DanielR IB Psychology HL

Gregorc Syle Delineator...

2007-04-03T19:34:00.000+07:00

We did another experiment today in class to try to determine our method of thinking. The "test" is modeled from Gregorc Syle Delineator. The test will sort us into the four different categories.

1. Concrete Sequential (CS)
2. Abstract Random (AR)
3. Abstract Sequential (AS)
4. Concrete Random (CR)

The test format is as follow:
- look at a group of 4 individual words, then quickly rank them according to how closely I can associate the word with myself. The most alike is 4, and the least is 1.
- continue with other sets.
- add the numbers across the row, then add the sum down the column to the sums on all the rows beneath.
- there will be 4 columns total after the second addition. These columns represent each of the 4 areas (CS, AR, AS, CR)

Not surprisingly, The result shows that my strength is the Concrete Sequential. people with this area will tend to think things in a practical and logical way, without much creativity. They work things step-by-step, and will not be happy if things are not well-organized. They pay close attention to details.

Overall, the qualities described in the CS seem to fit my personality that i think I have. I see myself as being systematic with the procedures. I keep track of events in my planner, and tick off after I have completed. I even write small notes and stick them onto my watch for things that I have to complete on that day. Some of the qualities that might not be a perfect fit for me is "work well within time limit". Although I meet all my deadlines, I tend to not start the work as soon as possible.

~Daniel

Extended Reading Assignment

2007-04-02T08:14:00.000+07:00

1. What is the relationship between memory and selfhood?

As suggested by its new paradigm, memory “creates the self”. It allows people to see their past, although sometimes not accurately. By looking at their past, people will understand their identity and “self”, thus suggesting that memory helps create the self. In other words, memory helps people understand their present identity. The process of learning is essential to determine our sense of self, and learning cannot take place in absence of memory. Afterall, we need memory to remember who we are.
“We remember, therefore we are”

“We remember, therefore we are”

2. What new discovery about memory do you find most interesting?

I find the PET scan very interesting. Although I know that technology always bring surprises, but visually observing brain activities is absolutely stunning for me. The first thing that came into my mind after reading about it is the sci-fi movie I watched when I was young. The sophisticate machines that appeared to be wrapping around the patient like a python. As a kid, when I see those images, I always wonder whether it is possible to track down the brain’s activities with some type of technology, not paper-work. The article had just told me it is.

3. How can some memories become indelible?

Memories can be indelible if the causes are severe, such as being shot or seeing a dead body. A traumatic event will increase the level of the stress hormone which can make the memory indelible. When a certain idea is experienced, the stress hormones from those causes will be released again, bringing back the painful past. Moreover, memories do not function as a single system, but many systems working together. Because of this, it is not easy to delete a certain memory. The part of the brain that records an event’s content is not the same as the part that encodes its meaning (how it felt toward you), therefore it is not easy to completely remove it.

4. How can amnesia and repression be explained?

Both repression and amnesia are caused by the malfunctioning of the part of brain called hippocampus. Repression results from repeated numbers of traumas, while amnesia is defined as a forgetful state due to the material failing to be stored in the long term memory in the first place. When a person experiences repression, the information is lost deep under the unconscious level of the mind. This is a way that the mind protects the person from such painful memory. Amnesia is often caused by events such as an accident that leads to loss of consciousness after the injury.

5. Explain the following statement: “Memory is more reconstructive than reproductive.”

After memories had been encoded, the process of retrieving reveals how memories can be reconstructed. The process of memory reconstruction occurs when people associate what they remember with the schema in mind, and so they recall not only what they input, but a mixture of the input and the reconstructed materials from their own experiences.

6. What new paradigm of memory is now emerging?

Memories are now understood as the “creative blending of fact and fiction” where images are converted into memories from the mixture of experience and emotion. Psychologists start to think that memory creates the self of an individual. In the past, Freud’s work led to the understanding of memories merely as repressed ideas. The old concepts about memory also tend to be rather negative from Freud. However, more optimistic explanations of memory such as are now introduced.

