Social Psychology Reflection

-Lilienfeld, Woolf, Namy, and Lynn. Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2008.

Good afternoon classmates have been excellent to share are experience and the insight of our weekly discussions this semester. I've increased my knowledge this semester on the explanatory material of understanding that everyone in the community is affected society and through open communication of understanding our social surroundings. When I first took this class, I didn't know the difference between psychology which is the study of behavior versus sociology which is the study of people. Next, I would say I learned the importance of critical thinking and following the steps to research because if you don't come up with the question first your research is doomed. Chapter 2 the Zimbardo’s Experiment: The Individual and the Social Role has stuck

Through out my time raising my child, Grace, there were many concepts, key terms, and theories that I was able to identify and relate to from this Psychology, Human Development, course that I took through out this semester. I was able to watch Grace grow into a smart, strong and independent adult due to the knowledge learned from the course. I knew to start as soon as Grace was born and stay connected within her life through out the years as she grew throughout the different stages of her life.

After taking a Sociology class this semester, I learned a lot of about the different topics and concepts in this course and how they are related to our society, which has changed my perspective as well as how I view and see the meaning of my surroundings. I would also think about what would be going on inside a specific person's mind and how he or she was feeling. After learning about different concepts in Sociology and watching the videos presented in class, it became easier to just stop and think about a person, wonder who that person was, and be curious about that person's life story. We pass by people all the time every day, but we never really know what is going on with them and don't really think about it or care since it is so

and in some cases enlist the help of a “confederate”, someone who appears to be a naïve part of

My Junior year AP Psychology course didn’t just teach me about the human brain, social patterns and mental disorders -- it taught me about myself. By the end of the first semester of that class, I knew that I had found my calling: to study the human mind and give professional aid to those who suffer from mental disorders. I am confident that the University of Wisconsin-Madison will help me fulfill this goal with its world-renowned Psychology program. UW-Madison is the home of numerous breakthroughs in Psychological science and students who have changed the course of the history of Psychology, such as Abraham Maslow (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) and Harry Harlow (Harlow’s Monkey Experiments). The idea of studying at such an esteemed university is thrilling to me and I’m eager to pursue my education there.

PSYC100-Introduction to Psychology provided me with a very broad comprehensive introduction to the basic principles and research concepts in the field of psychology. Some of the highlights of this class included information about the brain and nervous system structure and function, learning and memory, language, intelligence, psychological disorders and therapies, personality, and social behavior. This class also introduced some of the various career fields that a degree in psychology allows people to go into such teaching, conducting research, providing therapy, and working as a consultant in business and industry. This class helped me to determine whether or

From this semester, students have learned that one must get to know a person before going by what other people say about an individual. This mean one cannot judge a book by its cover until he or she have read it. For example, when I first saw Dr. Kelly Pivik, I thought one was mean and did not care about her student grades. However, my first impression was wrong about what I thought. Taking Social Psychology under Pivik was the best decision that I have made. One’s main outcome was to have basic knowledge of psychology and understand the examination of human behavior.There were several parts of this class that I found interesting. The first part is that one made sure that the students got the information they need. The power points that one provided were helpful. Because you went systematically over the slides in class, I was able to understand the information. I like the fact that you had one of your graduate students to come in and teach us for a class period. She did an outstanding job on her lecture. She was very sweet, and she knew her information. She reminded me so much of you in class. Behind every lecture in class, you had a story to tell. They were actually helpful in some way. Everything that

When I started this class this pass September I had a little knowledge of psychology. In my junior year of high school I took Psychology as an elective class. I really enjoy it alot, it amaze me how much there was to know about our brains. This September I came with the feeling that this psychology class was going to be way different from my psychology class from high school. And that my knowledge from my class before wasn’t going to be useful at all. But I was wrong, this class has actually been better than my other class. Because it has help dust off some of the concepted that I had learn before. But it has also made gain more knowledge about psychology that I didn’t knew before. For example the next concepts are the ones that had impacted me the most: critical thinking and the eight essential, implicit learning, short term and long term memories. I chose these concept because they have not only taught me more about psychology, but they have made a big impact on me.

