When we were
talking about history of hypnosis, I decided to find something
about Simund Freud. That is what I know about his biography:
He was born in Freinberg (now Pribor, Czech Republic), on
May 6, 1856, and educated at Vienna University. When he
was three years old his family, fleeing from the anti-Semitic
riots then raging in Freinberg, move to Leipzig. Shortly
thereafter, the family settled in Vienna, where Freud remained
for most of his life. He became Austrian physician, neurologist,
and founder of psychoanalysis.
During this week we were talking about learning. We
covered such topics as Some preprogrammed responses, Classical
conditioning, Operant conditioning, and Social Learning.
To my mind, we did not pay much attention to social learning,
that is why I found some information about Alkbert Bandura.
He is an American psychologist whose work is concentrated
in the area of social learning theory. Bandura considers
cognitive factors as causal agents in human behavior.
His area of research, social cognitive theory, is concerned
with the information between cognition, behavior, and
the environment. Bandura claims that particularly anything
that can be learned by direct experience can also be learned
by modeling. He has shown that when a model via exposed
to stimuli intended to have a conditioning effect, a person
who simply observers this process, even without participating
in it directly. will tend to become conditioned by the
stimuli as well.
We spent this weak talking about memory, including the
ways of how psychologists study memory, how they traditionally
view memory. We also talked about some alternative ways
to view memory, about how information is encoded, stored
and retrieved. And we also learned how we construct our
own memory.
Talking about memory we mentioned two kinds of amnesia:
retrograde and antiretro grade. But I also found some
information about dissociative amnesia which characterized
by a blocking out of critical personal information, usually
of a traumatic or stressful nature. I t is interesting
because, dissossiative amnesia, unlike other types of
amnesia. does not result from the medical trauma. It has
several subtypes:
1)Localized - is present in an individual who has no memory
of specific events that took place, usually traumatic.
2)Selective - happens when a person can recall only small
parts of events that took place in a defined period of
time.
3)Generalized - is diagnosed when a person's amnesia encompasses
his or her entire life.
4) Systematic - is characterized by a loss of memory for
a specific category of information.
We finished talking about memory and had very nice panel
discussion about the same topic. I think that guys did
really great job. We also started new chapter about Thought
and Language about different ways of solving problems.
For example, we mentioned such a problem, when you need
to do really difficult and big assignment, but there is
no way you can force yourself to do it. What would you
do? A lot of guys, including Dr. Ritter said that the
best way is to do this assignment is step by step. I agree
that this is true. But I want to say about myself. When
I have to do something like this , I
prefer to do it at once. Maybe I can spend the whole day
doing this assignment, but after I'm done, I know that
its not following me anymore and I'm free to do whatever
I want to, and I do not need to worry about that assignment,
cause it's done. Besides, when I'm doing that assignment
I think tell myself that as faster and as harder I'm going
to do this work, as sooner it will be over.
During this week we were talking about thoughts and language.
And we mentioned such topic as Theories of Language Acquisition.
There are three main theories about that. And it was said
that Language Acquisition Device is the best explanation.
But to my mind imitation plays a great role too. Well,
maybe it is not the best explanations, but it helps. Because,
when children say a new world and they do not know the
meaning, they just repeat it after somebody. And I think
that an imitation takes place in this case. Of course,
I agree that children are biologically programmed to learn
language, but it works together with imitation.
And also, I'd like to say some words about Operant Conditioning
theory. I strongly disagree with this one, because if
children had learned language because they were reinforced
for doing so, they would have learned only good words.
Or they would not have learned anything, if they weren't
reinforced. But as we can see, children learn despite
anything.
During this week we were talking about Intelligence and
Creativity. And we spent a lot of time talking about Intelligence
Testing. But honestly, I don't really like such tests.
And I was always afraid of them. And I do not trust those
tests. And the reason is because just the result of one
particular test actually doesn't mean anything. There
are so many factors that influence the results of the
test. You can be in a bad mood, or you can be lucky and
just pick up the right answers(but you really do not know
them, or you can not be able to focus on the assignment
in the test, or you be nervous, or be too relaxed. So
you can get the bad result, not because you are stupid,
but just because something goes wrong this day. Or you
can be not smart at all, and just get lucky.
During this week we talked about Attraction and Love
Theories. I want to say that I do not agree with evolutionary
theory as well as with attachment theory. Evolutionary
theory says that function of romantic love is to create
new generations. But to my mind you do not need to be
in love with somebody if you want just to commit the procreative
act. What about the attachment theory, I think it talk
more about jealousy than about love. But I agree with
the triangular theory about intimacy, commitment and passion
which create the consummate love. But actually, I link
that love is a thing that nobody will be ever able to
explain.
We talked about Social Psychology. And one topic I would
like to mention is group thinking. I really never thought
about it , but this is true that the less people you have
in the group the more effective your group is working.
I have so many examples from my high school. When we had
to do some group work, actually only two or three people
wee doing something and others were just hanging around
so that our teacher thought that they were taking part
in this job too. And I remember how difficult it was to
make a decision about what our group was going to do when
we did not have a leader.
And another thing too - I'm not very confident person,
so if ten people around me say that 2x2=5,but not 4 I
might follow there answer. But studying this material
in class really helped me to understand the whole concept
of the group thinking. And now it is much easier for me,
because I know how group influence on an individual.
We started talking about social psychology. And the topic
I was really interested in was Attribution Theory, which
deals with how we explain our own behavior and the behavior
of others. Because I have experienced so many times. For
example every time I do not do good on the test, I always
find so many reasons to explain it(I did not do good because
I did not have enough time for studying, I had to go to
practice, I had to do other assignments, I was just tied
and depressed). But as soon as I do good on the test I
say something like "You see, despite all the troubles
and difficulties I had the day before exam, and that the
exam was really hard, I still did good cause I was studying.
But I never thought that all I was saying had its explanation
- it's just typical attribution errors.
During this week we covered chapter 11- about Motivations
and Emotions. And we spent time talking about what causes
homosexuality. And a lot of people were that gay people
were born to be gay that means that it was biologically
programmed. I'm petty sure that this is true. Because
as far as I know that scientists has found that if one
of the pair of genetically identical male twins is homosexually
oriented, then the other is almost three times more likely
to have the same orientations when the twins are fraternal.
But to my mind genetics plays as such important role as
environment does, because a lot depends on in what environment
this person grew up, what people are around him and so
on. Culture and traditions influence a lot too. But anyway,
let's let people be who ever they want to be, as long
as they like it.
During this week we were talking about abnormal psychology.
Well, actually , I never experienced meeting mentaly ill
people. but we also talked about people who are not ill,
but have those strange ideas or habits. For example, my
grandmother is totaly healthy, but she really has this
crazy idea about keeping house clean. She is 65 yaers
old and she lives in a big house by herself. But she cleans
this house every day. You will never see any dust or dirt
in her house. And if somebody comes to the house, she
always tries to clean up after this person. And she does
not like too many people in the house, because they bring
to much dirt. More over, she cleans up the territory aroud
her house and her big garden too. She is old and of course
it is hard for her to do so much work(though sometimes
I think she has more energy then I do), so we try to help
her, she doesn't want any help. And if you try to wash
something, she will rewash it ight after you. But basicly,
she is a very nice lady, though she cares about cleaning
up too much.
|