7. After reading this article, what conclusion can you make about memory?

Memory is the existence of the past. Without it, there will be no past. It is the “creative blending and reblending of experience and emotion”. Moreover, it gives us the sense of self. There are many new findings of memory until now. It does not work in a single network, but requires a number of systems working together. It is the ability to “repeat a performance with mistakes”. Memories are either implicit or explicit, meaning that it happens both on the conscious and unconscious levels.

~Daniel

The Rumor Chain

2007-03-15T14:13:00.000+07:00

The fifth experiment involving memory was the Rumor Chain, when a person listens to the original paragraph, then passes it on verbally to the second person, and the second person tells the third. The paragaph wasn't short. It is about a hijacker in a plane who was caught at the end of the story.

We see evidences of levelling (simplifying materials), sharpening (highlighting or overemphasizing some materials), and assimilations (changing details to better fit the subject's own background or knowledge-schemas).

The first volunteer already showed sign of the incomplete sensory input, because she left out the part about the People's Liberation Army. Moreover, she forgot that Jane Smith was actually the pilot, showing signs of schema developing. Usually a pilot is associated with male, and air hostess with female, therefor she associated the name "Jane" with female (air hostess). Possibly, because the first person is a girl, she is not famliar with guns, therefore correctly restated the detail of the gun. The second person, who is a boy who plays a lot of shooting games, knows exactly how the gun is like. Normally speaking, the Magnum 357 is referred to as .357 (notice the decimal point), and not surprisingly, he told the third person .357. This assimilation device shows how he related the word he heard with his own background knowledge. The airline's name "Quantas" remained throughout all three speakers, possibly because of its unfamiliar sounding which caught attention.

~Daniel

All Purpose Memory Activity

2007-03-15T13:53:00.000+07:00

Today we did the fourth experiment on our memory. We listened to a set of 14 words, at about one second each. Then we wrote down what we remembered. Out of the 14 words, I remembered 8, which is a little lower than the class average. Everyone remembered the first word, and nearly as much remembered the last word. Three people (10 students in class) remembered hearing a word that was not actually said. A word was repeated three times, and so everyone got it. Weird-sounding word were also popular. The chunking process was supposed to work, but we are not familiar with that phrase, therefore the chunking didn’t.

There is an evidence of the serial position effect. Everyone wrote down the first word “bed”, and 6 people remembered the last word “dream”. Six people are not too bad, compared to the word “turn”, which only 3 people recalling it. The word “night” was repeated three times, and obviously everyone got it. The process of rehearsal enhances human's memory recall. The word "sleep" was a trick word, although it was a great example of the memory reconstruction process. Three people claimed that they heard the word "sleep". This shows how they had reconstructed their own memory, caused by associating with the actual words. The words "fatigue" and "artichoke" both had strange sounding, which made some people remember them. The process of chunking in the phrase "toss and turn" didn't work with us very well, since we don't usually use that phrase in our daily lives. Six people recalled "toss", but only three recalled "turn".

This experiment really helps to indicate the different techniques of memory and how it had effects on the person.

~Daniel

Short-term Numbers

2007-03-15T13:52:00.000+07:00

Today we did a small experiment on short-term memory. We were given sets of numbers verbally, after that we had to record what we heard on the paper. The digits increase as we progress. Out of a perfect 12 score, we found out that the class average is 7 ± 2 digits. During the experiment, it was very easy to do the first three numbers, but the fourth number start to bring some hesitation to some people. From number five onward, many people no longer look at ease. Most people end at around the fifth number , some went further.

We had reached a conclusion about the human memory
- It is easier to remember through the method of “chunking”, which is to group similar number sequences together.
- Human remember things more easily if the information appear to have some sort of meaning they can associate.

