Entry 5 : What I feel about little Hans and Freud after reading his case study on little Hans

I think Freud is rather a risk-taker. He seems to be guessing half the details of little Han's condition. I think his theories are somewhat believable, somewhat unrealistic, and somewhat biased. His ideas about little Hans connecting a carriage to his mother being pregnant is possible. However, Freud's connection about Hans' fear of horses and his fear of his father and his fear of his mother giving birth is very opinionated. Most of his ideas are merely his deductions from given information. The Oedipal conflict is also very doubtful. I feel that it is impossible for all human beings to develop similarly psychologically. I think it depends on the parents of the child. A good example is an orphant, who can never face the Oedipal conflict, since he/she does not have a parent to begin with. However, I could say that Freud is sucessful because little Hans recovered from his conflict. I think Freud focuses too much of his attention on the link between our sexual drive and our mind. I don't think that most of the things we do are motivated by our sexual drive, especially for little children. Therefore, I feel that Freud is not always accurate on his findings and his theories. However, we can never surely understand what is right or not, since the patient himself/herself is not capable of comprehending oneselves as well.

I think little Hans is a unique case for his age. I do not recall being very curious about the world at his age and connecting certain fears with an object. I think it is very rare that a boy would connect a horse to his parents, even though not completely impossible, since children hardly have any understanding of symbolism. I think little Hans lacks an intimate/sincere relationship with both his parents, and he is a deep thinker. I feel that little Hans was actually afraid of losing his mother's attention rather than being afraid of his father according to the Oedipal conflict.

Entry 4 : Presentation on 20th century events

What my group presented in class today about 20th century events conveyed the same findings. Since Sigmund Freud went through WWI in his lifetime, his views on human changed and he began to think that humans are violent and cruel. Wars gave evidence of violence as well as our death wish. Without the war, I think Freud would not have viewed humans in this way.

Entry 3 : Best of the Century

Psychology is a field that has developed over the century in which many psychologists have paid their contributions in developing many theories and approaches on this topic. These contributions greatly influenced and shaped modern psychological theories and practices and gradually improved psychology over the years. In the 19th century, psychological treatment was expensive and time consuming. In addition, they were not very effective. Fortunately, psychology has been modified in the past centuries. Nowadays, treatment is available almost everywhere, even in books and online. Individual and group therapies and seminars are held frequently. Psychological treatment is no longer afforded only by the rich, but by everyone. Behavior therapies are now present, and are a combination of several different main theories and practices combined to enhance successful results. Practices are being modified and adjusted to suit various clients of different ethnic backgrounds, which helps facilitate treatment. Psychotherapist and psycho pharmacologists interchangeably refer their patients to each other to better diagnose them. The drastic alteration of psycho-therapy greatly impacts our modern understanding of the nature of people and caused various new theories and practices to emerge.
Many psychologists have contributed to the long history of psychology, among which is Jean Piaget. Piaget said that children do not understand the concept of “conservation.” Conservation is the idea that matter does not change quantity despite its container. According to her experiment, when milk is poured into a large bowl, the child claims that there is less milk. This experiment was the first to prove that human intelligence had to be developed as the human grows. Personally, I think this discovery has a great contribution towards psychology because it enables the therapist to diagnose patients of different ages differently. With this knowledge, we could also anticipate growth of intelligence in humans.
Ellen Langer proposed her experiment on the effect of thinking on the lifespan of life. Her experiment proved that a group of senior citizens who were more engaged in daily activities live longer than the ones who were indifferent to daily life. I feel that this study could stimulate elders to be more active in everyday life and could prove to be a method in lifespan extension.
Matina Homer conducted an experiment that distinguished the sex roles in modern society. An experiment was conducted on two honor students, a male and a female. The results concluded that females feel inferior to males in a competitive situation. This study proves that despite the common belief that both genders are equal, there is still a feeling of female inferiority when both genders are confronted. By understanding this, we could eliminate this feeling of inferiority from females by reinforcing that females and males are both equally competitive genders.
Howard Gardner claimed that intelligence is not merely based on how “bright” someone is, but there are many types of intelligence, thus resulting in his theory of “multiple intelligence”. The theory of multiple intelligence states that the word “intelligence” should include many areas, such as musical intelligence, self-knowledge, and bodily kinesthetic intelligence. Gardner argues that judging people by their “intelligence” is unfair. I agree that this is true and it is very unjust to judge people from their “intelligence.” However, even though there are many different aspects of “intelligence” as suggested by Howard, they are still not practical and common enough to be used as an official test. Therefore, I think it is best to use the normal system of Intelligence Quotient (IQ).
Hans Seyle was the first to apply the concept of stress from physics to human beings by identifying that humans react to environmental threats in various ways and that illness, mood, and performance is influenced by stress. He also stated that it is important to identify what stresses us and what makes us happy. Since stress is one of the major problems that people have, understanding this would help everyone have a productive and happy life. I think it is utterly important to identify our strengths and weaknesses as well.
I think Albert Ellis believes in the cognitive perspective. His study on rational-emotive-therapy (RET) states that our behavior and emotions are influenced by our thoughts, which is what the cognitive perspective specifically states. Ellis’s works focuses on changing his patients’ behavior by changing his patient’s irrational thoughts into rational thoughts. As a result, his patients will alter their emotions and behavior as well. RET had proved to be a very successful, effective, and efficient.

