Operations

It was a really long week. I know I'm blogging late, but it's better than nothing I suppose. I missed Wednesday's class, which I hear had a lot of notes.. I'll have to try and catch up on that soon. So as of right now, I'm a little behind. I know we are learning about operations in a person's life, and how they think at certain ages. Moral values change throughout a person's life. I remember being a kid thinking that everything I did had to be good; I couldn't break the rules, I had to listen to teachers, etc. But I think it was somewhere in middle school when I realized it's healthy to break a few rules. We can't be perfect all the time. If everyone always followed rules, people wouldn't be very dynamic. An average day would be pretty boring in my opinion. But there are some rules, of course, that are meant to follow, like what is and is not against the law. Those are the kind of rules we should always follow. But as for the little stuff, like no texting in school, we all break that one. And I think it's good to not be completely manipulated by adults.

Brain Disorders

We have been doing our projects on a specific brain disorder this past week, and I took a lot of notes on the ones that have been presented so far. Hailey and I did our project on Alzheimer's, which my grandpa has, and I've learned more about it. It's sad that he is never going to recover his lost memories, and he is never going to get better since it is a progressive disease. I already know he forgot who I am, or at least my name, because I haven't seen him in a long time. And last time I saw him all he could do was greet me with "honey" or "dear." After researching, I learned that someone with Alzheimer's should be in someone's care, and my grandpa should definitely not be living at home.

Another brain disorder I found completely fascinating was Savant Syndrom. I have never heard of it before this class, and I really enjoyed learning about it. I looked up Rex on Youtube when I got home that day; since the school's internet is really slow and we didn't get a chance to watch the entire video during class. He sings and plays piano, and he is amazing at both.

Memory

      We've been learning about short-term memory and long-term memory in class, and I've learned that memory is actually quite vulnerable. It can be "edited", or "reshaped", using a multitude of drugs; because the effects can only last a few months.
      If someone with post-traumatic stress disorder wants to forget what causes them anxiety, they can take propenol. This drug can eliminate the emotional effects of the trauma, yet the facts of the event remain. The people can recall the memory, however they have no anxiety over it.
     Short-term memory can last seconds, while long-term can last your entire life. However, every time you recall a memory, your mind "edits" it, and adds new things to it. The less you recall the memory, the more pristine it will remain. The more emotionally attached you are to a specific event, the clearer it will be in your memory.
     From the past few days, these are the things I have found the most interesting. I would like to learn more in-depth on these topics.

Psychology.

So far, psychology is really making me think farther than what we read in a textbook, or hear from Mr. Dreier. When we learn new concepts, I think about if it applies to myself, if I've ever given in to unconscious drives without realizing it, or how my behavior relates to the different behavioral perspectives. This class makes me think about real life situations, instead of (for example) those really lame ones your read in math books. It goes deeper than that, I have to think about my mind and how I react to certain things.

Concepts.

Collective unconscious archetypes. Archetypes are the structure, themes, of the collective unconscious. Relationships and views are based on the archetypes. An example, one of the most important archetypes is self. Based on a person's being, their wholeness.

Inferiority complex. Often unconscious, the inferiority complex is the thought of being inferior to others. A state of discouragement. Beginning at parental upbringing, defects (physical or mental), social disadvantages, etc. The state of feeling this way could lead to great success or great failure.

Woman v. Men Psychoanalysis. Karen Horney believed that penis envy rarely occured in women, and that it would occur just as often as men might feel womb envy; their drive for work and success makes up for their inability to bear and nurture children.