~Daniel

Memory Enhances Recall

2007-03-13T10:13:00.001+07:00

Memory Enhances Recall

In today’s experiment #3, we did an activity to compare two methods of memorizing. We were exposed to a series of 20 words with the letter A or B marked under for 3 seconds each. A indicated that we have to count the syllables, and B is to categorize it as pleasant or unpleasant. The words were both held up and spoken. Then after every word had been shown, we wrote down as many words as we can remember for about 3 minutes.

The class average of the A words is at 5 words, with the maximum at 10 and minimum at 1. The B words average is about 7, 9 being the highest and 2 the lowest. The total correct numbers of word is about 12, with 19 being the highest and 6 the lowest. My results were 3 A’s and 9 B’s, adding to a total of 12.

We conclude that many factors can affect how much, or what, we can remember. For most people, remembering a word by relating it to a basic emotion can effectively enhance the amount of things we remember.

In general, the step of remembering begins with external events being recorded by our sensory perceptions. Then those things are placed in the sensory memory. Later, some part of it is lost, and the more important parts are being encoded into the short-term memory. Finally, a small portion of the things are further encoded into the long-term memory. Usually the things that can come this far have very strong connections to that individual.

~Daniel

First Memo

2007-03-07T20:46:00.000+07:00

As far I think I remembered, my first memory is the scene when I was strolling in the park with my mom. I was probably about 2-3 years old. I felt like I was in my old neighborhood, the one that I lived in when I was very young. My mom was holding my hands and guided me forward. Now that I thought clearly about it, this memory might be more of a “I wish I had that memory” type. I might have seen it in a movie or book when I was very young, thus wish that it was true. As a result, the idea actually entered my memory storage and pretended to be part of it.

Mr. Anthony later said that memory usually doesn’t occur until age 5 or 6, therefore the park scene was probably a reconstructed memory. All memories are caused by events that involved a lot of emotional elements. Usually they are happy or sad events. The class average age group is around 3-4 years old, and all memories have some connections to happiness and sadness, ranging from falling down a bookshelf to vomiting. Memories are malleable, meaning that they can be easily influenced and shaped.

~Daniel

That's Interesting

2007-01-28T17:52:00.000+07:00

"This means that if you have a lot of negative emotion in your life, you may have somewhat less positive emotion than average, but that you are not remotely doomed to a joyless life."

Reading and writing about Seligman had given me a lot of encouragements and positive attitude in life.

Here are some of the few things in life that stimulate my positive thinkings...

Japanese guitar duo デパペペ "DepaPepe":

- Anyone who has a chance to hear their songs will be embraced with warmth and joyful, cozy feeling. With that said, DepaPepe is no doubt a great choice for inspiring positive attitudes

Guitar is all around~!!

- I love to play guitar after work, or before bedtime. That's how I clear my mind, getting ready to take a good night sleep. For me, a guitar burns the stress and bad feelings like exercising burns fat. It stimulates my creativity and liveliness, which is what I lack during other times. It has a sense of being in-control, because I can play whatever i want to, without being limited within a frame like in textbooks.

Learning about Seligman's positive psychology helps me to see the world in a different way. I begin to see the good side of people, events, and things around me more often. This reminds me of one of the greatest comeback-player on the ATP Professional Tennis tour, James Blake. I frequently thought of him as I read through the text on Seligman. Take a quick look at his interview after the match against another great compatriot tennis player, Andy Roddick.

"Yeah, unbelievable. I told Andy after the match it was the best grass court match I think I've ever played...he's gotten me plenty of times. I had to get him back just once...Yeah, things were going well."

"Today I just figured I have to go for it. I can't, you know, wait back and just push...I had to take my chances."

