Learning Assessment Two

1. Malena Steve Dr. Rob July 11,2012 Learning Assessment Two

2. Material that has changed my Understanding about Human Behavior and Cognition • Solutions to strategies • How we judge probability • How we test our Hypothesis • Piagets’s stages of cognitive development • Parenting styles/Attachment • Three-part personality structure • Rogers’s self theory • Why we Comply/ Obedience • How we make Attributions

3. Solution Strategies I didn’t know that we humans actually had many ways in going about dealing with certain situations. For instance, I just learned that we have an algorithm that guarantees a correct answer to our problems and heuristics that don’t give us the correct answers. What made me really understand these concepts were the different strategies that researchers came up with. Ones like: the working backward heuristic, means-end analysis heuristic, and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic.

4. Different Strategies Since I really didn’t get the heuristics down these really helped me see how we come up with the solutions to most of our problems. I really like math and I know it is always another way in solving some of the problems that are given to me. The Working backward heuristic is one that I’ve found that I do a lot when working on math problems. I most of the time start at the end point of problems to solve them. Sometimes it gives me the right answer and sometimes it doesn’t but that is why it is called a heuristic for a reason; because your answer isn’t always right. In the means-end analysis, you use subgoals in order to get to your goal state. I’ve figured out in my mind that I’ve used this quite a bit in my life. My sister and I wanted to build a ramp so we could roller skate off of it. Next slide

5. Continued… Our subgoals that got us to the ramp that we wanted were easy. We first needed to find some wood for the ramp. Then we needed tools to build it (hammer, nails, etc). After putting it all together we accomplished some what of a success. We were young so the ramp was steady enough and since my sister went first skating off of it, it completely broke down. But we set aside subgoals in order to attempt this build.

6. How we Judge Probability Judging probability basically influenced all my understanding when it came down to any judgment. The availability heuristic was the main one that really made me think of how people really think in our society. They just out weigh things with what they remember most of in their minds. I’m the same way sadly, but if I had a child and we went out looking for a phone for him/her then I know for sure that I wouldn’t get a sprint phone. Since I’ve had sprint most of my life and I don’t like their network through personal experience, I’m not going to put my child in that type of predicament. Knowing that sprint isn’t a good choice, it is heavily available in my memory so that would not be a choice for my child.

7. How we test Our Hypothesis After reading this section it made me recognize much more on how we show that we are ultimately correct in any circumstances that occurs. With the confirmation bias, we as humans just try to confirm our beliefs of the right answer. If I tell someone that I have just met for the first time that I am a nice person, if I want to get instant confirmation I would tell them to ask my family members. I say this because they are close to me and I know they will confirm my thought process. Another way we test our hypothesis is using belief perseverance. This means that no matter what anyone says, you still stick to what you know. People tell me all the time that I should eat Mexican food but in my own beliefs, it’s nasty so why would I set my self up for failure of my taste buds to be aroused. Still until this day, I believe Mexican food is nasty.

8. Piaget’s stages of Cognitive Development After reading about the Piagets's theory about cognitive development I started to understand fully how children think through to their adulthood. I didn’t think that it was a psychological expression for the reasons why kids act the way they do, I just thought they would eventually grow into up and understand the world how I do. I realize now that when my little cousin calls me mama, he just hasn’t yet reached that stage in his life to accommodate in his schema that he only has one mother and it surely isn’t me. I also gained an understanding about how children in preoperational stage don’t have that conservation knowledge set in yet. I honestly thought the kids in the video who didn’t know that it was the same amount of liquid in the wider glass as the tall glass were just a little bit slow but now I see that they are just too young to understand things of that sort. As well as I’m talking from the formal operational stage so I can think abstractly.

9. Attachment When I was little I always clung to my mom, where ever she went I felt like I should be right beside her at all times because I felt most safe when I was with her. When she left me at school for the first time I didn’t want her too leave and she stayed the whole day outside the classroom door. When school was out, I was so happy to go back home with her and sleep in her lap. When I read this part of the chapter I quickly pointed myself out as being securely attached to my mother. I would be ok when she was around but when she left out of my eyesight I was distraught, and she came back so I was happy again. There are three other different attachments such as insecure-avoidant attachment when the child really doesn’t care if the mother is there or not and avoids her when she returns, insecure-ambivalent attachment when the child is really close to the mother and really distraught when she leaves but grabs and pushes her away when she comes back, and insecure-disorganized attachment when the child is really just confused about everything.

10. Parenting Styles Learning the different parenting styles has changed my perception on many of the kids that I went to high school with. I have found out that they act out in bad ways because of the way they were raised. Most kids I went to school with either had parents who were permissive or uninvolved. Most of the time they were uninvolved, they didn’t care those kids at all, just gave them a place to sleep at night. The reason I am a well obedient child is because my mother was used the authoritative parenting style. She talks with me, reasons with me, and she is always there for me no matter what and occasionally whoops me if I’m clearly in the wrong. We share a very strong bond and I feel like I have no choice but to succeed in life because of the way she raised me. When some of my friends took the wrong path in high school, I don’t put all the blame on them now, it starts at home too.

