As I was writing this blog, I realized I may be a little obsessed with school and psychology... bear with me, or don't... either way, it doesn't matter much to me. Writing is a good way to study for tests (in case you were wondering).
Wow. I am really loving my classes. Recently, I wrote a paper for behavioral neuroscience about the effects of meditation on the chemistry and neuronal connections within the brain. It was a pretty epic paper, if I do say so myself. It's too long to post though, and besides, I doubt anyone else would find meditative effects as interesting as I find them. Basic point: meditation changes the chemical release of cortisol, reduces stress, improves the immune system, and activates regions of the brain that are directly tied to the attention networks and pathways, etc., etc., etc. Yes, I'm awesome, I know. Maybe sarcastic fits better...
Social psychology is by far my favorite class though. We're learning about cognitive dissonance theory right now, and it makes complete sense. The jist of the theory is that when people do something contrary to their beliefs, they feel psychological tension (otherwise known as dissonance). This, in turn, causes the person to reflect on their "self" to either change the behavior, attitude about the behavior, or rationalize the behavior. It's amazing what we can tell ourselves to feel better about doing something contrary to our beliefs. We lie to ourselves quite often, I've realized. And we usually don't even realize it! It's a coping mechanism, and it does wonders to our mind and how we think about life and others.
Everyone has cognitive dissonance at some point in their life. I was thinking of putting examples up, but I'll pass on that. I'm sure you can think of them yourself... if you really even care... In fact, if you read this far, I'm shocked.
You should take social psychology; especially if you want to learn a ton about yourself - why you think how you think, why you do what you do, to find your true self. There are plenty of other ways to learn about oneself, but this class has shown me so many different techniques and theories that I am starting to put everything together.
Psychology in general is just a bunch of theories bundled together to make sense of human behavior. I love it! I know of no other person who gets as excited about class as do I. Kinda scary actually...
Anyways, that is about all I wish to share. Live life to the fullest, laugh as if there's no tomorrow, and love like there's no end. Well, there is an end (sort of), but don't worry about it.
The End <-- (see, here it is.)
Showing posts with label psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychology. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Rain and School
A realization just hit me. I have a rather boring life. Day to day, I usually go to school, maybe talk with some friends or watch tv, play piano, do tons of homework, facebook, blog, and sleep. Wake up, and repeat. Wow... Yet, I love my life. It's perfect for me right now. I would like to have more excitement sometimes, but I think tests, friends, and school in general cause me enough anxiety and stress. Why throw in new stressors on top of all of that?
Making connections with people is difficult. I don't know how I ever managed through the social life in school, especially getting put in such a new environment in high school - one where I didn't know anyone. I'm really glad I chose to do Success Academy though. I finally realize how much further ahead I am than all of my friends. I don't have to waste my time taking classes I don't want to take. Instead, I get to take classes that I love and that really interest me. If upper division classes are this great, I can't wait until grad school! Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon.
Rain is a good thing. That song is very interesting... but I'm actually talking about the rain we've been having here in St. George. I'm loving the rain and hope it continues all week long! After my class today, I walked really slowly through the rain. I didn't care if I got soaked; I was enjoying the weather far too much. This was probably not the best idea, considering I had quite a ways to walk and almost froze. Advice: don't walk in the rain unless you have a jacket on or an umbrella at least. Thankfully my truck heats up relatively quickly.
Well, that's about it in my boring life. Come back soon to waste another 2 minutes of your time!
Making connections with people is difficult. I don't know how I ever managed through the social life in school, especially getting put in such a new environment in high school - one where I didn't know anyone. I'm really glad I chose to do Success Academy though. I finally realize how much further ahead I am than all of my friends. I don't have to waste my time taking classes I don't want to take. Instead, I get to take classes that I love and that really interest me. If upper division classes are this great, I can't wait until grad school! Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon.
