Maranda Stephenson Psychology 1010 MWF 9am

Taking psychology 1010 was one of the most interesting classes I have taken I loved learning all a!o"t the !rain and how it works Some of my favorite s"!#ects that we st"died were Memory$ which was in chapter % of &Psy 1010 Mc'raw (ill) te*t !ook I learned that we all have different ways of encoding$ or how we get information into the !rain to !e "sed +ne way we do this is with schemas Schemas were fascinating to me !eca"se everyone has different schemas for things$ and this may e*plain racism or a love for something Schemes can have good or !ad connections We think of warm as !eing friendly and cold and mean So if a person asks yo" to hold a warm c"p for them$ yo" may witho"t reali,ing it consider them friendly$ and if a person asks yo" to hold a cold c"p$ they may seem offish to yo" If yo" meet a short person that smelled yo" may think all short people smell$ so if yo" meet another short person that doesn-t smell$ it goes "nnoticed !eca"se it-s not part of the schema$ or connection yo" made We go thro"gh life constantly making these schemas$ or connections to help "s !etter "nderstand the world

.earning a!o"t schemas has ta"ght me that yo" can change yo" schema It takes recognition/ yo" have to know and !e aware of the schema and then look for evidence that proves it wrong 0o" then have to practice retrieval rehearsal$ to change it .earning a!o"t this has helped me with math Math has always !een a conf"sing s"!#ect for me$

and so my schema of math is hard$ scary$ conf"sing$ so I have to take it step !y step and let it not scare me so I can pay attention so it won-t conf"se me

The peripheral nervo"s system which was in chapter 1 was definitely interesting as well I learned how o"r !odies deal with stressors$ or anything that ca"ses "s stress Stressors are different for every person$ !eca"se one thing that may !e e*tremely stressf"l to one person may not even !other another 2c"te stress$ where we are at the top of o"r game and ready to take on what ever we may need to$ is the good kind of stress 3hronic stress$ which is not good$ slows o"r !odies down and can act"ally make "s sick It all depends on how we deal with it The Parasympathetic 4ervo"s System is o"r rest and planning response The Sympathetic 4ervo"s System is the fight or flight response$ we either face it or r"n away 2c"te stress can !e dealt with fight or flight and chronic stress can not

4e"rotransmitter which was also in chapter 1 were interesting as well 5*ogeno"s Molec"les which are made o"tside the !ody have two different types$ agonist or antagonist$ which mimic or !lock This is how dr"gs work to help health pro!lems We even have nat"ral chemicals in o"r !odies s"ch as '262 which acts as an antagonist to help !lock an*iety The dr"g Pro,ac acts as an agonist to mimic serotonin for people with depression It was so intrig"ing to learn a!o"t the other ne"rotransmitters that we have$ s"ch as dopamine$ if those levels are too high it can ca"se schi,ophrenia and if they are too low it can ca"se Parkinson-s disease So it-s very important that the levels are in a good median 7r"gs can trick o"r !rains into thinking that it-s o"r !ody8s nat"ral

ne"rotransmitters S"ch as cocaine makes dopamine levels higher which gives the feeling of a promise of a reward$ and that it will !e !etter the ne*t time$ and the ne*t time$ and this leads to addiction

There were so very many interesting things that I learned from this class$ those are #"st a few of the many that I fo"nd the most interesting and I ca"ght myself talking a!o"t it with other people I am so happy to have taken the class The !rain is an ama,ing and comple* thing 0o" learn so m"ch !y learning how it works and have a !etter "nderstanding of why things work they way they do when yo" have that knowledge