Friday, May 20, 2016
Class Evaluation
It was truly a fun experience taking AP Psychology this semester. I learned a lot more about myself and the others around me, the thoughts and the actions. I really liked how diverse the class is in that we learned how everything interconnected and interacted especially with the brain. For example, the functions of the different parts of the brain can affect one's behavior to cause disorders if some kind of imbalance occurs. Everything I learned and studied about was always intriguing. Every day, I'm always excited to go to class to learn more, to know more about the world. My favorite project would have to be the emotion project where we had to choose a certain song that represents an emotion. I thought deeply about the song choices and researched a lot about the different emotions to make the choices that seemed right to me. I can't think of anything I didn't like in the class. I enjoyed every lesson and every activity that we did. The quizzes were reasonable, and the vocabulary words that went along with every quiz truly helped me learn them to do well on the quizzes and on the AP. Having less major grade exams are great too because all the projects and other activities are really fun to do in place of the exams. I would advise the students taking AP Psych in the future to do the vocabulary at all costs because that's what's going to save you from all the AP studying. Once you have all the information in one notebook, you can just flip through it and review the stuff that you don't know, so you don't have to waste time studying everything. I don't really have any suggestions because I think the class as it is is perfectly fine. I hope the AP Psych students in the future will enjoy the class as much as I did. Thank you, Ms. Halfen, for a great semester of fun! I really enjoyed your class! :)
Monday, May 16, 2016
Kpop + Psychology = Memes
Nothing is better than Kpop and psychology all put together in forms of memes!
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Gamers Unite!
Are videos as bad as everyone says they are? Do they really cause mentall illnesses such as mood disorders and extreme anxiety? There are many cases of such happening; however, video games shouldn't be looked down upon as destroyers of our normal functioning schedules. Although as a gamer, I may seem biased. However, I agree with this article in that if video games are played with consideration, some of those cases related to mental illnesses would not happen.
Because I have played video games since I was in elementary school (not exactly something to be proud of since it did cause me to be nearsighted), I can say that there are times when I would play games for 5-10 hours straight. The storyline of the games hooks me right from the start, and playing with my cousins and our friends from all over America and even Canada made it all the more addicting. At times, I would play until 3 or 4 in the morning (of course not on school days). The teamwork and fun with everyone online simply exerted a force on me in which it was nearly impossible for me to get out of my seat unless everyone was going offline as well. Also, I would skip out on homework assignments and not study at all. However, after 8th grade, I decided to change my ways because my grades had been going downhill. Also, I must prepare for high school and the many more challenges to come. And that is my embarrassing past with video game addiction.
Although I enjoyed my days of gaming, I realized that once I started cutting down my gaming hours, I became more productive and slept more, which made my mornings feel better. I used to game nearly everyday when possible, but now I only play during the weekends, usually on Fridays because homework builds up over the week. Playing video games can really relieve my stress from school when I can focus on a virtual reality to take my mind off of things. Most of the times when I play with my friends online, there is only laughter. It truly is a place for joy. Thus, I believe that's one of the reasons why video game addiction exists. I mean it's a new world where people got along to do missions together. It almost seems like a paradise with well-programmed scenery and movement mechanics, truly a paradise filled with excitement.
However, limiting myself to certain days for gaming really helped me stay focused during school days because I can look forward to the weekends to have fun playing games. Thus, I believe if every gamer sets a schedule for him- or herself, the cases of mental illnesses would be less likely to occur. Because of that, calling oneself a gamer would no long linger with a negative connotation like right now to which some associate gamers to lazy and messy people. Calling to all the gamers out there, we must work together to achieve the ultimate goal of leading successful lives with our interest in gaming and clearing our gamer titles of the false stereotypes!
Monday, April 25, 2016
Memory
I took a quiz to test my ability to remember a set of numbers with the given time of 10 seconds. I was doing pretty well until the 10-digit number appeared, and I couldn't remember the last digit. The quiz gave me a chance to try a 9-digit number again to work my way back up to a larger number. However, with the amount of concentration I had while taking the quiz as my younger sister continued yelling in the background, I moved on to the next quiz. Perhaps if I had focused more, I would be able to make it to the 11-digit number. The test was fairly valid with the different levels for the number of digits to gradually get harder and push my brain to work. It tested my true ability to memorize numbers in a set amount of time.