~Daniel

Personal Evaluation

2007-01-26T14:00:00.000+07:00

Overall, I find Martin Seligman's concepts and ideas very interesting and useful. I admit that my optimistic level is low compare to other classmates, thus reading about the theories of psositive psychology certainly suggests me some new ways of thinking that help increase my optimistism level. Although I have heard it already, but the quote "In the long run, money does not account for happiness" gives me the feeling of optimism toward living a happy life with just enough needs, not a lavish lifestyle. This slightly changes my attitude toward applying as a tutor. At first I wanted to do it because I want to add on to my record of the extracurricular activity (I also earn money from being a tutor), but now after i read that quote, I want to do it because I want to show my tutee, whoever that is, how high school is like. That way I'm not taking the job for the money or for my own record, but I want to help middle school students, or even elementary students to at least have some clues about high school. Not only that the quote makes me realize that I should decide on something with a good, clean, and unselfish intention, thus will allow me to stop and think before I decide to do something in the future.

~Daniel

Positive Psychology, the BEST!

2007-01-24T18:44:00.002+07:00

"In the long run, money does not account for happiness"

"Faith and relationship have significant influence on how happy people are"

How do those statistic make you feel? Despite greed and examples of power-hunger that exist around the world, good feelings can be the best way to fulfill one's happy life.

Humanistic had long emphasized the importance of devloping human potential. Martin Seligman conducted animal experimentations testing whether helplessness is learned. Over time, he shifted his focus from the negative aspects of behavior to the more positive, thus introducing the concept of positive psychology. Positive psychology overlapped humanistic perspective in many ways. Human growth and understanding of the subjective experiences were the important focuses of the concept, although the knowledge about subjective experiences by itself was not enough to develop a scientific understanding of behavior. Positive psychology mentioned the importance of personality traits and social context of behavior, which were ignored by the humanistic approach. According to the positive psychology, personality traits influenced behavior across a variety of situations, while social context was concerned with understanding how communities and cultures affect experience and growth, and also how each person choose to interact with his/her social environment to inspire heathly growth. The value of relationship was greatly valued in positive psychology. Seligman introduced his view of psychology called positive psychology, which enabled us to study the human behavior by means of positive thoughts and optimistic perspective.

As I through texts on the positive psychology, I enjoyed it as much as Maslow's theories and ideas. Personally, I agree that to truly understand human behavior, psychologists should pay great attention to what is good about each individual, not just collective assumptions that imply how human behaviors are results of sexual or aggression drives! I also feel that studying the personality traits of different individuals will contribute to the understanding of human as a whole. Moreover, social context should be even more heavily emphasized, because I believe that environment (eg. in diffeten situations) plays a major role in determining the behavior of an individual. Successful relationships such as community, love, friendship, family, or even owner-pet can contribute to the development of a person's healthy growth.
With those said, I feel that positive psychology is useful and enjoyable to rely on as an approach to understand human behavior

~Daniel

His Quotes My Reflection...

2007-01-20T16:58:00.000+07:00

"Not only do happy people endure pain better and take more halt and safety precautions when threatened, but positive emotions undo negative emotions."

[It's never a bad idea to have a good view of life, especially if you are bad at doin that. This quotation caught my attention the very first time I saw it. I like its message about how being more positive actually takes away negative thoughts and emoitons. It tells me that happy people tend to do better under stressed situation, in which mastering it is one of my ultimate goals]

"When we are happy, we are less self-focused, we like others more, and we want to share our good fortune even with strangers. When we are down, though, we become distrustful, turn inward, and focus defensively on our own needs. Looking out for number one is more charcteristic of sadness than of well-being."

[This means that, when a person is happy, he will show it to others and thus making them feel happy as well. On the other hand, a grumpy people will tend to refuse to talk to other people and try to calm down by being isolated. From the past experience, I enjoy sharing good feelings with my friends, and prefer to not social when i'm grumpy. I had some friends coming up to me when they are sad. By reading this quote, I can see better solutions to tell them next time. It's always good to help others]

"There is only a moderate negative correlation between positive and negative emotion. This means that if you have a lot of negative emotion in your life, you may have somewhat less positive emotion than average, but that you are not remotely doomed to a joyless life. Similarly, if you have a lot of positive emotion in your life, this only protects you moderately well from sorrows."

