Just a little background on me…

Hi everyone!

My name is Christina Mao. I’m currently a junior here at Austin College. You might think it’s strange- wow! Why is a third  year student attempting to take this entry level psychology course? Well I’ve tried to take this class in the past and it didn’t quite work out the first time, as my other chemistry and biology heavy classes took and diverted all my attention to energy to them. Now, I am back and here with more experience and knowledge and am eager to take this course and hopefully succeed with great grades. I actually need this class as a pre-req for nursing school, so yes, I am doing this because I HAVE to. But at the same time, I am taking it here because I WANT to. I’ve heard that psychology can provide insight into my own mind and psyche as well as help me to better analyze and understand others; especially in what they don’t mention or say to me.

I took Psychology AP in high school, however, I did not do as well as I would’ve liked on the AP exam because I did not take the course seriously back then. I enjoyed it, but didn’t think of it as that important. Now, I see my mistakes and hope to move forward really trying to actively learn in this class.

When I hear the word ”psychology”, I think of feelings, emotions, tests that access what personality types we are, as well as famous psychologists that made momentous strides in bringing attention to mental illnesses and human behaviors. I think this is a science, just harder to quantify and deem completely true due to the nature of the tests and its subjectivity and ethical concerns at times.

Three topics that interest me the most are effects of sleep (because I want to truly see how it affects us after years of sleeping enough or not enough), effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain (as our society is so tempted to consume these), and dealing with stress (as I deal with this myself almost everyday).

By the end of the class I want to answer the question: “Why are we the way we are? Why are people so hard to read and why do they say and do the things they do?”

I know this mind sound typical of a question to ask but it is quite hard for me to read people and understand their nonverbal cues. I want to get better at this because I feel it will benefit me greatly in the future.

I chose to take this course so that I can prepare myself for the psychology portion of the MCAT. Besides pretending to be interested in my roommate’s psychology research, I have no background in psychology. When I hear “psychology” I think of Freud and therapists. Out of all of the topics we are going to learn, I would say I’m most excited to study personality theory and what makes each of us an individual. As for what I’m least excited about, I would say I’m not looking forward to learning about the brain structures. I took anatomy last semester and I’m still a little traumatized. The main thing I wanted to get from this course is a deeper look into how our culture/society/world shapes our psyche. I’m also excited to learn how thoughts and behaviors physically manifest themselves in our brain.

A few students decided to create an “About Me” page in place of a blog post, so their introductions will not show up in the feed. Make sure to check them out using the links below:

About Me (:

https://sallyannesstudentblog.wordpress.com/about/

Hi, this is Yuzhou Liu, and my English name is Leo. I’m a international student from China and currently studying abroad in Austin College for my freshmen year. My major is computer science, and I’m planning on taking visual art as  a second major.

This and the following blogs are mainly about a course I am taking, PSY 101 C, General Psychology, and the instructor of this course is Dr. Ian MacFarlane. I don’t have any experience on taking psychology lecture or studying it, so this course is the very first psychology class in my life. I’m both exciting and nervous on taking this course, since it is the first week.  Yes, I’ve heard people saying psychology is hard and boring — almost everyone. While people saying that, I started to wonder, the psychology is a deep field that explains people’s behaviors and thoughts, so I may found it significant after I stepped into the society. The importance and the social need of psychology is revealed by the numbers of college students who takes it as their major. Besides, how hard could it be? I want to give a try. Although this isn’t my required course, this class still gave me interest, and I want to accept this challenge.

Anyway, I believe I will have a both decent and struggle memory in this semester.

Leo, Yuzhou Liu

刘雨骤

Feb 2, 2017

I’m taking General Psychology because I had friends recommend me the course. I’m also taking it because I need the credit. I have little to no background about the subject but i heard that it will make me look at people with a different perspective. When i hear the word “psychology” I think the study of the mind.  Looking at the course schedule, the 3 topics that look most interesting to me are moral development, memory failures, and sleep. The reason they look interesting to me is because they are topics that i can potentially apply to myself. The 3 least are observational learning, brain structures, and neurons. If I’m being honest, the reason i find these the least interesting is because they might have lots of content and reading, but i might be wrong. I guess a question I’d have about psychology is if psychologist would use their knowledge to manipulate people to their will?

