Style of Learning

The day before, we did a test to see our style of learning. During this experiment we have to choose the word that best fit our personality and the result will show which type of learning style we belong to. There are 4 types of style of learning which is CS (concrete sequential), AR (abstract random), AS (abstract sequential), and CR (concrete random). Surprisingly for me, I belong to the CS group. The reason that it is surprising is because, CS people are usually people who are very organize, order, and also a perfectionist, but I know myself that I'm not at all organize. However some characteristics of CS learning style still suits me. I usually have my own routine and traditional ways of doing things and I rarely stray out of it. It is also very hard for me to work at something in which the direction are unclear or incomplete because oftenly I also looked at specific details when I'm doing my work, and when the instruction is incomplete these details are not available. I also lack skill in the imaginary department as shown from my poor results in art. Last of all, sometime I found it hard to work in group especially with people I'm not familiar with. Even though some of my characteristics are not suitable with this type of learning, but I always ask the questions that most CS people asked such as "When is it due" or "How do I do it"? Considering these facts I notice about myself, I think I belong to the CS group except the fact that I'm not organize, but my way of thinking is still fit with the characteristics of this group.

Meaning

Today we did another experiment on memory. This time we have a competition to remember the word. The competition went like this. First Mr. Peter will tell us 20 words which we have to divide into 2 different categories which is A which is to count the syllable and B which is to state whether the mood is a pleasant mood or an unpleasant mood. The results of the experiment were very interesting because there was a very large range of score from 6 to 19. It is also interesting to see that most of the words that are remembered tend to fall into category B which is to remember the word by its mood. This study linked to what we have learned in that lesson about memory. We stated that external events are input as sensory memory which can then be encoded into our short-term or long-term memory as part of an automatic processing. The memory kept in our short-term memory can be recalled to be use. However there is another stage of memory which is the long-term memory. In order to encode something into our long-term memory, different method is required. This method is called effortful processing which involved rehearsing over and over to encode the short-term memory into our long term-memory.

Method of Memories

Today during psychology class we did an experiment to test each of our memory. The main focus of this experiment is to explore each of our short-term memory. The experiment started by Mr. Peter will tell us a combination of number and after he finished saying out the combination then we will have to write it down. Each turn the number on the combination will increase. The contest ends if you get any number wrong in any combination. To calculate the score you then count the number in that combination u got wrong and that is your score. After the experiment we found out that there are many variations in score but the average of our class was 6.5 so most people were a little between +2 or -2 from 7. This show that most of us can only remember things for a short period of time because most of the things we see will be registered into out short-term memory.

Our First Memory

As we are going to start our study on the Cognitive Perspective, we are asked by our teacher Mr. Peter Anthony to think of our first memory since memory is a big part in this Cognitive Approach. After digging into my memories and some rewinding effort, I was able to come up with one memory which I believed to be my earliest. My first memory occurred around the time when I was about 3-5 years old, it is a picture of myself climbing up the 3 story shelf to get my toy car which is on the highest story of the shelf. However my attempt turns out to be a failure and I ended up falling from the shelf and hurt one of my leg when I was on the second story of the shelf. Because of the pain I started to cry and then my maid which is in the next room come rushing in and saw me on the floor crying holding on to the ankle of my leg. She quickly called my parents, and before I knew it my mom was next to me applying some liquid pain-reliever on my ankle.

After everyone in our class share their memory, we discuss about the psychological idea behind these memories. We come up with the conclusion that our earliest memory should be around 4-5 years old because our brain are not that developed when we are 3 years old to remember any exact detail of the memory therefore the memory before 4 years old should only be a reconstructed idea. We also conclude that most of the time our memory came from incident that have an emotional impact on us and what is even more interesting is the fact that half of the class’s memories are negative while the other half is positive.

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Existentialism is very interesting because it deals with the undeniable fact of our life and question our very existence as it poses the most important question human ever ask of why are we here? Why are we born?