[What can cheer you up more than this? It gives hope to even the most negative person, and warns them to be aware of the dangers that might be hidden under the happiness emotions. As a rather pessimistic person, this quote allows me to question my pessimism whether it will grow with me. I regard myself as a careful person rather than pessimistic, therefore the second part of this quote is especially interesting to me. I truly agree that optimism always risks overlooking threats and potential dangers unlike mild pessimism.]

"Habits of thinking need not be forever. One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think."

[This suggest that individuals are the "captains of their souls". Optimistic view leads to optimistic behavior, and that means a happier life. To me, this quote says "The time when a person can really tell apart a good choice from a bad one is when he has grown up and gained enough experience of the world". It is like a reminder saying to pay attention to advice given from adults, because they have more experience of life than you do, therefore what they say will not be useless]

Information from http://mfinley.com/experts/seligman/SELIG.HTM

~Daniel

Martin Seligman's Old Days

2007-01-18T10:43:00.000+07:00

Martin Seligman became famous in the field of humanistic psychology when he introduced the concept of learned helplessness. He was born in New York in 1942. At the age of thirteen, he experienced doubtful abnormal behaviors from his father. Seligman was then taken out of public school and was put into a private military academy, filled with rich upper-class kids. This made him feel rejected and alone. The experience at military contributed to his feeling of learned helplessness. Soon after that, his father experienced severe strokes, and had to be sent to the hospital. Seligman heard him told his mother, “Irene. I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in anything after this. All I believe in is you and the children, and I don’t want to die”. This introduced Seligman to the suffering that helplessness emerged from.

Later he earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Princeton University. Then he completed his PhD in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in three years, where he later returned there as a professor. Seligman had experimented with dogs and unavoidable mild electric shock stimuli, which attracted him to the importance of developing human potential. After research and experimentation, he shifted his focus from the negative to the positive view of behavior. He took this chance to focus on a new psychological method of understanding healthy development when he the President of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1998. The new focus was known as “positive psychology”.

~Daniel

Assumptions of Humanistic Perspective

2006-11-27T17:38:00.000+07:00

The humanistic perspective represents the third force that attempts to study the human mind and behavior. Understanding of human nature comes from studying human, not other animals. Human are inherenty good (an optimistic assumption about the nature of human). Internal experience, in addition to behaviors, should be studied as well because freewill is also a cause of behaviors. Important aspect of life that make us human such as love, creativity, and happiness should be studied. Psychology should be meaningful and applicatble to every person, no matter what their culture, religion, nationality are. Studying should focus on individuals (idiographic method), not average performance of a group (nomothetic approach). Study should focus on the whole person and should be studied in the environmental context. As an alternative method to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, it combines the good sides of them and introduces the third force of studying the human behaviors and mind.

~Daniel

Extentialism

2006-11-23T10:49:00.000+07:00

i actually agree with the idea of the extentialism. I consider myself to be realistic, so these ideas of reality experiences interested me. I agree that in real life, all of us can't avoid alienation, angst, anxiety, absurdity, and death. We have to experience some of them at a certain level. I'm also interested in finding the identity of myself, and trying to answer the philosophical questions. I also agree that people have a better idea about themselves in times of depression. How a person deals with difficulties reveals a great deal about his/her character. I really like the idea of extistence preceding essence, since it allows an individual to work his way through success without given any definite destiny (i prefer nurture over nature). This is fun

~Daniel

What was the historical and cultural context of the learning perspectives?

2006-10-11T21:34:00.000+07:00

*****Analyzing the history and culture of the 20th century enables us to understand about the learning perspective. The learning perspective experiments with stimuli and observes responses, working toward theories that will interpret the human behavior.

*****With the three guiding principles of efficiency, reform, and progress, Americans turned toward new explanations for the human behaviors during the 1950s, science. Under the new wave of scientific theories, psychology study fields such as the unconscious mind and introspection method couldn’t compete with science since they couldn’t be studied scientifically. This was the time a new method called behavioralism is introduced. In the early 1900s, psychologists like Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, and Edwin Thorndike shaped the basic structure of behavioralism. As more researches are being done, more perspectives were being built on the basic concepts, and developing the theory. During the 1960s, as more ideas were added, behavioralism was known as the learning perspective.