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!

Hi, my name is Tanner Logsdon. I’m a dual sport athlete at Austin College, and I pan on majoring in history with a minor in education.

The reason I’m taking this class is because I was instructed that it would help further prepare me for my education courses down the line and also help me once I got into the school programs. With a limited background in psychology, (one class in highschool) I am not very rounded in the subject but I plan on discovering the depths in this class.

When I hear the word “Pyschology” my mind runs to thoughts. I feel as though psychology is the study of the way we as humans think and how we act on these thoughts according to different environmental and home life upbringing.

While browsing the Syllabus a few subjects stood out to me. The first involving Concussions, since I’m a dual sport athlete and concussions are very likely in both sports I feel as though learning about the risk and what a concussion is will be helpful. Another topic I am interested in is sleep. I know as a college student sleep is a very valuable and sought after delicacy and I would like to know just how important it is to my everyday life. Lastly the topic of coping with stress. Finding the ins and outs of this topic could help me with one of my hardest things to deal with right now. The three that least interest me are the topics of, stereotypes and discrimination, drugs alcohol and the brain, and neurons. The only reason behind this is because I feel like these topics are worn out in the media and by everyone who isn’t an expert in the subject so I’m sick of hearing opinions by everyone and their mother.

Is psychology something I can go my whole life without learning or would it benefit me to take more classes in the subject?

My name is Santos Botello and I am a freshman at Austin College. I am majoring in Psychology and on the Pre-Med track to become a doctor. I chose to take this course to see if I have enough interest to pursue a career in it. I don’t have any background in Psychology. When I hear the word “psychology, I think of why people think they way they think. Attachment theory, Memory Retrieval and Theories of Intelligence are the three topics that seem most interesting to me. Attachment theory interests me because it sounds like it will give reason as to why people have a need to feel a sense of belonging. Memory Retrieval might unlock some memories that I didn’t even know I had which seems cool. Theories of Intelligence sounds interesting because it might tell me why people are smart in certain topics but not others. Scientific methods, research methods and experimental design seem to interest me the least because they sound like everything I’ve learned since elementary school. The question I’d like to have answered by the end of the semester is: What are the fortelling signs that someone is a psychopath?

My name is Suruchi Sharma and I am a Freshman at Austin College. I am creating this blog because of my General Psychology class! I took this course because I am a psych major (provided that doesn’t change within the 4 years I’m in college, and from what I’ve heard.. it probably will. I don’t have much of a background in psychology. I’ve heard about it briefly because my aunt is a clinical psychologist. When I hear the word psychology I think of the words “complicated”, “confused”, “thinking” and “mindset”. I think of the word complicated because I feel like to be able to understand you have to think on a different level which may cause people to think you’re a complicated person. I think of the word confused because of how perpetually confused I am as a person and how I think I need a psychologist. “Thinking” because.. well I think this one is pretty self explanatory. “Mindset” because I feel as though many people who have the right mindset are able to understand others on a different level, which is why it’s important to try to keep an open mind about a course like this one. After taking a look at the Syllabus I think the courses that interest me the most are Memory Retrieval, Memory Failures, Drugs, Alcohol & the Brain. Memory Retrieval has always been of interest because I suffer from Short Term Memory Loss (yes, it’s diagnosed). Memory Failure, because due to my Short Term Memory Loss, I was always having such bad memory failure, I can listen to one thing one second and then don’t remember it the next. Drugs, Alcohol & the Brain looks very interesting because I know people who have suffered really drastic brain changes and just the way their brain is wired is completely different now thanks to the drugs they’ve done during their early teen years. Three topics that look the least interesting are Cognitive Development, Classical Conditioning and Scientific Method. I think these sound the least interesting because they just sound very complicated, which I could be completely wrong but on first glance they look like they’d be complicated. By the end of this course I really hope to grasp a better understanding of why people act and communicate with others the way they do. Why do we struggle with memory deficiencies. What in our life could cause those things.

Despite this being an intro class I really hope it broadens my horizons and really helps me decide which upper level psychology classes I’d be most interested in.

Until my next entry!

Suruchi Sharma