In psychology, memory is
the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Memories
are transferred into long-term storage through rehearsal. If memories are
transferred into long-term memory, they become relatively permanent.
Tip of the Tongue: when a
subject is able to recall parts of an item, or related information, but is
frustratingly unable to recall the whole item. This is thought to be an
instance of “blocking” where multiple similar memories are being recalled and
interfered with each other. I do this all of the time, I’m always trying to
describe someone, and I know who they are! But I just can’t match their names
with their faces, and then it will come to me later that day and I will feel so
relieved.
Persistence: the
unwanted recurrence of memories of a traumatic even. I have witnessed something
that was so traumatic that had happened to my family and I, and I know I
shouldn’t think of it because it will make me sad, but most of the time I
cannot help myself.
Childhood Amnesia: the
retention of few memories from before the age of four. I always have random
memories from when I was a child that pop into my head, but the earliest memory
I have I was probably 2 years old. It was Christmas Eve, my mom was cooking,
and I was in my high chair eating Cheerios while Dominick the Donkey (my
favorite Christmas song when I was a baby) was playing. Then, I remember my dad
took me out of the high chair and stood me up while he was holding my
hands and he danced with me to Christmas music.
Observational Learning:
While reading about Observational Learning (a powerful learning method that occurs through observing and imitating others) in class, I immediately thought about the time I taught myself how to play the guitar without knowing anything about it. Ever since I was 10 years old, Taylor Swift has been my idol. I remember going to see her in concert in 2011 when I was 15 years old, she played the electric guitar, the piano, the banjo, the ukelele and two more acoustic guitars (one being a 12 string) throughout the whole show. I remember at the end of the show, she came out on a big couch in a huge puffy dress with just her guitar and she started to perform one of my favorite songs, Fifteen. It sounded so beautiful live without any other background music playing, so I took my phone out and started to record it. My seats weren’t bad, but you weren’t able to see her with my phone, so I recorded the big screens above the stage for better quality. You were able to see exactly how she would play, the strumming pattern, the chords she played, but I had no idea what the chords were since I knew nothing about guitars at the time, I just had a guitar at home that I would mess around with instead of actually play. The morning after the concert, I transferred all of the videos I took from my phone onto my computer and I picked up my guitar just to see if I could teach myself to play the song the way Taylor was playing it. It probably took me two hours just to keep my fingers in place on the chords and to get the rhythm right, but after a while I was starting to pick it up after repeating everything that she was doing in the video. I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I finally got it right, I was so happy and proud of myself, but I still didn’t even know the names of the chords, I only knew where to put my fingers, when to move them, and the strumming pattern. I would repeat the words “down, up, down, down, up, down, down, down, up” over and over again while I would strum. After this day, I went to take guitar lessons, but since Fifteen is the first song I really learned how to play, I still find myself having a hard time strumming any other pattern besides “down, up, down, down, up, down, down, down, up” no matter what song I’m trying to play, and I'm proud to say that I now know that the chords were: G, Cadd9, Em, and D.
Dream Analysis:
I try to remember most of the dreams I have on a day to day basis, I used to wake up and grab my phone and record myself describing the dreams I had before I can forget them so I can later on Google what the meaning of the dream is. The dream I'm going to be talking about I did not record myself explaining it the next morning, but I will never forget it and I remember everything about it. It was a few weeks ago and I was fighting with my boyfriend over something stupid, I wanted to go out and he didn't want me to go because somebody that he has problems with (because of me) was going to be there, so we started arguing right before I went to sleep. It turned out to be a pretty bad argument, and when it gets to that point I tend to just okay him to death and hold back on things I want to say, which only makes the fight worse, but it will make me feel better than fighting back and keep the argument ongoing. So, I ended up going to sleep without an apology, and mad at myself for thinking of all the things I should have said in the moment. That night, I had a dream that my boyfriend and I were standing in my bathroom and I felt a hair in my mouth. I started pulling on the hair, but it felt so long and it felt like it was all the way down my throat, so I kept pulling and pulling and the hair seemed to be getting thicker and thicker. It got to the point where I was pulling long, never ending locks of hair out of my throat, and I felt it starting to hurt in my stomach (sorry this is so gross, I know) and I felt something flapping around, and at that point I was asking my boyfriend to help me. It was so disgusting that it woke me up, and I immediately googled what it meant.
The manifest content of this dream would definitely be from arguing with my boyfriend before bed and holding back what I really wanted to say, as always.
The latent content of this dream is when you have a dream about hair in your throat, it is how we are reflecting and communicating our feelings in real life, the throat forms a connection between your mind and your body where you are beginning to form words to say before you are actually saying them. When I felt a flap in my stomach from pulling the hair, that stood for something that I felt a strong need to say, but if I had said it, it would have caused a huge flap in reality.
