Serendip Activities

I thought that the Serendip activities were sweet!!! The four I chose were Time to think, Find Serendip, Blind Spots, and Ant Colonies.

I learned in blind spots that in fact we do have blind spots, and that our brain is far more sophisticated then i thought. I was surprised to figure out that we actually have them, i didn't believe my classmates until i tried it myself. I never new that the brain discerns that it should put white where the black dot actually was!! After i figured out that we do have a blind spot, i admit it, i went around doing it to various things. Everything from the tv to icons on the computer. It was fasinating!!

I don't really know how blind spots would coinside with everyday life so i thought that a good one was And Colonies. I didn't get part of the activity, but i understood the information it gave me and it was knowledable. I learned that geese and fish have leaders in their groups, and the same thing goes for people i guess when i though about it. However, every ant is independant. There is no leader, and society is maintained through positive interactions. It would be nice if this were true for the human world, but we are too riddled with sin for such a thing to happen. Ants are simple creates of God, and most of them aren't intelligent enough to think to to evil, its all instinct. So i guess it really hasn't changed my perspective. I'm not cinical by any means, this is just how i view the world.

I learned many things in this week's chapter. The chapter was not really a mind opener, it just gave me more facts about the brain. I learned that certain ailments such as seizures can be stopped by separating the brain's hemispheres along the corpus colossum. I also learned that, through split brain research, like in "The Man with Two Brains", scientists discovered the left hemisphere is more verbal , while the right deals in perception and the recognition of emotion. Finally, I found it very thought provoking that almost all right-handers process speech in the left hemisphere, and more than half left-handers do too. It interested me because i thought left-handers would be more involved with the right hemispher. The activities made all this really very fun, and i enjoyed every one of them, even though i didn't learn much from the other two.

Chapter 2 On the Brain

This chapter was by far more interesting to me than the others. The brain interests me. I can hardly imagine how something so complex can work to perfectly, and to work in perfect order with the rest of our bodies as well as the outside world. It is just simply amazing how it works so well and it literally controls everything about us. I have done a few research papers on the brain and it still doesn’t get tiring learning about it.One thing I learned about the three useful kinds of neuroimaging techniques used. PET scans (positron emission tomography) show consumption of each brain's chemical fuel-sugar glucose.MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a imaging technique most commonly used in radiology to visualize the internal structure and function of the body. MRI provides great contrast between the different soft tissues of the body, making it especially useful in neurology, muscles, cardiovascular, and cancer imaging. fMRIs (functional MRI) is a type of specialized MRI scan which can tell us about the brains functioning as well as it's structure. It shows us blood flow so it can map which areas are most active. As different mental functions occur, scientists can see which part of the brain shows more activity.
Secondly, I learned about was antagonist molecules. I knew antagonist molecules were in some foods, but I never knew what they did before. Antagonists pretty close to neurotransmitters, they block a receptor site but do not stimulate its receptor. This, therefore, creates a type of paralysis. With the presence of many antagonists, problems arise more frequently.
Finally, I learned was neural polarization. Neural polarization involves neuron stimulation, which tends to create a brief variation in electrical charge in a neuron. If the variation is large enough, action potential occurs. Action potential is a small electrical charge that travels down an axon. This makes a chain reaction throughout the body, helping our receptors detect stimuli.

How Long to Form a Habit?

In this psyblog article i read, a group of scientists were studying how long it took to form a habit. They talked about the 21 day assumption and that thats how long it generally took. That idea was wrong however from the start from what they found from their study. They took a number of different people who wanted to form a habit, and those habits ranged from drinking a glass of water in the morning to running 15 minutes everyday. They found that the longer a person performed this habit to be, the more of a habit it became. It seemed like a no brainer to me, but then it said it varied on the person's personality and the difficulty of the habit to be. In other words, drinking a glass of water is a easier habit to form than running 15 minutes every day.

I thought that this article was very interesting. It caught my eye right away, and im sure it did for others as well. Personally I thought it was a bummer that they didn't discover a definant number of days for it to become a habit, but at least they found that most of the time it took 66 days. It must have been a hard experiment to study too, these pple must be getting paid alot, or have nothing else to do.

Current Event 2 of tom nichols

So i have been very confused lately about a past relationship I have had. The girl who is a great sweet person seems to be confused. She acts as though she wants to be with me by showing she cares and wanting to spend time with me all the time, but something is stopping her. I don't push things with her because I feel this is something she needs to figure out, but i would be willing to help if she asked me. Its not another guy i know that for sure (I have confirmed it with her and others). I would like to know, from girls mostly, what she is thinking.

Personal blog for the week

Currently what is going on in my life is that i am under alot of stress. I have been under huge amounts of stress from college application, visiting colleges, getting a good ACT score, good grades, staying involved in student council and NHS, and sports. It may not sounds that bad i guess, but when all of those have been on wieghing on your shoulders for 3-4 months it gets annoying. Other than that i don't really have much else going on, besides homecoming is this weekend, and i have an anatomy test on thursday. Do any of you feel as stressed as i do or more?