Rain is a good thing. That song is very interesting... but I'm actually talking about the rain we've been having here in St. George. I'm loving the rain and hope it continues all week long! After my class today, I walked really slowly through the rain. I didn't care if I got soaked; I was enjoying the weather far too much. This was probably not the best idea, considering I had quite a ways to walk and almost froze. Advice: don't walk in the rain unless you have a jacket on or an umbrella at least. Thankfully my truck heats up relatively quickly.
Well, that's about it in my boring life. Come back soon to waste another 2 minutes of your time!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Jaron and the Long Road to Love, Psychology, Marathon
Jaron and the Long Road to Love. So far, it's not that long of a road. I love them already! The lead singer has an amazing voice, and I think I have a new favorite break out artist. He'll definitely get bigger as time goes on, I hope. The song "I hope you hit traffic" is really good.
Tonight I went to the psychology program opening social. I had a good time, met some new people, and hopefully will get more involved with the psychology club after this. Just so you know, my psychology professors are the best. They're all very intelligent, and most of them are really good teachers.
Dixie's homecoming centennial ball is next week... I'm deciding whether I want to go or not. I'd rather go with someone if I went, but I doubt that will happen.
I have just decided. I'm not really an optimist. I think I'm far more a realist. One of my teachers put it this way: the optimist sees the glass half full, the pessimist sees the glass half empty, and the realist sees a glass with water in it.
Keith Urban always makes me feel better. "I'll be over you and on with my life. So take your records, take your freedom. Take your memory I don't need em. Take your space and all your reasons... In fact I'll feel a whole lot better... You'll think of me."
I'm loving having music back on my computer :) It makes me feel so much better knowing I can choose what I want to listen to. I need music. It's always been something that's a type of healing therapy to me. Piano, listening to certain genres when I'm in certain moods... I think everyone does that though.
Wow... I must be tired... And I get to wake up at 4 tomorrow morning! ....Yay? At least its for a good cause. I love volunteering at the marathon. Every year, I always meet some awesome person that needs help or just stops to talk for a moment. Some people travel so far to come to the marathon too. I can't imagine travelling that far to go running.
It's crazy. Life's insane. And I'm feeling good about everything now. Finally.
Tonight I went to the psychology program opening social. I had a good time, met some new people, and hopefully will get more involved with the psychology club after this. Just so you know, my psychology professors are the best. They're all very intelligent, and most of them are really good teachers.
Dixie's homecoming centennial ball is next week... I'm deciding whether I want to go or not. I'd rather go with someone if I went, but I doubt that will happen.
I have just decided. I'm not really an optimist. I think I'm far more a realist. One of my teachers put it this way: the optimist sees the glass half full, the pessimist sees the glass half empty, and the realist sees a glass with water in it.
Keith Urban always makes me feel better. "I'll be over you and on with my life. So take your records, take your freedom. Take your memory I don't need em. Take your space and all your reasons... In fact I'll feel a whole lot better... You'll think of me."
I'm loving having music back on my computer :) It makes me feel so much better knowing I can choose what I want to listen to. I need music. It's always been something that's a type of healing therapy to me. Piano, listening to certain genres when I'm in certain moods... I think everyone does that though.
Wow... I must be tired... And I get to wake up at 4 tomorrow morning! ....Yay? At least its for a good cause. I love volunteering at the marathon. Every year, I always meet some awesome person that needs help or just stops to talk for a moment. Some people travel so far to come to the marathon too. I can't imagine travelling that far to go running.
It's crazy. Life's insane. And I'm feeling good about everything now. Finally.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Better than Your Textbooks!
God answers prayers in some very strange ways sometimes... Who ever would have thought that the answers to my problems would be presented in my stress management class? I sure as heck didn't. But, I'm feeling better about life in general now, thanks to that class.
The whole class was about stress and spirituality. This was a rather interesting topic. I had no idea that we would discuss the spiritual health of our souls in any college class. But I was glad we did. Spirituality and religion are completely different subjects, although spirituality can be expressed through religion. I know some of my friends and I have talked about this before, but I didn't realize that someone had written a whole entire chapter in a psychology book about it.
