Character Study

             For this assignment I decided to do a character study on my mom. My mom is a very likable and inclusive person. She never really leaves anyone out and is always thinking of others. Although this true, she is also extremely blunt and truthful, there is absolutely no sugar- coating things when it comes to her. Because of these reasons I thought she would be a very interesting person to do a character study on.
             When I asked my mom where she thought her main personality traits came from she said that she believed they came from her dad. She said this because much like her, he was very orderly, commanding, and blunt. Which she believes are three of her most prominent personality traits. The main thing that she admired about her dad was the affect that he had on others. He always drew and audience to himself no matter what he was doing or saying. My mom also said that she was actually "fascinated" by this aspect of her dads personality. 
              In terms of my mom's personality according to personality tests I would guess based on the big five test that when it comes to extroversion she is as close to one hundred percent extroverted as possible. I say this because throughout my life I have witnessed her profound ability to talk to and make comfortable literally anyone she comes across no matter the situation. In terms of openness I would give my mom a higher score, because she is one of the most creative people I know. On the scale of conscientiousness I would again give my mom a higher score because she is extremely organized almost to a point of insanity and she is also extremely hard- working to a point where she will fully exhaust herself by working to benefit others. When it comes to my mom on the scale of agreeableness I would give her a very middle range score, because she is extremely blunt and honest but also very good- natured at the same time. She doesn't sugar- coat things, but she also cares about how her words effect others. Lastly, when it comes to neuroticism I would give my mom an extremely low score, because much like myself she is very go with the flow. As she put it "some things just aren't worth the hassle"
               Although it was not a new concept to me that my mom's personality was very similar to my grandpa's it was odd to me that she actually admitted that fact. I say this because every time someone brings up that she's acting like her dad she gets irritated and denies it. Overall, this character study was very interesting and helped me learn a few new things about my mom and her about herself.

Sources:
https://hsutx.instructure.com/courses/3078/files/176332/download?wrap=1

Personality Psychology

              If you look around you it is very clear that there is an abundance of differing personalities in the world. These personalities are very unique and not one personality is exactly the same. Because of this, personality assessments are used in all areas of life to help us have the ability to know how our minds habitually work and how we can best work with and serve others.
              The personality test that I chose to use for this assignment is called The Big Five. This test has five basic ideas that it tests for, hence the name The Big Five. Extroversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism or most commonly know as emotional stability are the five major aspects of your personality that this test focuses on. The big five is accepted by an abundance of personality psychologists, because they believe that it captures the most important differences amongst personalities.
              The test that I took on similar minds gave me 44% extroversion, 66% orderliness, 82% emotional stability, 58% accommodation, and 36% inquisitiveness. Since I have taken other personality tests pretty recently for another class I can see that this is pretty accurate for my personality as far as tests go. I also believe it is pretty accurate for my personality in general all across the board. Overall, according to the tests that I have taken I would say that I am a very even kill person and as most people would describe me very "go with the flow."

Sources:
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199828340/obo-9780199828340-0120.xml 
http://similarminds.com/bigfive.html

Developmental Psychology

             According to simply psychology developmental psychology is the study of growth, change and consistency throughout the lifespan. Many studies in recent years have proven that our parents as individuals and their parenting styles can have either good or bad effects in our later lives after we have gone through adolescence. In this post I will be discussing some questions pertaining to my own parents and how I believe there style of parenting has played a part in shaping me to be the person that I am today.

• Reflect on the way you were raised. Consider the parenting behaviors (e.g., rules, discipline strategies, warmth, and support) used in your household when you were a child. Why do you think your parents behaved this way? How do these factors fit with the influences on parenting described here? Provide specific examples of multiple influences on parenting.
• I was raised in a very honest home. My parents literally never hid anything from me and my sister no matter what it was. Although my parents were very blunt when it came to all aspects of life, they were also very loving and caring at the same time. I never really got into a lot of trouble as a kid so I personally never really experienced the full extent of my parents discipline strategies, but I got to see their strategies with my older sister a lot. I think this is partially the reason why I have never really gotten into any extreme amounts of trouble before. Because of this fact I think my parents felt like they could be more lenient and easy going when it came to the rules they gave me. This also plays into the fact that both of my parents are pretty easy going individuals, at least until you mess up several times. I also believe my parents were this way because that is exactly how their parents were with them, so it was really all just kind of second nature to them.
• What type of parent do you envision yourself becoming? If you are a parent, how do you parent your child/children? How do you think this is similar to or different than the way you were raised? What influences exist in your life that will make you parent differently from your own parents? 

• I envision myself being the type of parent that is very approachable and listens to their children very well. I also hope to be like my parents in the aspect of how well they juggled being successful and busy in their fields of work, but also being very present in the lives of their children. This style of parenting overall is very similar to the ones my parents used in parenting me, because throughout my entire life my parents have always made sure that my sister and I could come to them with anything that we needed to talk about no matter what it is. I think the fact that I have known for a very long time what I want to do in my life sets me apart from my parents since there life was not as planned out as mine is at this point and as a result of this fact I believe that I will be better equipped with more favorable circumstances that my parents did not have before they had children.
• What kind of relationship did you have with your parents or primary caregivers when you were young? Do you think that had any bearing on the way you related to others (e.g., friends, relationship partners) as you grew older?
• At the beginning of my life I was very attached to my mother, and according to my dad did not really want to have a lot to do with him Overall though I believe that I eventually warmed up to my dad more and I do not think this had any bad effects or effects in general on the way I relate to others as I have grown older. I say this because for pretty much my whole life I have preferred to a lot of guy friends, because of the less drama associated with guys.
• Some people, despite reporting insecure relationships with their parents, report secure, well-functioning relationships with their spouses. What kinds of experiences do you think might enable someone to develop a secure relationship with their partners despite having an insecure relationship with other central figures in their lives?
• I believe that people who do not have secure relationships with their parents can have a secure relationship with their spouse, because when it comes down to it technically your parents and who you decide to have a relationship with are not the same person. I also believe that the more real life experiences you have with your significant other strengthens your relationship, because it makes you better equipped and helps you grow together.

