Dear AP Psych Student...

My advice to you is to always do the vocabulary. There is nothing more important than knowing your vocab. It's an approach-approach conflict: a free hundred AND you can use it on your quiz (if you get open note privileges!), what is there to lose? Even if it does take a few hours to do, make sure to balance your workload throughout the week and not cram it in one day (I learned it the hard way). If you pay attention to the vocab, you are guaranteed to get at least a 75 on the quiz. 

My favorite activity in this class was the brain lab where we had to label the parts of the brain on an orange. It actually helped me differentiate the different lobes of the brain and really visualize the differences. I know this unit was really hard, but having this lab was a fun way to actually take in the information.

I think parts that should be left out next year is textbook based assignments. I understand that sometimes it is more beneficial to actually read the information, but other times I believe more class based discussions/lectures would be more helpful. 

Other than that, I think the class is perfect as it is. I loved learning about all the Freudian stuff and also being aware of all the biases that may even affect ourselves sometimes. Overall, it's not that hard to get a good grade in the class. Just make sure to study and take notes, and ALWAYS DO YOUR VOCAB. 

Sincerely, 

Jenny Chan

Psych Memes

 Meme 1:

https://imgflip.com/i/7keht4

https://www.britannica.com/science/Oedipus-complex

Meme 2:

https://imgflip.com/i/7keifp

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17687-serotonin-syndrome

Meme 3: 

https://imgflip.com/i/7kejaz

https://www.simplypsychology.org/harlow-monkey.html ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

Meme 4:

https://imgflip.com/i/7kel1e

https://medium.com/hello-love/these-are-the-5-elements-of-attraction-98b1dbca49ca#:~:text=And%20according%20to%20psychology%2C%20the,attractiveness%2C%20reciprocity%2C%20and%20responsiveness.

Meme 5:

https://imgflip.com/i/7kerye

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

How Good Is My Memory?

 Short Term Memory Test:

I got a 5, which is about average according to George A Miller. I think it's on the low end of the spectrum though so I should probably improve my skills. I think this test is pretty valid but I think there should be more tests to see if it actually measures how well your memory is since it only asks you 12 words.

Picture Short Term Memory Test

Out of the 20 pictures shown, I only remembered the butterfly, house, phone, pencil, chair, and rainbow. I don't think this test is that valid because it doesn't even analyze the results for you, but it's a decently good measure to see how much you can remember in a short time.

Memory for faces

I actually got everything right for this test compared to the other tests--I think it's because focusing on the features of the face is easier than remembering 20 different objects that aren't related to each other. I think this test is pretty valid for testing facial memory but the only thing about it is that the features aren't realistic, so it might not be applicable to real life faces as accurately.

Article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230419142759.htm 

I think it's pretty interesting and kind of a breakthrough that scientists could find cells vulnerable to alzheimer's, which gives hope to possibly developing medicine that could counteract the disease.

Social Psych

Theme: School

Compliance

• A real life example of compliance could be: your teacher asks you to review for tomorrow's quiz. You do it because she asked you to do it, and it's different from obedience since she's not requiring/ordering you to do it.
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Obedience

• A real life example of obedience could be: the AP tells you to put your phone away during class. It is obedience because you do it under the influence of power.
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Social Facilitation

• A real life example of social facilitation could be: your teacher calls you up to do a math problem, and you do better because there's people watching you. 
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Group Polarization

• A real life example could be: students as a group all collectively share the distaste for the phone policy, therefore their feelings towards the administration is more extreme and may be disrespectful. The reaction may be more extreme compared to having just a one-on-one complaint towards them.
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Reciprocity Norms

• A real life example could be: I help my friend with an English assignment once, and he helped me with math homework. It's kind of a mutual benefit thing where you give something in return for something.
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Anything Post

 With regards to the hot topic between the two party system in America, here’s a blog post on the impacts of tribalism.

Tribalism is defined as a “badge of identity” for both sides of the political spectrum. In short, it is a group-centric bias that destroys what the meaning for change is all about. For example, a valedictorian attributed a quote in his speech to Trump and earned applauses and cheering. However, he corrected himself and said that the quote came from Obama instead. The cheering stopped, and even booing ensued. 