Free Will vs. Determinism
In psychology, memory is
the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Memories
are transferred into long-term storage through rehearsal. If memories are
transferred into long-term memory, they become relatively permanent.
Tip of the Tongue: when a
subject is able to recall parts of an item, or related information, but is
frustratingly unable to recall the whole item. This is thought to be an
instance of “blocking” where multiple similar memories are being recalled and
interfered with each other. I do this all of the time, I’m always trying to
describe someone, and I know who they are! But I just can’t match their names
with their faces, and then it will come to me later that day and I will feel so
relieved.
Persistence: the
unwanted recurrence of memories of a traumatic even. I have witnessed something
that was so traumatic that had happened to my family and I, and I know I
shouldn’t think of it because it will make me sad, but most of the time I
cannot help myself.
Childhood Amnesia: the
retention of few memories from before the age of four. I always have random
memories from when I was a child that pop into my head, but the earliest memory
I have I was probably 2 years old. It was Christmas Eve, my mom was cooking,
and I was in my high chair eating Cheerios while Dominick the Donkey (my
favorite Christmas song when I was a baby) was playing. Then, I remember my dad
took me out of the high chair and stood me up while he was holding my
hands and he danced with me to Christmas music.
Observational Learning:
I try to remember most of the dreams I have on a day to day basis, I used to wake up and grab my phone and record myself describing the dreams I had before I can forget them so I can later on Google what the meaning of the dream is. The dream I'm going to be talking about I did not record myself explaining it the next morning, but I will never forget it and I remember everything about it. It was a few weeks ago and I was fighting with my boyfriend over something stupid, I wanted to go out and he didn't want me to go because somebody that he has problems with (because of me) was going to be there, so we started arguing right before I went to sleep. It turned out to be a pretty bad argument, and when it gets to that point I tend to just okay him to death and hold back on things I want to say, which only makes the fight worse, but it will make me feel better than fighting back and keep the argument ongoing. So, I ended up going to sleep without an apology, and mad at myself for thinking of all the things I should have said in the moment. That night, I had a dream that my boyfriend and I were standing in my bathroom and I felt a hair in my mouth. I started pulling on the hair, but it felt so long and it felt like it was all the way down my throat, so I kept pulling and pulling and the hair seemed to be getting thicker and thicker. It got to the point where I was pulling long, never ending locks of hair out of my throat, and I felt it starting to hurt in my stomach (sorry this is so gross, I know) and I felt something flapping around, and at that point I was asking my boyfriend to help me. It was so disgusting that it woke me up, and I immediately googled what it meant.
The manifest content of this dream would definitely be from arguing with my boyfriend before bed and holding back what I really wanted to say, as always.
The latent content of this dream is when you have a dream about hair in your throat, it is how we are reflecting and communicating our feelings in real life, the throat forms a connection between your mind and your body where you are beginning to form words to say before you are actually saying them. When I felt a flap in my stomach from pulling the hair, that stood for something that I felt a strong need to say, but if I had said it, it would have caused a huge flap in reality.
Free Will vs. Determinism
I have always had a certain perspective on my
own free will, and I have always had an image in my head of what I would want
my life to be like if I could do anything I want at any given time. I love the
idea of free will, and I am all for it, but in some ways I believe that having
"free will" is unacceptable. Free will is the power of acting without
the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at ones own discretion. For example, I chose my free will to
decide to come to school during the summer. It was 100% my choice,
I could have taken the summer off to spend more time with my friends who are
home from college and to work more morning shifts during the week, but I would
much rather be done with school and start my career faster than I would if I didn't choose to take summer classes at
NYCI.
Determinism means that human
actions are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some
philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have
no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions,
but, I look at it this way, I could buy a plane ticket to a different
country or a different state, at any given time of the day and come home
whenever I decide to, but my responsibilities determine my actions, I would
never let myself pack up and leave all of my everyday responsibilities
behind.
People are capable of acting freely, BUT, human behavior is governed by
casual laws (determinism)
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Experimental Proposal
Question of Interest: Would the majority of women describe
themselves as beautiful or as average?
Hypothesis: 90% of women would describe themselves as
average, while only 10% would describe themselves as beautiful.
Operational Definition: Beautiful- having beauty; possessing
qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about.
Wonderful, very pleasing or satisfying, excellent of its kind.
Average- typical, common, ordinary. The term “average” is sometimes used when describing somebody, example: “Nicole is your average, all American girl.”
Average- typical, common, ordinary. The term “average” is sometimes used when describing somebody, example: “Nicole is your average, all American girl.”
Naturalistic Observation: Observe which door most women would
choose to go through, the “Average” door, or the “Beautiful” door?
Experimental Group: A group of women walking into a shopping
center that has two separate entrances, one door saying “Average” and one
door saying “Beautiful”.
Preliminary Research:
Real Beauty Sketches
Choose a Door
Real Beauty Sketches
Choose a Door
