General Psycology 7

Question: have you ever thought that addictions can be classically conditioned into our life?  Just how do you think that would occur?

Response: I had never thought about addictions in that way. When someone becomes an drug addict it is for the relief they get from each time they partake in the act. This ingrains into the person's mind that the two are connected. Drugs equal relief in their minds. This could also be why quitting addictions is so difficult. Instead of associating quitting with the benefits, they associate it with difficulty and sacrifice. If every time someone went to do the drug they got hit by a boxing mitt then I do not think that it would be so addicting haha. On the other hand, if every day a person went without the drug they were awarded with a check (of a substantial amount of money) then it would be much more easy to quit. The more that I think about it, the more it seems the two are connected. No doubt there are biological addictions to certain substances, but it would be interesting if there was a way to calculate what percentage of addictions are psychological.

General Psychology 7

Question: How could classical conditioning be effective or detrimental in our lives?

Repsonse: Learning and discipline have been a huge part of my little brother's life since he was adopted. Classical Conditioning can be detrimental to a person's life because it can teach them the wrong things. No doubt his original parents used Classical Conditioning but it effected him very negatively. They praised and punished him for the wrong things completely. When he first came to us he would rather eat a raw onion than an ice cream cone. This was due to the fear of "unhealthy" foods ingrained in him. The first time he ate at McDonald's with us he ate every last bite. The second time he must have overheard some one talking about not having to eat everything in their meal. He asked if he could take the pickles off his sandwich. He was amazed when we said yes. The overly strict (borderline abusive) nature of his parent's teaching had ingrained these expectations into his mind.
Classical Conditioning is also our main approach to his learning. This can be beneficial to a person's life because it can effectively teach them new information and habits. Not only do we have to teach my little brother new things, but we also have to teach him to stop doing the old things he was taught. Now classical conditioning has been beneficial to him. My mother actually said to me today, "We have to praise him ten times for doing something good for every one time we discipline him for doing something bad". I thought this was crazy due to the fact that she does not even know what I have been reading the past couple days! He has been doing much better since he first came to us and much of that is due to the positive nature of my parent's teaching.

How difficult is it to overcome past learning experiences made by classical conditioning?

General Psychology 6.5

Question: "What is the difference between a nap and a power nap?"


Response: 

Well by definition a nap is " to sleep briefly especially during the day " (Merriam-webster dictionary). So this can be for any period of time depending upon your definition of brief, I guess. A power nap is simply a more specific type of the word. While a nap can be any "brief" amount of time, a power nap is usually twenty to thirty minutes long, although they can be shorter. This short period of time allows the body to become more energized and such while not falling into normal sleeping patterns. If a nap goes longer than thirty minutes then the person will no longer feel energized when they wake up due to the body having already entered the slow wave or deeper stages of sleep. A nap of this length can make you feel less tired, slowed down, and agitated. I think God created us this way so we can be re-energized when we need it, but also so we do not sleep the day away and become lazy. This is actually utilized much more in other cultures than our own. Other cultures will sleep through the hottest parts of the day for energy and being spared from the heat. Many people think our culture could benefit greatly from such a practice.

General Psychology 6

Question: After you have completed the Sleep IQ and the Sleep Deprivation quizzes. Discuss any questions you have about what you thought you knew about sleep, or what you think is still true after the quizzes.

Response: Currently I have definitely been sleep deprived.I answered “true” to far too many of the questions in the Sleep Deprivation Quiz. I believe this is primarily due to trying to get back into waking early for the school year and I have not adjusted my staying up late habits. I am definitely going to put some of the information that I have gathered from these readings to use. I am mostly confused as to number four on the Sleep IQ quiz: "At you move from early to later adulthood you need less sleep". I am told this was false, but the graph in the PowerPoint suggests otherwise. This seems to be a pretty consistent pattern in humanity; it always seems the people significantly older than me can sleep less. I was also wondering about number five: "By playing audiotapes during the night, you can learn while you sleep." Again I am told this was false but I have tried this before and it seemed to work... I am just wondering as to the science behind these. I learned a whole lot so far in our reading that I previously knew absolutely nothing about. I really enjoy learning about the sleep and dreams, and also plan on putting what I have learned to use.

General Psychology 5.5

 Question: What did you mean by "drawing the line"?


Response: By "drawing the line" I was talking about at what point do we deem the things that hurt us sin. I mean if we were all to stop doing everything that hurt us in some degree, we would probably be worse off than the Amish. We do so many things in our culture that are bad for us but we never think to stop doing most of these things. I specified upon some of these things in my last post. This is not super relevant to all that we were talking about, but I was just referring to how we are damaging our hearing and some people would deem that sin. So if we do not want to damage our bodies then at what point do we stop protecting them? It was just a thought I had come up with while reading some other posts I think. I hope this made my thought more clear. Sometimes I feel like I come up with good points but cant communicate them well.


Question: Students how do you think we use our senses to glorify God or not?


Response: Well we sure can use our senses to NOT glorify God in many ways. Many ways which I do not think I need to elaborate on, besides the fact that they are simply the things that He has told us not to do. Being created by God for his glory, He would not have created us with anything that could not be used for His glory. We can use our sight to observe his wonderful creation and praise Him for it. We can use our hearing to listen to music to worship Him. We can use our taste to eat and be thankful . "Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the Glory of God." We can simply glorify God by enjoying they things around us that He has given us to enjoy. We can also glorify him by using these senses to stay away from that which he has not given us to enjoy.