could be ran again with a better foundation in order to meet all of the standards of the scientific method.


About Me…

My name is Joceline Ramirez and I am a sophomore at Austin College. I am a Business Finance major with a double minor in Chemistry and Spanish on a Pre-Med track. I was born in San Salvador, El Salvador but I have lived in Sherman, Texas for 15 years of my life. I enjoy many things in life but my favorite is definitely food!!! I love the outdoors and I enjoy fishing, hiking, and playing soccer. I have a deep love for God, Family, Friends, and all things in life because there’s beauty in everything. My education is one of the things that I value most in my life, and one day I hope to full-fill my dream of becoming a Pediatrician. Once becoming a pediatrician my biggest dream is to set-up my own practice, and getting to travel to third world countries to help provide urgent care to children whose families cannot afford medical treatment.

I have chosen to take on the challenge of joining psychology 101 because I have always questioned how the human mind works, and I want to discover all the hidden beauty that is found within every different person. By taking this class I get to learn about something I have always been interested in, as well as getting to full-fill one of the courses required for medical school. As a pre-Med student I think it is important to learn how we function as individuals, and how our behaviors and personalities challenge different aspects of society. I approach this course with lots of enthusiasm and hunger to learn new aspects of human character. I personally do not enter this course with any background on psychology, but I plan to be open to new possibilities, and I go into this new adventure with discipline, openness, ambition, and respect towards all these new ideas.

As humans we all have different personalities, making us all capable of looking at new ideas with different points of view.  When I think about the word psychology I immediately think of the human mind, and how every individual has beauty because everyone is able to bring about new ideas. The greatest thing about being individuals is that we enrich our society, we are like little pieces of a puzzle and together we create the bigger picture. Our minds have the ability to reach newer horizons and make changes to the clashing world around us. I see beauty in everything, but the most beautiful thing to me is our capability to bring about change. As humans we are able to set goals and work with great discipline until we make our dreams become realities.

As I look through the course schedule I am able to draw a line between the things I find appealing and the things I don’t. When I look at the syllabus the three main things that jump out at me our the studies over Personality and Culture, Stereotypes and Discrimination, and finally Social Roles and Conformity. These three topics are the ones I find appealing because as a Salvadorian American I have been living both in the shadows and the spotlight of society. I consider myself to be a hybrid because I am composed from elements of two distinct cultures. Being born in a different country and moving here at such a young age I myself have experienced discrimination and hatred from people that consider my culture to be inferior to theirs. No matter what I have lived through I will always consider the United States my home, and that is why I have always had a deep passion towards anything related to culture, diversity, and stereotypes because they have always been a part of me. When looking at the course schedule I can also pinpoint three topics that do not seem very interesting to me and these are the study of the Scientific Method, Research Methods, and  Experimental Design. I think the reason these topics do not full-fill my interest is because in some way I have been overly exposed to these ideas in other classes. These ideas in my opinion are very precise, and I am usually more interested in topics that have a way of being changed. I like to experience new ideas and these topics I have heard about too many times ;therefore, making me loose interest.

There are many things that I expect to learn from this new course, and I know that with the progression of the course my questions about psychology will continue to arise. One of my biggest interests has been about discrimination in society and the question I hope to answer by the end of this course is as to  why humans discriminate towards others and make hatred filled stereotypes ? I am excited to see the changes I make after being exposed to these new ideas.