Existentialism is very deep in meaning as it poses the most important question in which no human being was able to answer. However people have differents ways of apporaching this question, and they have different view on the meaning of their existence therefore there is no absolute answer to this question. Eventhough the answer to this question will remain a mystery, but existentialism also introduced us to the idea of angst, absurdity, despair, anxiety, and death which is the fact of life we can't avoid. These ideas they introduced are very interesting and realistic as it deals with the real human's nature. It is true that no one can escape death as it comes to everyone with equality. It is also undeniable that we all faced anxiety or despair once during the course of our life. So this is what this perspective is about-dealing with the truth of human's life and use that knowledge to create a better understanding of ourself. From learning about existentialism, I hoped to learned more about myself by learning about the human's nature itself first.

What was the historical and cultural context of the learning perspective?

Learning perspective is the new field of psychology developed to challenge the old psychodynamic theory. It emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and continue to dominate psychology in US until 1950s. During this time, people came to belive that science will be able to solve great questions of the day. This believe led to the discovery of the learning perspective where human’s behaviors can be explain simply by using enviromental stimulus and observing their responses. Behaviorism argued that the old psychodynamic theory view of observing the unconscious is too vague and can not be study scientifically because there are no reliable evidences. However this new learning perspective concentrate their observation on human’s behaviors in different situation and stimuli therefore it is possible to obtain a scientific data. This learning perspective became very popular especially in US as it is a new country and they seek for the disovery of new knowledge. Americans have a very optimistic view of the future and belived that individuals that can overcome barriers and adapt to the changing business situation will be successful. Another reason that behaviorism was very popular among the Americans was because it promised a social reform by stating that behaviors can change depeding on the situation. This idea is very appealing to the Americans mentality as it is a “can do” approach.

Behaviorism was first introduced in 1900s by Pavlov, Watson and Thorndike. These behaviorist focused on the scientific way of studying human behaviors. They study human behaviors by focusing on how the stimuli in the enviroment produced response. However during the 1960s, behaviorism was modified by Skinner, Garcia and also Seligman. They add new insights from the cognitive and biological perspective to the original behaviorism, changing it to the learning perspective.

What Did I learn From my First Essay

My first essay for IB Psychology HL give me many insight about this subject. Eventhought the score wasn't very pleasing, but it is my first try. At first i was hoping for a better score because I really put in a lot of effort and time into writing this essay. However the IB grading is not as easy as RIS grading. The fact that IB is looking for a specific answer hinder my score. I used unappropiate word to describe Freud's theory which really pull my grade down. The mistake I did was using the word that express Freud's theory in a controversial way which some psychologist would agree, but not the rest. This mistake made my essay weaker that it is suppose to be. After looking at the score for my essay and the mistake I did, I can learn from this mistake to ensure that my answer will be better on the next essay.

My Opinion of Freud on Little Hans

I really think he is a strange person, maybe a genius. His way of creating theories and thinking is very unique and weird. In this case of Little Hans, he try to solve a mental illness that occured on a 5 years old boy name Hans. Hans have a great fear of horse which Freud try to find out the reason. The method he used in this case is just as strange as himself. He interpret Hans' word and dreams thinking that the boy's dreams are a symbol of something. However the stragest thing was how he interpret these symbol. He compare the horse with load as Hans' mother when she is pregnant and the fear of horse as the fear of the boy's father. Although it his interpretation might be weird, but in the end Freud was able to come to a conclusion on the boy's fear and successfully cure Hans. Looking at his interpretation suggested that his method of thinking is very unique. How did he came up with his interpretation is very interesting and also mysterious, so I conclude from this case that Freud must really be a genius of our kind.

Scientific Method and Psychology

Scientific Method might work well with all kind of science such as chemistry, biology, and physic. However I think there are limitations to the use of scientific method in psychology. Some of the factor in a psychology experiment might be controlled, but it is close to impossible to keep the reactions or the behaviors under controlled as it is stated many times earlier. When the test subject knew that they are being tested, there reactions will change and they might give inaccurate information to protect themselves. Other factors such as self awareness must also be considered during the experiment as we are concerned with our reaction toward the test subjects as well. If these things are not controlled then the result of the experiment might be altered. Although we are aware of factors that must be controlled, but it is almost impossible to keep these factors constant. This is the reason why scientific method might not work in psychology even though some of its theory might influenced Freud in his experiment.