*****The US culture has a very optimistic view of the future, and that each person can overcome challenges. Understanding that the society is ever-progressing, the world thinks that humans have to adapt to that changes. Behavioralism is popular because it also supports social changes, saying that behavior changes according to the environment. The US culture likes the “can do” idea. Because behavioralism tries to use the simplest explanation to support its theory (very “can do”), that’s it is widely accepted in the US. Unlike psychodynamic approaches, behavioralism relies on behavioral (how environmental stimuli causes responses in behavior) evidences, which can be scientifically observed and analyzed.

Intro...Essay3

2006-09-28T13:57:00.000+07:00

Sigmund Freud’s breakthrough in the field of psychological study draws many critics and thus, many new ideas are created. Some neo-Freudian psychologists are Carl Gustav Jung and Alfred Adler, both ex-partners of Freud. Jung develops new theories which oppose Freud’s conscious-mind theory. Alfred Adler redirects the idea of the cause of human behavior from Freud’s explanations about drive for perfection being the main cause of the human behavior. Alder’s theory about the drive for perfection helps contribute to the understanding of human behavior. With Freud’s psychoanalytic theories as blue prints, Jung and Adler address some other believable perspectives to be considered.

What Did I Learn From This?

2006-09-07T14:13:00.000+07:00

This first essay had taught me the meaning of HL. At first I thought I did a pretty good job with the essay on Freud, but after learning the IB criteria, my confidence went sky-diving. Also i need to distinguish between English essay and Psychology essay. I learned that organization and accuracy are really the keys to great psychology essays (actually...this applies to all essays). Now I know that it's going to be a long 2 years for me, learning about psychology and meeting its highest standard possible.

~Daniel

Discuss: Historical and Cultural context of Freud’s Theories of Human Behavior

2006-09-04T17:03:00.000+07:00

*****In order to understand about Sigmund Freud’s theories of human behavior, discussion of historical and cultural contexts are essential. In the period of his heyday, the Victorian society’s way of life had influenced his ideas and explained the conceptions he made about females. Technology in those days, especially the steam engine’s mechanism, gave Freud the idea of psychodynamic. Darwin’s discovery showed Freud the connection between evolution and psychology. The environments and current events during his lifetime are truly the strong factors that inspire Freud to come up with these remarkable studies and ideas.
*****Freud’s research discovered many theories about the human behaviors. Generally, he points out that our behaviors are motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure. His research suggests that our awareness is divided into different levels of consciousness, which include conscious mind, preconscious mind, and unconscious mind. He also argued that we all face conflict: intrapsychic conflicts are conflicts within oneself, and interpersonal conflicts are conflicts with other people. Under Freud’s principles of psychodynamic: personality is structured by three ideas, Id, Ego, and Superego; individual’s personality develops through psychosexual development stages of oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Human possesses natural instinctual drives, which had great influence on our behavior, that act to ensure survival. Even though Freud was attacked by many criticism, he had brought breakthrough ideas into the world of psychology.
*****Cultural influences certainly play a huge role in affecting Freud’s theories of human behavior. During Freud’s time, the Victorian society had helped shaped how he theorized human behaviors. Within the society, women were considered less superior to men. They had no rights and no opportunities in life. Not many of them were given decent education, if given at all. It was thought of them as the properties of their fathers or their husbands. Women were expected to stay at home to cook, do house shores, cleaning jobs, and look after the family’s children. Living in this environment, Freud’s thinking had been shaped differently to if he was brought up in a woman-dominate society.
*****Freud’s theory of human behaviors was influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of evolution. Darwin’s research had brought to Freud the connection between evolution and psychology, inner drives and survival instinct, adaptation and Ego, and the fact that human starts with the Id stage of development. He acknowledged the idea of survival instincts, and from that, he understood that human behaviors are driven by biological forces of hunger and love. In his principles of psychoanalysis, Freud included many Darwin-influenced ideas that explained human behaviors, which are mental processes and conflicts, importance of sexual drives, significance of dreams, and hidden symbolism of certain behaviors. By understanding the study of Darwin, Freud included essential elements into his theory of human behavior.
*****Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis was born from the physics of thermodynamics technology, famous during the 19th to 20th century. Thermodynamics basically states that the total amount of energy is always constant, that the energy that moves from one system must reappear in another. Freud was intrigued by the study of one German scientist name Hermann von Helmholtz, "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.” Experiences, especially early childhood experiences, in theory, are conserved in the unconscious, and later on they either remain there or pop up into the conscious mind. Freud explained that this might cause neurosis and psychosis, which are forms of mental illnesses, to the person. These mental states, no doubt, have strong effects on the victims’ behavior. Freud’s psychodynamic theory points out that childhood experiences, especially traumatic ones, are factors that determine the person’s behavior when he/she reaches adulthood. This means that if the person had gone through repressed memories, he/she has a chance of developing mental illness when grown up. Freud included technological idea of thermodynamics into his theories of human behavior.
*****The Victorian cultural aspects, Darwin’s ideas, and the thermodynamic technology of the 19th and 20th century are the most influential factors on Freud’s theories of human behaviors. Victorian society taught Freud that women’s role are insignificant. From Darwin’s theory of evolution, Freud explained that human behaves according to the natural instinct to survive, and that human evolved from earlier stages of animal-like Id. From the idea of contemporary technology of the 19th and 20th century, “Energy is neither created nor destroyed”, Freud related it to his interpretation about repression that determines the adulthood behavior of a person. These are clearly the strong factors that mould Freud’s ideas of human behaviors, or else we would not have come this far in the world of psychology.