Sources: 

https://www.simplypsychology.org/developmental-psychology.html 

http://nobaproject.com/modules/the-developing-parent#content 

http://nobaproject.com/modules/attachment-through-the-life-course 

Build Your Brain Activity

              For this week's experiential task I decided to take a trip home last weekend and get the help of my nine year old cousin Madison. While the cameras were not on Madison was very interested in the building your brain activity although I think the main reason for that was because she got to play with Play-Doh instead of doing her own homework for a little while. 
              So to begin this project I explained to Madison that I was going to show her some pictures of the brain and she could mold them out of Play-Doh to look fairly similar to the picture. I didn't really help her build them in anyway besides giving her a few pointers here and there and answering a few                                            questions for her along the way. 

              The biggest hurdle I had while doing this project was the fact that Madison suddenly became extremely shy once the camera came out so as you can tell in the video she did not really seem like she was having that much fun, but she did assure me before we made the video that she really liked being able to build the different parts of the brain with the Play-Doh. I was even told that she had remembered some of the facts like the weight of the brain that I had told her because of the comparison I had made to her new dog.

Sources:

https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/science/general-science/human-brain/#!/register

https://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-AnatBrain.htm 

Sensation and Perception

              The subject of sensation and perception is one that I have found to be very interesting and intriguing to me. Although I had seen many similar illusions like the ones presented in the readings and videos I never knew that there were so many experiments and findings that went along with these fascinating illusions.
              Perception deals with the neuroplasticity of your brain. The medical definition of neuroplasticity according to medicinenet is "the brain's ability to reorganize itself by creating new neural connections based on the experiences throughout your lifetime." Although the concept that people look at life and experiences differently is definitely not a new one to me. I continue to find the idea that the experiences that we may individually have can anatomically change the way our brain functions and experiences life very fascinating. The video from the readings titled Seeing Sound, Tasting Color: Synesthesia talks about the fact that there are many people whose neurons are positioned and connected in such a way that they can do things such as see sound as colors and any other combination of the senses you might think of. Not only can neuroplasticity change the way our neurons are connected and how we perceive the world, but it can also compensate for any injuries you might have involving your brain throughout your lifetime. An example of this would something like you having a traumatic brain injury and one hemisphere of your brain no longer being able to function. In this case the brain would compensate for the loss of ability in that one hemisphere by giving the other hemisphere more capabilities.
              Another video from this week that really interested me was the rubber hand illusion. Imagine a rubber hand is placed on one side of a partition in front of you while your actual hand is placed on the other side of that partition where you cannot see it. After this is done the person conducting the illusion then proceeds to rub your real fingers and the fingers on the fake hand with a paintbrush. After you believe that the rubber hand is actually your hand the conductor of the illusion then proceeds to hit the rubber hand with a hammer. This would more than likely scare you because of the multi sensory perception that we all have. Not only does the rubber hand illusion show how adaptable our brains are, but it also shows how easily a fundamental change to our brain can be carried out. The fact that our brain is so intelligent independently and is able to change so rapidly just goes to show how magnificent our Creator truly is and how much thought went into to creating each and every one of us.


Sources:
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=40362 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxwn1w7MJvk 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTr1VnXKr4A 

           

Brain and Behavior

              Although I have taken countless biology and anatomy and physiology classes throughout my time in school I have definitely learned a lot about the brain that I did not know through the TED Talks and different videos that I watched this week. Out of the videos that I watched there were a couple with topics that really stood out to me, one of these being the one about sleep.
              As a college student and just a busy person in general I can definitely relate to the idea of not getting enough sleep. In his TED Talk, Dr. Dan Gartenberg , discussed the possibility of technology helping us gain more restful and deeper sleep. He mentioned a fact that was really interesting to me. This fact was that people today get a whole hour of sleep less than the people in the 1940s did. I thought this fact was very interesting considering how advanced technology has become since that time period and how much it is supposed to make our lives better and easier. I also thought that it was very interesting that a sound being played when our brains reached deep sleep would help us have even more restful sleep. The sound that he played really intrigued me though because it was such an odd sound. I was expecting to hear maybe like some type of calming noise but it was more like those ocean sound videos that you can find on YouTube but more of a sped up and shorter version than the normal wave crashes.
              Another video that I found to be very interesting was the video about the eight year old girl who has a very rare brain disease. This little girl, named Ellie, has leukoencephalopathy with brainstem and spinal cord involvement and lactate elevation (LBSL). This is a degenerative brain disease with a very dismal long term prognosis. In Ellie's case, this disease affected her balance early on in her life and could even put her in a wheelchair by the time she is a teen. Currently there is no cure for this disease so as her parents said "its a race against the clock" to find a cure before the damages of the disease become too much to recover from. The great thing about Ellie though is that she has the most positive and joyful outlook on life and her disease. She doesn't let it get her down at all. She has adjusted to it so much so that her mom said that Ellie cried at the idea that she might not have the disease anymore because she says that it makes her, her. I believe that Ellie is a great example for how we all should look at the challenges that we face or will face in our lives. No matter what the circumstance we should all try to have as good of an attitude as Ellie has.


Sources:
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gartenberg_the_brain_benefits_of_deep_sleep_and_how_to_get_more_of_it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk23jZYLNI8&feature=youtu.be