With another quiz, I was tested on my ability to recall words after seeing them for a few seconds. It was all to test my short-term memory. I could recall 6 words out of the 12 given, and I scored about average for my age group. I was able to recall the first and last few words of the list, relating to the phenomenon of recency effect. Overall, the test was fairly valid, but I believe it had some flaws. There should be a countdown for the exact amount of time one should have to review the terms because people may not be true to themselves and not take the quiz seriously. They might even take about five minutes to memorize the entire list before taking the quiz.
On another note, I took a quiz about picture memory. After being shown a set of pictures for 30 seconds, I was asked to write down as many objects as I could remember. I was only able to recall 10 of the 20 objects that were shown. Technically, I got an average score again like the previous quiz. This quiz was pretty valid in which it had a timer to countdown before completely switching my screen to another page to ensure that I had only 30 seconds to review the pictures. It truly tested my ability to memorize and recall pictures in my mind.
Another quiz that fascinated me was the one to test my ability to memorize and recall faces. When the play button was pressed, random face structures were shuffled together to create a new face. With that, I had as much time as I needed to memorize the face. Thus, I believe it is not certainly all that valid because the person taking the quiz can perhaps spend like an entire day to memorize the face to ace the quiz. However, I took the quiz seriously and spent about 30 seconds on reviewing the face. I completed the quiz with 9 correct features out of 10, which according to the program was pretty impressive.
A quiz to test my ability to memorize and recall letters was very interesting. For the first 4 rounds out of 6, I was able to recall all the letters in the exact same order. However, as the difficulty of each round increased, I could only recall the first and last few letters in the sequence. It also contributed to the recency effect like shown in the second quiz that I took. The test was valid because it clearly tested my short-term memory to memorize letters in a certain amount of time before moving on to the next screen ensuring every test taker the same amount of time to memorize.
With another quiz, I was tested on my ability to recall words after seeing them for a few seconds. It was all to test my short-term memory. I could recall 6 words out of the 12 given, and I scored about average for my age group. I was able to recall the first and last few words of the list, relating to the phenomenon of recency effect. Overall, the test was fairly valid, but I believe it had some flaws. There should be a countdown for the exact amount of time one should have to review the terms because people may not be true to themselves and not take the quiz seriously. They might even take about five minutes to memorize the entire list before taking the quiz.
On another note, I took a quiz about picture memory. After being shown a set of pictures for 30 seconds, I was asked to write down as many objects as I could remember. I was only able to recall 10 of the 20 objects that were shown. Technically, I got an average score again like the previous quiz. This quiz was pretty valid in which it had a timer to countdown before completely switching my screen to another page to ensure that I had only 30 seconds to review the pictures. It truly tested my ability to memorize and recall pictures in my mind.
Another quiz that fascinated me was the one to test my ability to memorize and recall faces. When the play button was pressed, random face structures were shuffled together to create a new face. With that, I had as much time as I needed to memorize the face. Thus, I believe it is not certainly all that valid because the person taking the quiz can perhaps spend like an entire day to memorize the face to ace the quiz. However, I took the quiz seriously and spent about 30 seconds on reviewing the face. I completed the quiz with 9 correct features out of 10, which according to the program was pretty impressive.
A quiz to test my ability to memorize and recall letters was very interesting. For the first 4 rounds out of 6, I was able to recall all the letters in the exact same order. However, as the difficulty of each round increased, I could only recall the first and last few letters in the sequence. It also contributed to the recency effect like shown in the second quiz that I took. The test was valid because it clearly tested my short-term memory to memorize letters in a certain amount of time before moving on to the next screen ensuring every test taker the same amount of time to memorize.
Photo URL: http://publish.uwo.ca/~craven/504/504seq.gif
Monday, April 11, 2016
Politics and Personality
Recently, I took a political personality quiz to determine which aspects of politics I agree with the most and how I view such aspects. I believe it's fairly accurate in describing how I see the government as it is today. The highest ranking dimension that I got by answering the questions on the quiz was democratic. The results revealed that I have seen the unfairness in the political system as many are being treated unfairly due to the biased decisions of the government officials. As a politician with such a personality, one will please no one in an attempt to please everyone. It's fairly true in a way that whenever I try to resolve problems between friends to hopefully find the best solution for everybody, nothing truly gets resolved. However, sometimes it may all work out, but most of the times, it doesn't.
