Conformity

During chapter 16, the chapter talked about social psychology. One of the aspects of social psychology is how people surrender to others, with obedience and conformity. After reading about conformity, I couldn’t help but to think of all the different things I have seen and how much people have changed from the junior high years until today, because they are conforming to fit in with certain groups.
Some examples of this are Taylor and Alex. At the junior high Alex used to be in all honors classes, he used to be involved in different sports and was very well liked. As the years went on, he started to get involved with drugs because a kid on his basketball team who he hung out with was doing them to fit in with what they thought was the “cool” kids. After he conformed into one of them, and started to do these drugs on a daily basis, and he went from being an intelligent athlete, to a rehab patient, who might not graduate.
Second, my friend Taylor had trouble making friends during her junior high years, and being a girl, you just want everyone to like you, and be the “queen bee” well Taylor thought that she would be respected more if she could prove that she wasn’t this innocent little girl, who did everything that her mom said. So she conformed to a group that got her to start stealing and drinking, even though her parents have caught her and she has lost most of their trust, she still continues to do it.
These are just a few examples of how social pressure, and conformity can change someone for the worst.

Mood Disorders

During chapter 14, we learned about different psychological disorders, what causes them, their symptoms, and how they are treated. As we were learning about mood disorders, I kept thinking of my aunt and cousin. On my dad’s side of the family, I have a cousin names Shannon who suffers from bipolar disorder, while on my mom’s side of the family, I have an aunt named Susan who suffers from major depressive disorder. Major depressive disorder is a mood disorder where people have constant feelings of sadness and a loss of interest in things that used to make them happy.
My aunt was diagnosed with depression many years ago. Her depression has made her stay awake all night and then she gets tired and sleeps during the day. If she comes over to our house for a lunch or dinner, she will be here for a total of three hours and will fall asleep at least two times during those three hours. Another thing that she does it plays with her hair a lot. She will twist her hair and pull it out, which causes her to have bald spots. There has also been two occasions where her depression got so severe that she underwent electro-convulsive therapy. But she is also very highly medicated to keep her sane.

Stress Tests

During chapter 13 the main topic was stress and how to deal with stress. I thought that it would be interesting to find out if my perception on how stressed I am and how others would rate my stress level compared, so I took two different stress tests to compare the answers. When I think of myself, I feel that I have very little stress in my life, I have been able to figure out how to juggle everything that I need to get done so I don’t have too much to get done in one day. I also save a lot of time for myself to be with my friends and family.
The two stress tests I took were Awakenings Stress Test at http://www.lessons4living.com/stress_test.htm, and BBC One Quick Stress Test at http://www.bbc.co.uk/theoneshow/getinvolved/stresstest/. The awakenings stress test focused more on how much I took care of myself, if I gave myself time to relax, how easily I got irritated and if I had a supportive relationship with someone who I could go to for support. On the other hand the BBC stress test asked questions that related more too how easily I let myself forgive and forget as well as how long it took me to relax after being irritated.
I ended up scoring a six on the Awakenings test which meant that I have few hassles and I scored a seven on the BBC test which meant that I was in the normal category of the general population. These scores matched with the way I felt about my stress levels which is a wonderful thing because that means that I am not very stressed!

Dealing with stress

During chapter 13 the main idea has been stress. Stress is any situations that threaten or seem to threaten one’s well-being and thus strains one’s coping abilities. Stress is common after an illness, break up, assault, or type of trauma. When stress occurs, people have different ways of coping with it. Some people are more destructive and they yell, blame things on other people, become violent, or trying to use drugs and alcohol to overcome the feeling that come with stress. Also some people use defensive coping which deals with the body protecting someone from anxiety or guilt without even knowing it.
For me when I get stressed out I tend to use more constructive coping methods. I have my good friends Taylor and Shawnee who I can talk to and lots of times they can relate to what I am going through so they know what to say. When I have a lot of homework to do as well as work I write down a list of everything that I have to get done and cross things off my list when I finish them because it helps me to see that I am accomplishing things and makes my stress go away.
I have been able to figure out the methods that work best for me because one time I was pulling an all nighters trying to cram in a twelve page paper that was due the next day. While I was working on this paper I got a call from one of my best friends and they told me that their parents were making them move to South Dakota in less than a week. I started crying, I didn’t get any sleep, I didn’t finish my paper, I wasn’t hungry and since I was so stressed and failing to give my body what it needed, my immune system started to crash and I was sick with a cold for the next week. After that I figured out how to cope with my stress and it has really helped me juggle all the work that I have had to do this senior year!

Obesity

During chapter 10 we learned about motivation and the motivation that make someone to eat. When someone eats too much they can become overweight and even obese. Obesity can be genetic or even just lack of exercise. I have a cousin who is extremely obese. She is nine years old and is over 200 pounds. The roots of her obesity are both genetic, environmental, and lack of exercise.
My cousin Leah has a mother that is also very obese, which is where she gets her genes from. Also not only does she have her genes, she observes what her mother eats and eats accordingly. When we are at thanksgiving she won’t go to get vegetables, fruits, mashed potatoes or anything, she goes straight for all of the desserts. With her mother not being a good role model, she thinks that eating like this is ok. She also lacks an adequate amount of exercise. She is involved in softball, but she doesn’t try that hard because when she does she gets tired too fast, needs a break, and gets behind everyone else.
For all the people out in our world who are obese like my cousin, should watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. He shows how eating healthy can be fun and gives out great recipes that make eating healthy tasty so children of this generation don’t have to suffer from health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

At the beginning of chapter eleven, the focus was on prenatal development and how drug and alcohol use can interfere with proper development. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a collection of inborn problems associated with excessive alcohol use during pregnancy. Approximately one baby a day is born diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome.
A friend of my family works at a state run facility in Willmar Minnesota called Affiliated Community Medical Center. This facility deals with thirteen to seventeen year old adolescents that are so violent that their parents don’t want to deal with them or are so heavily medicated that they need help, but who they deal with most are people who suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome. One thing that I thought was really interesting was when he said that when a women is drinking, the alcohol can stay in her system for up to twenty-four hours but it can stay in the babies system for up to seventy-two hours. When these adolescents go here, they visit with psychologists and also attend classes to help these children to get further in life. These children didn’t choose to have these problems in life, it was their mothers who made horrible decisions and ruined the lives of their children.

Most Intelligent Person

I believe that my sister is the most intelligent person that I know. I think she is the most intelligent because all through her grade school years she got straight A’s and graduated in the top ten percent of her class. Not only did she do well in high school, she is doing great in college. She is doing so well she has made her schools dean’s list and started college with having over a full semester of credits already done. She knows how to play the clarinet and the piano very well. She can speak both English and Spanish. Also, something that really impresses me is that she does not procrastinate and does all of her work to the best of her ability. But not only is she good in school she also is someone who people get along with others well. She has high people skills and tends to always know the right thing to say. Another thing she does well is knowing herself and what she wants out of life. She sets realistic goals and has accomplished many of them. One that she has really worked toward is being able to travel a lot while still going to college to get a degree. And this summer she is going to New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Egypt, and London.
Her intelligence best fits with G theory by Charles Spearman which says if someone is smart in one area they are also smart in another because she is good in social, analytical, and practical intelligences all at the same time. My sister is someone that I also consider to be a great role model because she possesses all of these great intellectual behaviors that make her the most intelligent person that I know.