One point I found rather interesting, but I am also skeptical about it, is a study that someone did where they showed the affects of words on ice crystals. It was strange, not gonna lie. And I'm still pretty skeptical about this effect, but I wonder if it's true. In the experiment, positive affirmation statements created beautiful crystals, whereas negative statements created less attractive crystals. They also studied the affects of music and got similar results. So, I don't know exactly what to think about this study....
I definitely believe in the effects of words and music on the soul. I believe that mental and psychological issues cause just as much stress and take just as much energy as physical issues. Researchers have started doing studies that indicate that the amount of glycogen in the brain decreases with mental stress (such as willpower, traumatic situations, etc.). This goes to show that mental and psychological issues really do take energy from people. It's a rather interesting study, if you ever care to research or write about something in psychology.
Another topic we looked at in class was spiritual healing. We looked quite a bit at forgiveness. Here's a concept I never considered before. Forgiveness is only for oneself. Keeping in anger, aggression, and hatred hurts only whoever is holding the grudge. The person who did the wrong never knows about the anger, the built up tension. It only matters to the person who either can't forgive or is trying to forgive. So, that was a good study. Something worth knowing, even for someone who isn't a psychology major.
Well, if you cared enough to read this, I'd really appreciate to know what you think. If you have views, it might be fun to discuss them. Anyways, I doubt anyone will actually do that, so I hope you enjoyed reading! It's better than a textbook, right?
The whole class was about stress and spirituality. This was a rather interesting topic. I had no idea that we would discuss the spiritual health of our souls in any college class. But I was glad we did. Spirituality and religion are completely different subjects, although spirituality can be expressed through religion. I know some of my friends and I have talked about this before, but I didn't realize that someone had written a whole entire chapter in a psychology book about it.
One point I found rather interesting, but I am also skeptical about it, is a study that someone did where they showed the affects of words on ice crystals. It was strange, not gonna lie. And I'm still pretty skeptical about this effect, but I wonder if it's true. In the experiment, positive affirmation statements created beautiful crystals, whereas negative statements created less attractive crystals. They also studied the affects of music and got similar results. So, I don't know exactly what to think about this study....
I definitely believe in the effects of words and music on the soul. I believe that mental and psychological issues cause just as much stress and take just as much energy as physical issues. Researchers have started doing studies that indicate that the amount of glycogen in the brain decreases with mental stress (such as willpower, traumatic situations, etc.). This goes to show that mental and psychological issues really do take energy from people. It's a rather interesting study, if you ever care to research or write about something in psychology.
Another topic we looked at in class was spiritual healing. We looked quite a bit at forgiveness. Here's a concept I never considered before. Forgiveness is only for oneself. Keeping in anger, aggression, and hatred hurts only whoever is holding the grudge. The person who did the wrong never knows about the anger, the built up tension. It only matters to the person who either can't forgive or is trying to forgive. So, that was a good study. Something worth knowing, even for someone who isn't a psychology major.
Well, if you cared enough to read this, I'd really appreciate to know what you think. If you have views, it might be fun to discuss them. Anyways, I doubt anyone will actually do that, so I hope you enjoyed reading! It's better than a textbook, right?
Friday, September 24, 2010
Self-Compassion Views
Yesterday I had the most interesting discussion in one of my classes. We were talking about self-esteem, self-compassion, moral values, agression, and stress. The whole idea of the class was to read these articles and figure out how they all related to one another. And, I have a new direction I want to take! I'd always thought I would go into psychological research with something to do with development psychology or something like that, but now, I am most definitely going to try to study social psychology. And it's because of one specific subject: self-compassion.
A lot of people probably don't know the difference between self-esteem and self-compassion. Basically, self-esteem is a very debated topic in psychology where some psychologists believe that low self-esteem is bad, but also that narcissism (extreme high self-esteem) is bad. They've tried to show that low self-esteem creates aggression and behavioral problems. This has a small correlation, but it's not really significant. One of my professors actually believes that self-esteem has very little to do with behavioral problems, and I agree with that theory.