11. Three Part Personality Structure Honestly I did learn a lot about personality after reading it from Freud. I never knew that our personality would clash against each other if given the chance. That’s why some people steal because their ego is too weak and the id part of our personality takes control. All the id ever wanted is to be satisfied, thus the reason the holds the pleasure principal because it needs immediate gratification for the drives that it goes through. If people had a stronger ego, which is realistic about the world and caters to the ids wants, then maybe our crime rate would go down. The ego is like the middle man between the superego and the id. The superego has morals and tends to tell the ego how to really act, while the id just wants instant pleasure. Neither one of the personalities should completely rule over the others or it might become messy in the end.

12. Roger’s Self Theory In a way when I learned about Roger’s self theory I got an understanding about why most people have the need to be accepted in the world. With the conditions of worth theory that we receive positive regard from our parents at an early age makes us want to positive things so people can accept us. I work hard in school and try to strive for A’s because I know my mommy will be happy with me. I don’t like it when she’s mad and she can real upset at times so I do what I can so she will continue her affection for me. I’m sure most students do it and of course I strive A’s for myself as well. Since our parents have somewhat instilled this positive regard in us we have to receive unconditional positive regard from everyone else. Us as humans need to be wanted, appreciated, and loved.

13. Why we comply Conformity is one of the many chapters that I’ve found interesting. I understand conformity completely but why we always comply was a different story. I am now aware of the fact that we comply with people because they always have a way to persuade us to do so. Like my mother always calls my name when I come home from school to sit in her room and talk. She has already got me where she wants me, in her room, then she ask me to help her make up her bed, and hand her the remote. I agree to it because I’m already in her room so I might as well do it. This is called the foot-in-the door technique, which means she warms me up my asking a little thing and then it turns out to be something bigger than that. Other techniques are the door-in-the face, low-ball, and the that’s-not-all technique. Each one of these techniques help people to eventually get what they desire by going about the situation with one of the above.

14. Obedience The topic on obedience actually changed my expectations about different situational experiences I have seen. I understand that you are suppose to obey your parents at all times because they are the higher authority. In one of the videos on the wiki with the girl who was taken in the back of McDonalds and ordered to strip naked and do jumping jacks of that sort was simply obeying what she had been taught when she was younger. What really changed my expectations is that even though her mom told her to obey any adult, I feel like she should know what right from wrong and what they had her do was simply wrong. My mother always taught me to obey adults and I do but they can only go so far with what they ask of me. Obedience just went into a whole different level when I saw that clip.

15. How We Make Attributions Reading about the fundamental attribution error and learning the ins and outs about the actor-observer and self-serving biases influenced my understanding on the how view others and our own behaviors. We as humans do go around and judge other people on the misbehaviors that happen in our daily lives. If someone blatantly ran into a glass I would think they were stupid to have just walked into that glass. With that being said, I had just performed an actor-observer bias because I was more focused on the person at hand rather than the situation as the cause of the action. If I would have ran into a glass, I would make up every excuse for myself that I didn’t know it was glass, I thought it was an exit in order to save face for myself. This is called the self-serving bias because I’m making myself seem as though it was the situation instead of just me alone.

16. Information that will be Relevant in my Life 5 years from now. In 5 years from now I should be into the field of occupational therapy. In this field, I need to remember some heuristics because I know I will come across some problems sooner or later. Preferably the means-ends analysis so I can break things down and go about them in a timely manner. Since I’m going to be working with many people, I need to have the representativeness heuristic so I can get a feel of who they are since we need to share some kind a bond together. Its not the best but I might need it. I would surely love to remember the person-who reasoning just in case someone tries to judge my techniques of my job to someone else they know who has been through the same thing. I have to encode Piaget’s cognitive development stages in my memory so that I will not overestimate a child’s ability to perform a task that I ask of them. I’m sure to have some kids who have had a stroke or some sort eventually. Furthermore, knowing the different styles will help me not to judge everyone because we all were raised differently. Next slide

17. Continued… I hope to remember Rotter’s locus of control also. Some of my of patients may feel an external locus of control, meaning some external force will determine your fate, and it some what apart of my job to encourage them so they can continue to push forward in life and let them know things can only get better from here. I actually hope to remember some of the compliance techniques so that I can use them to my advantage when my patients get discouraged. I would use the door-in-the-face technique so that they can do the little things I want after I ask for too much from them.

18. How my Approach to Learning in this Course Improved over the Term My approach in this course to really know the information made a change for the better. Usually in most classes I take, I start off weak but I end up finishing strong. I really sat myself down and read the material thoroughly than I had been in the beginning of the course. I applied myself to my fullest extent and tried to answer every question on each quiz/exam to the best of my abilities. It improved because I always strive to be better than my sisters in pretty much everything. Its always a competition with us and they really gave me words of encouragement. I also wanted to improve for myself because I know that I know this material, sometimes it’s just hard to put it on paper. I honestly like psychology a lot more than I expected so of course I really got into the material and put my past or present situations with what we have been learning about.

19. Changes that I would like to Continue Working on for Future Courses Changes that I want to really pass over to my future courses is actually to apply myself at the beginning of the course instead of the end. If I start out strong, I would not have to worry so much at the end of the semesters . So all I need to do is apply myself and be very productive in the beginning and I will have a smooth finish.