How come the same quote with the same meaning received different levels of reactions based only on who it came from? 

This phenomenon is not unique to one party. There’s so many factors that could potentially play into this effect.

1. Conditioning—After opposing the other side for so many years, it’s natural to be suspicious of what they say

2. Bias—We don’t want to admit that the other side is right for once

3. Ad hominem fallacy—hearing irrelevant, personal attacks on the opposing party so much so that you make a choice based on perceived negative qualities other than what they’re actually trying to say

Nonetheless, tribalism is deeply embedded into American politics and it will only intensify as the years go on.

Credits: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/bias-fundamentals/201806/tribalism-in-politics

Senses and Stuff

Article link: https://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/digestive/smell-poop-inhaling-poop-molecules.htm 

When you smell something, particles of that scent travel up your nostrils and moves over the nasal turbinate. The scent reaches the olfactory epithelium, which is basically a place where neurons detect over 10,000 different scent molecules and transports it to the brain to recognize the smell. 

A scientist tested whether or not if smelling poop particles actually means that the molecules travel up your nose, and thankfully the answer is no (it's just gas, not actual poop). However, if someone were to let a big one rip without any clothes blocking the way, you may risk inhaling actual poop.  

My Comments:

I think this is absolutely disgusting but thankfully I don't think I'll ever end up in a situation where someone will fart naked around me :skull emoji: x 3. It's still disgusting to think about how you're still inhaling the gases though. This is why I shut the top toilet seat lid down when I flush it because the flushing motion sprays invisible particles in the air. I also don't use those hand dryer things because of the same thing. 

The Occipital lobe and Acetylcholine

Hawkeye:

Hawkeye, born Baron Smith, was born legally blind in one eye. To make him feel better, Baron's mom knitted him a blue eyepatch. 

"You'll always be my superhero." She would always kiss his eye patch before sending him to school. 

At school, Baron was viciously bullied for his looks. It started with rumors and abusive language, but it quickly escalated to physical confrontations. His bullies would rip off his eyepatch and throw it in the toilet, laughing as he desperately fished it out from the toilet bowl. However, that was not the worst they did. 

When he was only 16 years old, his mother died in a car crash--it was those bullies who were drinking and illegally racing on the highway. They ran her over with no remorse.

Baron snapped. After beating up those guys half to death, he got thrown into prison for one year and received a three month probation period after it. 

One night, he was sobbing at a local park fountain when a mysterious figure approached him...

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Literally. Give me your unused eyeball, and I shall grant you powers beyond your imagination...."

----

Thus, Hawkeye was born. His eyes have built in x-ray vision, able to see through walls and bodies. He has perfect--photographic--memory of everything. Nobody knew how he got his powers, but he has since then dominated the superhero world, fighting crime with his supervision and superb memories. He has especially been a huge supporter of women, capturing assailants and sex offenders. He donates his salary to the local orphanage shelter, and has been a guest speaker against bullying at at least 400 schools nationwide. 

His rise to fame happened when he was 18, two years since he initially received his powers. He trained for two years, making use of his newly gained supervision and photographic memories. However, Hawkeye's first agenda was revenge. 

He knew his high school bullies participated in very illegal activities, but their status and power prevented them from getting proper punishment. Thus, he waited for the perfect moment to frame them in public: that was the only way they could be held accountable for their actions, which is in front of the eyes of society.

Though malicious, he devised a plan to frame them for attempted murder. Hawkeye had secretly been observing the bully group. He noticed that a new recruit had been treated very badly. He then utilized some divisive actions to further distance the two, hoping that they would split ways in an aggressive and violent way. On the perfect day, Hawkeye planted a camera onto a lamp in public and waited for the perfect opportunity... 

A fight broke out between the bully group and a new recruit, escalating to a knife fight. That was when Hawkeye jumped into action, narrowly saving the new guy from being scathed. He was able to use his acute attention and eyesight to dodge all attacks, fending them off. 

The cops later arrived, arresting the bully group on the scene. The camera evidence further prove their guilt. Thus, Hawkeye finally achieved revenge for his mom, and was hailed a hero among the community. He would continue to rise as one of the most influential superheroes of the country....