This semester has been filled with informative information when speaking about our own social skill, but also other people’s social psychology as well, thus is why it will be very useful in future. Throughout the semester we studied everything from the introduction of social psychology, social influences, aggression in psychology, and interpersonal attraction and close relationships. A lot of the knowledge that I gained was not only from the “Social Psychology” textbook, but also in the videos and the reactions that we needed to come up with on a weekly basis. I like the idea of being able to watch the video to see if the experiment was successful or unsuccessful and commenting on it by giving my opinion if I agreed or not. For me,

“Our views and behavior depend to some degree on our social location in society—our gender, race, social class, religion, and so forth.”(Barkan, 2013). As I have grown up and my perspective of the world has broadened I have realized how narrow my views were. I grew up in Germany, Italy, and Hungary before moving to the USA, but because I was so sheltered I really didn’t know what was really happening in society. As I grew older I have come to realize the socialization process did help me develop my values, beliefs, morals, my religious outlook, my political affiliations and what not.

Every one has their subjects that they love and hate, and for it was defiantly writing. Writing is something I dreaded for a long time; I developed my hatred towards writing since probably elementary school. I hate writing when I’m expected to put a spin on a subject that just doesn’t work for me, personally. There are many times when I have papers due and sometimes I feel like I have nothing to say towards the topic. I could write a paragraph but to continuously write paragraphs after paragraphs it gets a little harder. I always contradict myself in my writings but that is something I have grown out of. Writing is time consuming and requires a lot of effort. They require a lot of planning and usually some accompanying reading and note taking. Taking notes is one of my weaknesses. In some intuitions like my high school for instances there was not enough time is given to the rough draft and not enough feedback is given before the essay receives a final grade. I personally believe that not everyone is a "natural-born" writer; but I do believe that everyone has the capability to become a decent writer.

Social psychology, the study of how we think about, influence, and relate to another, can be used to explain many situations and phenomena that happen in the world. For instance, it can be used to explain why and how people react the way they do when they perform poorly in an act that they’re usually good at, also known as self-serving bias. It is blaming external factors when bad things happen, but contributing internal factors to the reason why good things happen.

Is how aggressive an individual is determined only by his or her genes? Whether psychological and behavioral traits are purely determined by genetics, solely influenced by socialization, or a combination of both has been a highly debated topic within the field of psychology known as the “nature-nurture issue.” Today, although still disputed, a good number of psychologists and other scientists concur that genetics and the environment mutually influence and intermingle with one another (Myers, 2015). We can partially credit this fizzling-out of the nature-nurture debate to the discoveries made in twin studies. Twin studies are used to help delineate the genetic components of behavior and the socially and culturally influenced components (Myers, 2015). This type of study enables researchers to examine the extent to which genetics and environment have an effect on the development of traits and behavior. For example, in lecture, we learned that a common and natural experiment used in twin studies is to examine a set of twins who grew up in the same household and a set twins who grew up in separate households (K.W. Brown, personal communication, August 29, 2017).

The Research in Human Relations course guided me in the application mindset of my studies. Mindfully being able to break down information, from the statement of the issue to the analysis of data, to even an appropriate outcome that is beneficial to a particular field of study, is what this course promotes. Don Miguel Ruiz states in his novel, The Four Agreements, that we make different types of assumptions simply because we do not have the courage to ask questions (Ruiz & Mills, 1997, p. 68). This course enables students to not only want to ask questions but also build on their incoming knowledge with the tools to support giving back to the field and community. I long to give back through the power of research in my given field, and upon taking this course I feel empowered to do just that. The Research in HR course set a solid foundation for APA style writing, which has not only benefitted me through graduate school but will continue to benefit me into my career path. Today, APA Style sets the bar that is well respected in journals, books, and electronic databases (American Psychological Association, 2012). I found this course beneficial because much like each of my other courses, it further refined my skillsets for my pursuit of clinical administrative work and research on autism and speech in the field of speech-language pathology. Through each assignment, I became even more critical of the research I consumed. Being able to produce solid sources to help push my field of