Blog for Chapter one

Without research we wouldn't be progressing each day the way we are now. If we never understood the concept of research, we would still have the intellect of a caveman. Psychology pushes the envelope each day with new ideas of research from many different perspectives, and, for this reason, there is a constant stream of research in progress.

There are numerous examples of research apply to my life, and the one that comes to my mind the first is in the field of medicine relating to the cardio vascular system. My sister has a condition that is typically called a heart murmur, which means that she has an irregular heartbeat. One of the mitral valves in her heart isn’t as strong as it should be, and consequently her heart has to work extra hard to pump a sufficient amount of blood to the body. Without doctors, who have researched the topic intensely we would never have realized my sister has this condition. Research has saved my sister’s life in turn because without it we wouldn’t know what therapies or possible surgeries to give her. Research, therefore, has kept society running and functioning properly for a long time.


The first interesting things I learned in chapter one was the hindsight bias theory. This caught my attention because I could directly relate to what was being explained by the book. The "I K=knew it all along" theory is something I think we all have gone through, errors in recollection of events or facts. Common sense describes what has happened rather than what will happen. I catch myself thinking sometimes “I should’ve seen that coming.”
I also found the scientific attitude interesting. It is a curious, eager attitude that I can carry into everyday thinking.
Lastly, it was interesting that psychologists can conduct so many various types of research in order to observe behavior correctly. This research includes individual case studies, random samples of a population, naturalistic observations, and much more. I thought the book provided great examples of the three I named, which I think will be able to help me in the time to come.

Blog for Introductory pg. 1-13

In my personal opinion, i had thought that psychology involved a psychologist listening to the client talking about his feelings, looking at ink drawings, and sitting in a comfy chair. I honestly thought that was what being a psychologist and psychology dealt with. Now that i have read this chapter, i realize that i was only thinking of one out of a myriad of different fields in psychology. There are biological psychologists, developmental psychologists, cognitive psychologists, personality psychologists, social psychologists, and this is just naming a few. I finally discovered that a Clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist are not the same thing. I differ from my previous opinion of psychology in the simple fact that i took the time to learn about it and have learned a great deal at that. I guess i would say i am more informed that i previously was.
I believe that psychology affects my life in the sense that i am always trying to understand what a person is thinking, so that i can better help them. This, of course, to an untrained person is difficult at best, but i have done my best to help a friend in need whether she/he has needed it. I have come to understand that psychology affects almost every aspect of your life. How you think, what you say, your general action, and your personality are just a few of those aspects.
As i said in my first paragraph, I learned that there are many different psychologist rather than the stereotypical shrink in a leather chair listening a persons feelings. This is incredible intriguing because i never realized how many different branches of psychology or perspectives existed. Another thing i learned is how there are different perspectives that a psychologists look at everyday. Those being neuroscience, evolutionary, behavior genetics, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and social-cultural. There are so many ways to look at psychology, and each individual perspective can provide you with a sensible answer, and solutions to the problem.

Brainstorming Reloaded

In this article i learned that brainstorming is ineffective. The problem with it is that often times people forget their ideas before their turn has come, some people are afraid to be scrutinized, and some people slack off in groups. There were countless tests that proved this is true as well. The way they said brainstorming worked is that you came to the session with the ideas written down.

I enjoyed this article and learned a lot from it. I for now on will go to brainstorming sessions with ideas written down. I also know what to avoid when i am brainstorming as well. I think people will enjoy this article very much.

The Acceptance Prophecy: How You Control Who Likes You

In this article i read that studies have shown that if meet someone who you think will accept you more, you will act more warmly towards them. If you meet a person and you don't think they will accept you, generally you will act less friendly. They did a study of 24 men, half were told vague details about the female they were meeting, and the other half were told the females were nervous the men would accept them. The twelve that had vague details went in noticeably less warm and open. The other twelve that thought their dates were nervous acted quite valiantly and succeeded well.

I personally thought that the people who took time to test this wasted their time. It was not that hard to figure out that if your date is nervous then you won't be as nervous. Nonetheless, they did a good job, and i am sure others will enjoy this article.

Hey everyone!
My name is Tom Nichols. I am 18 years old, and go to Edgar High School. I believe that my friends and relationships have shaped to the person i am now. I think this is true because I learn from my experiences, whether it be a bad one or not. I learn from my friends mistakes and successes too. Without them i would not have learned, as soon as i did, how to conduct myself to others, or how to be a good person.

I think it is important to study psychology in order to better understand the human mind and how it works. If you know how the mind works, you can unlock amazing things, and help so many people. It will also better help you understand yourself. If you can analyze yourself accurately and understand why you are thinking these things, you will be able to discover who you really are.

Psychology, i think, is the analyzing of the human mind and how it functions. It is important to have people who understand these things because there are people out there who's minds are in a state of turmoil, and need help.