Blog Post #7

Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. It is our five senses: hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, and smelling. If you touched a stove that was hot, your sense of touch would receive stimuli and you would feel heat and pain. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. It is what can be concluded from the information received from our senses. We can figure out what an object is without looking at it by using our other senses. We can feel and smell an object and know what it is. This is because of perception, the informaition from the receptors was organized and interpreted.
I thought the visual cliff experiment was interesting. A visual cliff is a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. It was concluded that crawling infants can perceive depth because even when being coaxed by their mother, they wouldn't crawl onto the glass. It was interesting that newborn animals with virtually no experience, also don't venture onto the glass. It's amazing that such young beings have depth perception. This supports the nature side of the argument, saying children and animals are born with it. Although seem to be born with depth perception, it grows with age and people becom wary of heights.
An article I found interesting was "Psychology of Magic: 3 Critical Techniques." The article talked about why psychologists are interested in and study magic. Psychologists are interested in the principles of magic because magicians carry out behavioral experiments on people. This is also interesting to me. Then the article explained three techniques used in magic. The first one is pychological misdirection. The magician will point out an object or something appears that distracts the viewers from a movement that is critical for the trick. The second technique is cognitive illusions which can fool our attention and play with the way we predict the future. People often try to predict the future and magicians use this to their advantage such as in the disappearing coin tricks. The third technique is mental forcing, which is when a magician gives the spectator the impression that they have a free choice but then uses a technique to expose an object to the spectator for longer, influencing their decision. This is used in card games where the magician tries to guess the card a spectator has picked. Magic is very interesting to me. I always wonder how magicians do their tricks and this article was interesting because they explained some of the techniques magicians use. The only thing it would change is how I would go about watching a magic trick. Now I know a few methods used during a trick and would be watching for them. This applies to my life if I would go to a magic show. It also applies if I was trying to convince someone to choose something I wanted or if I wanted to influence them in some way. If someone was also trying to trick me, maybe I would be able to figure it out.

Blog Post #6

In the interview assignment, I learned the similarities and differences between my generation of adolescents and my grandma's generation of adolescents. She was in her teens during the 1950s. The stories she told and the way she described her life made it seem like more fun than today. She really enjoyed school and loved to go to it. She said that she didn't have nearly as much homework as children do today. Her adolescence was the same because people still cared about what they look like and would get together in a group to have fun. My grandma grew up in Mosinee and they have an ice rink there. What suprised me was that the ice rink was a popular place to hang out in her day and it still is today. A major difference between our lives is the price of everything. She sold tickets at a movie theater, and they only cost 10 cents. I think I would have liked growing up in her time period. It seemed like a lot of fun and school wasn't as big of a deal. That is currently my biggest stress but it wouldn't have been so stressful back then. Some people didn't even graduate high school. Although I would like her time period, I think I like mine better. I probably wouldn't be able to live without the technology we have today.



I thought the video was kind of interesting. I thought the information that was given was pretty accurate and useful to help deal with adolescents. My sister is 11 right now and she is distancing herself like all the examples in the movie. My time as an adolescent was pretty normal. I wanted to be alone more and spent more time in my room. I also fought more with my parents. Even though we fought, we kept a strong relationship. Since we kept a strong relationship, I think I've become and will continue to become a good and responsible person with strong morals.



In chapter four, I learned about identical twins versus fraternal twins. I find the differences really interesting. There are a lot of twins on my dad's side of the family and that makes me wonder if they're identical or fraternal. The only way I can tell them apart is their hair styles so i think they may be identical but the Olsen twins also look the same and they aren't identical. Identical twins develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two and they are genetically identical. Fraternal twins develop from separate fertilized eggs. They are no more alike that ordinary brothers and sisters. That is very interesting. You'd think they would at least be a little more alike from sharing the fetal environment, but they're not.

In chapter five, I learned about prenatal development. After a sperm fertilizes an ovum, a zygote forms. A zygote is a fertilized egg that enters a a period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. It is suprising that fewer than half of zygotes actually survive beyond the first two weeks. An embryo is the developing human from about two weeks after fertilization through the second month. When a baby is in the embryo stage, organs begin to form and function and the heart starts to beat. The stage after embryo is fetus. A fetus is the developing human from 9 weeks after conception to birth. By the time a baby gets to this stage it will start to look human. The organs such as stomachs are developed by the 6 month which allows premature babies to have a chance at life. At this time, the fetus is also responsive to sound and can recognize its mother's voice. It is really interesting to see the stages of development. It is amazing how a baby can be produced from two tiny cells.

Blog Post #5

The video, Evolutionary Psychology and Sexual Attitudes, was about male and female's perspective on casual sex and what traits they find attractive in the opposite sex. Men are more interested in having casual sex than women are. I've never thought about it, but it makes sense that gay men are more successful in having casual sex than straight men because both people are interested in it. Women are interested in men of high status, that will be able to provide, and have many resources. Men are interested in women that will be a good homemaker. I found it interesting that as the society changes and women become more equal, the ages of the partners that people seek also change. Men used to go after younger women so the women could give them a family and take care of it. Women would also go with older men who were successful and could provide. Now, women have their own jobs and can provide for themselves so they seek mates that are their own age.

The video, Natural Selection and Evolutionary Psychology, talked about how the body is a survival machine. Present genes that humans and animals possess are copies of successful genes passed on from their ancestors. This goes along with Darwin's principle of natural selection which states that among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations. Animals live to pass on their genes and everything they do has to do with passing those traits on to their offspring. Humans aren't like animals in this way. We waste time doing things that have nothing to do with natural selection and we participate in risky behaviors. It suprised me at how much the human race has changed over time. We used to be more like the animals just living to pass on genetics but with advances in technology, now we live for "fun" and the present.

In this chapter, I also learned about gender similarities and differences. Some of it was common knowledge, such as: compared with men, the average women enters puberty two years sooner, lives five years longer, carries more fat, has less muscle, and is shorter. I found it interesting how women smell fainter odors, are more vulnerable to depression and anxiety, and have a greater chance of developing eating disorders. Men are more likely to commit suicide; suffer from alcohol dependence; be diagnosed with autism, color-blindness, and ADHD. It was suprising how gender influences different diseases and personalities.