On the other hand, people low in self-compassion generally blame themselves for problems in their lives, and do not know how to deal with inconsistencies between their inner mental state and outer physical world. Self-compassionate people understand that they do make mistakes, they have adversities in their lives, but they also realize that beating themselves up over these problems will not solve anything. They tend to take rejection and failure better than those with low self-compassion.
So, here's my theory. Self-esteem doesn't really have an affect on behavior; rather, self-compassion is the underlying agent to behavioral problems. It makes sense. If people dwell on the mistakes they make, they won't care to progress in life. But, if they can learn from their mistakes and move on, they will progress in life. This seems like common sense.
I know I had more insights to this subject last night, but I can't remember them right now... I should have written them down. This very possibly could be my independent research project someday. Perhaps even one of my research studies in grad school. Who knows...
No matter what, I'm excited to learn more about self-compassion and self-concept. It fascinates me!
A lot of people probably don't know the difference between self-esteem and self-compassion. Basically, self-esteem is a very debated topic in psychology where some psychologists believe that low self-esteem is bad, but also that narcissism (extreme high self-esteem) is bad. They've tried to show that low self-esteem creates aggression and behavioral problems. This has a small correlation, but it's not really significant. One of my professors actually believes that self-esteem has very little to do with behavioral problems, and I agree with that theory.
On the other hand, people low in self-compassion generally blame themselves for problems in their lives, and do not know how to deal with inconsistencies between their inner mental state and outer physical world. Self-compassionate people understand that they do make mistakes, they have adversities in their lives, but they also realize that beating themselves up over these problems will not solve anything. They tend to take rejection and failure better than those with low self-compassion.
So, here's my theory. Self-esteem doesn't really have an affect on behavior; rather, self-compassion is the underlying agent to behavioral problems. It makes sense. If people dwell on the mistakes they make, they won't care to progress in life. But, if they can learn from their mistakes and move on, they will progress in life. This seems like common sense.
I know I had more insights to this subject last night, but I can't remember them right now... I should have written them down. This very possibly could be my independent research project someday. Perhaps even one of my research studies in grad school. Who knows...
No matter what, I'm excited to learn more about self-compassion and self-concept. It fascinates me!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Two posts in a row... that's pretty incredible for me. But, I need to talk, well, figuratively. Moreso, I just need to put thoughts down.
So, here's my dilemma. I love psychology, but I'm seriously thinking about changing my major to english. I have no idea why I'm thinking this, but I am. Maybe my mind thinks there are more jobs for english majors than for psychology majors (which is probably likely). But, I'm not going to make a decision just yet. I have all the prerequisites to switch majors, but I'm not sure if that's what I really want.
More problems. I've been car shopping recently, and I found a car that I really like. It's a gold saturn, 2 door... I don't really know the rest of the details, but I like how it drives, and my brother says it's in good condition, so I'll take his word for it. Here's where my problem comes in. Another person also wants the car and went in before I did to the dealership. I'm really hoping their financing doesn't come through. That's terrible to say, but I've been looking for weeks, and I actually, really like this car and really want it. Not to mention it looks great. It's sporty-ish looking and matches me quite well.
School. Let's see... I don't think I will ever be able to post without somehow including school. But, let's post on a positive note! School's very interesting (good interesting). I've already learned a ton, and we're barely starting the second week! Today in my behavioral neuroscience class we looked at a real human brain! It was exciting. It's amazing what our brains do...
Institute is amazing. I absolutely love it. I have it first class on mondays and wednesdays. Hopefully having it at the first of the week will get me off to the right start every week. I can't wait to start hearing about doctrinal insights, stories, and truly trying to improve myself through learning.
So, I think I'm starting to go back to myself again, which is good. I greatly dislike being a pain to deal with, so that me is (hopefully) gone for the time being. For now at least, I'll keep things light and happy on here.