~Daniel

Freud and Little Hans

2006-08-30T16:53:00.000+07:00

As everybody knows, this is certainly an amazing case study by Sigmund Freud. He studid a 5-year-old child name Hans. Interesting enough, Freud never met his young patient. The communication was carried out by letters and the child's parents. After having a glimpse of what this case study is about, I somehow feel that it was the kid that cure himself afterall, while Freud was just studying the information and interpreting the ideas. I don't feel like Freud had done anything to cure little Hans from the fear of horses, instead, I think that as Hans grow up, the strange feelings start to untangle themselves. Am I wrong?

~Daniel

Freud's Family

2006-08-22T22:13:00.000+07:00

*Our next project explores the life of the famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud. From my research on his family background, I found out about his unbelievably surprising family tree (he is younger than his nephew!!!). Of all the 8 children in the family, he is the first, and most beloved by his mother (from this, he developed a close maternal relationship). He is born a child prodigy, meaning his intelligence level reveals at a surprisingly early stage of life (he read Shakespeare's work at 8 years old!!!). At the age of 4 he experienced a huge contrast of environment, when his family left the calm, mountainous hometown to the metropolitan Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life there. All of these factors should be drawn into consideration when studying about his thinking patterns and methods later on.

*What's new to me is that the death of his father had made a great impact on Freud's life. It's even more surpirsed to find out that he actually reached the stage in which he imagined that his brother was his father!

~Daniel

IB Psychology HL Y1 Assessment [Aug 21st, 2006]

2006-08-17T17:17:00.000+07:00

Thanks to the advancement of studies and researches, psychotherapy undergoes many great changes this century. In general, more people accept, therefore attend therapy courses, nowadays than in the 19th century. People pay huge amount of money to attend group and individual therapies with the experts. As the field has been broadened, therapy evolves from one-culture into multicultural to handle the diversity of the clients’ backgrounds. It reaches into education, management, business, and labor areas. Many modern therapists create their own ideas and practices from the new therapy methods discovered, unlike in the past when major methods were rare and therapists relied on a single principle. Religious and spiritual issues are being brought in to heighten the efficiency of today’s therapy, although they were very much neglected in the past. A breakthrough in modern technology, advance study and research, and the growing popularity of it reshape the ideas and practice of psychotherapy.