From another quiz to determine my political compass, the results revealed that my answers came closest to the views of Gandhi. I'm more of a left social libertarian but not as extreme as the analysis of the quiz claimed Gandhi to be. I find it shocking that it is relatively true that the results showed that I valued the beliefs of each individual. With only a set of questions, the results came pretty close to my actual beliefs. Even more interesting is that the analysis claimed that anarchism is the opposite of fascism despite the popular belief of communism being it. I had never thought of the differences between communism and anarchism to be so explicitly defined to ensure the most appropriate term in this case. From the results of the quiz, it all made sense to me.
According to the results from a quiz to determine my political typology, I am a solid liberal along with 15% of the public. I didn't exactly know where I stood before in terms of politics, but it was shocking to find out that I'm on the extreme side of liberalism. However, the results does reflect my beliefs in that I do believe that military strength cannot resolve the violence in the world. Also, the results revealed that I believe the fluidity of government will lead the way to a more successful society, which is pretty accurate. Besides being on the extremes of one side, nothing was too shocking as the past quizzes kind of revealed the beliefs that I had.
After taking a quiz to determine how my social viewpoints matched with the current candidates of the 2016 Presidential Election, the results showed that I side with Bernie Sanders the most. It was not exactly surprising to see my results because from the political compass quiz, I came to a conclusion that I supported more of the socialist views which Sanders advocates. Also, from the other quizzes, I realized that I was most likely going to get the result of a candidate in the Democratic party. At first, I wasn't sure about my views on siding with Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, but after this quiz, I can see where I stand now. Also, after reading this article about the differences between the candidates and their viewpoints, I'm even more sure now that I have beliefs closest to Sanders'.
According to the results from a quiz to determine my political typology, I am a solid liberal along with 15% of the public. I didn't exactly know where I stood before in terms of politics, but it was shocking to find out that I'm on the extreme side of liberalism. However, the results does reflect my beliefs in that I do believe that military strength cannot resolve the violence in the world. Also, the results revealed that I believe the fluidity of government will lead the way to a more successful society, which is pretty accurate. Besides being on the extremes of one side, nothing was too shocking as the past quizzes kind of revealed the beliefs that I had.
After taking a quiz to determine how my social viewpoints matched with the current candidates of the 2016 Presidential Election, the results showed that I side with Bernie Sanders the most. It was not exactly surprising to see my results because from the political compass quiz, I came to a conclusion that I supported more of the socialist views which Sanders advocates. Also, from the other quizzes, I realized that I was most likely going to get the result of a candidate in the Democratic party. At first, I wasn't sure about my views on siding with Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, but after this quiz, I can see where I stand now. Also, after reading this article about the differences between the candidates and their viewpoints, I'm even more sure now that I have beliefs closest to Sanders'.
Monday, April 4, 2016
Intelligence
I took an online IQ test recently and was pretty surprised about my results. With simply questions about patterns and logic of all difficulties, my supposed intelligence was determined. In a way, I was just shocked that a set of questions can determine the powers of a human brain to such an extent. Nonetheless, I believe the test was mostly accurate because while I was taking the test, I was concentrated to answer every question in a quiet classroom even though my drowsiness began to kick in near the end. I had done better than expected on the test as I was beginning to doubt my academic abilities in school with some discouraging situations throughout the year. Perhaps if I work harder, I may be able to survive high school.
Also, I read an article here about the findings of Henry H. Goddard's research on intelligence based on the Kallikak Family Study. He was an American psychologist who believed that the lack of intelligence resulted from a single recessive gene. He focused his studies on "morons," those who he claimed to act like a normal person but has low intelligence hidden deep down inside. In his study, he believed that there were two lines to the Kallikak family in which one resulted in children with the intelligence to lead a successful life and the other led to children who did not have the intelligence to make the right decisions in life and in society. The good line resulted from the marriage of Martin Kallikak, Sr. and a Qucker woman, whereas the bad line began with the affair of Martin Kallikak, Sr. and a tavern girl. In a nutshell, he believed that the genetic traits from the tavern girl is passed down onto the next generation, resulting in low intelligence in her children. More details of the Kallikak Family Study can be found in Goddard's published book, The Kallikak Family: A Study In The Heredity Of Feeble-Mindedness.
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