So, here's my dilemma. I love psychology, but I'm seriously thinking about changing my major to english. I have no idea why I'm thinking this, but I am. Maybe my mind thinks there are more jobs for english majors than for psychology majors (which is probably likely). But, I'm not going to make a decision just yet. I have all the prerequisites to switch majors, but I'm not sure if that's what I really want.
More problems. I've been car shopping recently, and I found a car that I really like. It's a gold saturn, 2 door... I don't really know the rest of the details, but I like how it drives, and my brother says it's in good condition, so I'll take his word for it. Here's where my problem comes in. Another person also wants the car and went in before I did to the dealership. I'm really hoping their financing doesn't come through. That's terrible to say, but I've been looking for weeks, and I actually, really like this car and really want it. Not to mention it looks great. It's sporty-ish looking and matches me quite well.
School. Let's see... I don't think I will ever be able to post without somehow including school. But, let's post on a positive note! School's very interesting (good interesting). I've already learned a ton, and we're barely starting the second week! Today in my behavioral neuroscience class we looked at a real human brain! It was exciting. It's amazing what our brains do...
Institute is amazing. I absolutely love it. I have it first class on mondays and wednesdays. Hopefully having it at the first of the week will get me off to the right start every week. I can't wait to start hearing about doctrinal insights, stories, and truly trying to improve myself through learning.
So, I think I'm starting to go back to myself again, which is good. I greatly dislike being a pain to deal with, so that me is (hopefully) gone for the time being. For now at least, I'll keep things light and happy on here.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Forces of Nature
I hate the weather right now... it's far too windy and I can feel the autumn breeze starting to fill the air. I thought I would be thrilled to see summer end, but I'm not. I'm ready to be busy again, but I don't want to be at the same time. Does that make sense? Well, it does to me. I'm tired of sitting at home with nothing to accompany me except my thoughts. I don't like helping around the house at the moment, and I need to go back to school, even though I don't necessarily want to go to all of my classes.
I am not looking forward to some of the classes I am taking. Yes, I can't wait to study social psychology and stress management, but statistical methods in psychology does not sound like the most entertaining class. Who knows, I might love it, but I don't want to. Not right now.
Have you ever thought about the connections that we have to different people in our lives? Well, I have. I have given this subject great thought, and I have a theory. People all have different connections: mental, psychological, physical, emotional connections. We can only really see the physical and feel the emotional connections in our lives. But, I have wondered what causes these connections. Is there some sort of 5th dimmension that we have not discovered where thoughts dominate the universe? I think so. I have no idea how this could be proven or even tested, but I think it might be quite an interesting study if someone actually took it seriously.
The brain power that it would take to supply these connections could be extremely small, or very large. I've always wanted to believe in things like supernatural power where the brain is the only instrument used to move the physical world. Does this make any sense at all? Oh well. I need to get these thoughts down before I forget.
I wonder if there's anyone else who thinks this is as interesting as I do. Maybe I'll find out in college. Two years until grad school! Woohoo! For now though, I probably ought to focus on actually getting the degree.
I am not looking forward to some of the classes I am taking. Yes, I can't wait to study social psychology and stress management, but statistical methods in psychology does not sound like the most entertaining class. Who knows, I might love it, but I don't want to. Not right now.
Have you ever thought about the connections that we have to different people in our lives? Well, I have. I have given this subject great thought, and I have a theory. People all have different connections: mental, psychological, physical, emotional connections. We can only really see the physical and feel the emotional connections in our lives. But, I have wondered what causes these connections. Is there some sort of 5th dimmension that we have not discovered where thoughts dominate the universe? I think so. I have no idea how this could be proven or even tested, but I think it might be quite an interesting study if someone actually took it seriously.
The brain power that it would take to supply these connections could be extremely small, or very large. I've always wanted to believe in things like supernatural power where the brain is the only instrument used to move the physical world. Does this make any sense at all? Oh well. I need to get these thoughts down before I forget.
I wonder if there's anyone else who thinks this is as interesting as I do. Maybe I'll find out in college. Two years until grad school! Woohoo! For now though, I probably ought to focus on actually getting the degree.
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