Hello! My name is Sam, and I will be using this blog for my Psychology 101 class. I chose to take this class because I took an AP psychology class in high school, and I really enjoyed the subject. I’m considering a minor in psychology, but right now I’m undecided in regards to my major and minor. My minimal background in psychology comes from this one semester class in high school, but I think everyone is somewhat aware of psychology from self-analysis and introspection, along with the recognition of how people around us behave.

When I think of the word “Psychology”, my immediate thought is of this movie I just watched called Split (2016) which is a horror movie about someone with multiple personality disorder, which I believe is now referred to as dissociative identity disorder. This is not the best association to have as the movie did not portray the mental illness accurately, representing an example of how pop culture shapes the way people view the field of psychology. However, I am hoping this class will help me have a better idea of mental illness.

The three topics in the syllabus that seem the most interesting to me are moral development, social roles and conformity, and psychotic, traumatic, and personality disorders. I have always been interested in moral development and how we decide for ourselves what is right and wrong. I think it is very interesting that there are some moral universals such as all cultures considering murder as wrong, but how different cultures shape different morals. Social roles and conformity is also a subject I am very interested in because I think it is very interesting that we are willing and sometimes happy to conform to a larger group around us. I personally find the Milgram experiment fascinating, and I am excited to learn about the subject further. I am also interested in the section on psychotic, traumatic, and personality disorders. I believe that learning about disorders other people have can help change the stigma of mental illness.

I am least interested in research methods, experimental design, and brain structures. I have learned about research methods and experimental design in the past, and although I know they are both important topics, they are not my favorite subjects. I am also not looking forward to brain structures because I imagine this subject has a large memorization list and straight memorization is not my strength.

Regarding a question I hope to answer by the end of this class, I’d like to learn how our preconceived notions about a subject influence the way we read and analyze information pertaining to the subject. In this presidential election, I have found it interesting how both sides tended to cling to news stories that confirmed what they previously thought rather than news stories that challenged their perspective. I fell into this trap too, and I think that there maybe some psychological explanation for the success of fake news and news catered to please a certain group of people.

Overall, I am very excited to take this class, and I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge of psychology!