The article mentions twenty breakthroughs conducted by many experts. Here are the five that I find most important:

Breakthrough #1: Jean Piaget shows that, unlike adults, children are unable to understand that the volume of a liquid will still remain constant even if it is poured from a tall glass into a wide bowl. The result suggests that the brain goes through stages of development. Knowing this, psychologists can design suitable experiments according to their patients’ (or clients’) ages, in order to obtain the most effective results.
Breakthrough #2: Matina Homer, former president of Radcliffe College, conducted an experiment which shows that male performs better than women in a competitive situation. The experiment has two parts: first part includes them doing some tests in a separated environment, and the second part involves them sitting in the same room and do the test. The male student performs worse on the first, but excels in the latter. This critically can help psychologists to answer why male tends to dominate the society (because male performs better under pressure).
Breakthrough #3: Harry F. Harlow points out that female, compared to male, is far more effective in child care. He backs his statement up with an experiment involving a set of male, female, and baby monkeys. This knowledge will tremendously help to understand the issues relating the youngsters (child-abuse cases, child-care center, etc.).
Breakthrough #4: Robert Epstein’s research had identified four ways to boost creativity, which are capturing, challenging, broadening, and surrounding. This information will play a big role in improving young people’s education, and making them potentially successful individuals.
Breakthrough #5: Hans Selye, the first researcher to introduce psychological stress, shares with his interviewer a very important idea about stress. He said that stress is not necessarily a bad thing. Some people are happier in life when they have a fast-pace and busy lifestyle, which is not abnormal. He advised that people should know their capability of handling stress, and not to go beyond that limit to avoid danger.

~Daniel

The Big Issues...

2006-08-17T14:10:00.000+07:00

I did an in-class survey to find out about myself in terms of: rationality (score of 25) vs irrationality (score of 0); stability (score of 25) vs change (score of 0); nature (score of 25) vs nurture (score of 0). The first two results were as expected, but I was surprised about the final one. Here are my results:

19: toward rational, true.
10: toward change, true.
16: toward nature, very false.

What happened to that last one? I always believe firmly that a person's thinking, behavior, and personality are all influenced by their families, cultures, and society. This is my idea: a child who is raised by an uncivilized society will NEVER be as successful in the real world as a child being raised by a warm, educational family, even if his IQ is double the other guy. I'm still not convinced by the survey result...

~Daniel

Why do we do the things that we do?

2006-08-15T09:34:00.000+07:00

Actions are often resulted from the desire for pleasure, restrictions of religions and moralities, the need to adapt to the surroundings, instinct to survive, and basically putting their creativity into the real world. These can be observed in daily activities such as going to school, going to work, or any other activities that include interacting with others. For example; we eat because we feel hungry (desire for pleasure); a muslim prays every night before going to bed (religions/moralities); we ask questions about where the new gym is located (adapting to the surroundings); we run for our life when we see an armed mental hospital patient (instinct to survive); we write diaries (putting thoughts and creativity into the real world).

Of course, there are many more reasons for why people do the things they do. These are just some of my own ideas from my 17 years of life experience. I am looking forward to adding on my list as I move on...

~Daniel

Why am I in This Class??

2006-08-10T19:18:00.000+07:00

Getting to study the mechanics of the human brains and the mystery of human nature is truly a golden oppurtunity for any student. Where else can you study that, if not the psychology class? Without hesitation, I decided to move from the overcrowded IB Business class to IB Psychology when I heard there's a class at the same time. So here I am...

Psychology is broader than Business, and since I'm not planning to major Business for my Bachelor Degree (more interested in doing Engineering), IB Psychology HL will benefit me more than any other social science courses, and plus it's my personal interest as well.

I want give reasons to most of the things happening in my daily life. I want to have a better, more logical, and more intelligent explanations to any event (why certain people act the way they do, why this, why that??), not just "God knows".

~Daniel