Entry 2 : The BIG Issues!

In class today (August 17, 2006), I did a survey about my opinion on big issues in psychology. The big issues includes believing people being rational or irrational, believing in change or stability, and believing in nature or nurture. Primarily, I believed in people being rational, change, and nurture. However, when the results came out, I was surprised to find that what I believed about myself was WRONG! I actually believed that people were irrational (6/25) and that nature (15/25) is more important than nurture. However, my views and change and stability remained as I expected (5/25).

Entry 1 : "Why do we do the things that we do?"

I believe that people behave certain ways due to 4 factors: basic instinct, personal desire, life experiences, and present situations.

I think people initially react to situations with the most primary behaviors. For example, we react to sadness by crying, we react to happiness by smiling or laughing, and we react to anger by shouting or destroying. It is notable that these reactions are common in MOST people, in other words almost everybody react the same way! This could only lead us to conclude that these behaviors were passed to all of us by a common ancestor. However, there may be some exceptions depending on the person's life experience, for example a person who repeatedly failed a subject may eventually get used to it and feel comfortable with getting a low grade. Similarly, a person who is used to a luxurious life may appreciate their facilities less than someone who never had one.

Another factor that may influence our behavior is personal desire. When a person wants something very badly, they maybe inclined to behave in an uncommon or immoral way. For instance, a person who is in debt may seek to earn money by stealing, which is more convenient than by working. Conversely, a person may also work harder for what they want, for example a child who wants a new mp3 may do extra work to earn enough money to purchase it. Therefore, personal desire could be both motivation for both good and bad behaviors.

Life experiences, in my opinion, is the most important factor that influences behavior. What we have experienced will definitely have an effect on what we do. For example, if we burnt our hand once by touching a steaming kettle on the stove, it is likely we will not repeat it. In other words, people will not repeat something that is painful physically or mentally. This is because we learn that it is dangerous or painful the first time we experience situations. Another example could be the way we response to something. A person who was repeated bullied when he/she was a child will either fear bullying, hate bullying, bully others, or develop an immunity against it. Therefore, our life experiences plays a great role in shaping how we behave and react to situations in life.

Lastly, I believe human do things a certain way partly because of the situation they are in. In a desperate situation, people can be forced to do something that is against their morals. For example, when a person is attacked in a dark alley at night with a knife and they fortunately got hold of the knife, they will likely defend themself by hurting/killing the attacker. It is terrifying and amazing that humans are capable of doing anything, out of desperation, that will help them survive . For instance, it has been known that some soldiers eat their fellow comrades due to lack of food during wars. Desperation, therefore, can be one of the most effective drives for people to behave in a certain way.

Humans behave according to many sophisticated reasons. Some may be shallow reasons, and others may be more complicated. However, it is always fascinating to discover the roots to why we do we things that we do. Eventually, I believe this study can lead to the prediction of human behavior and could help predict/prevent something bad before it even happens!!!

Why I chose IB psychology?

Ever since I could remember, I've always wondered why various people react differently towards certain situations. One of my favorite hobbies is guessing what people around me are thinking and what situations and problem they are dealing with by looking at their behavior and facial expressions.

Psychology, in my definition, is the study of people's behavior. It is how they react to certain situations due to various reasons. Since human beings are the most complex living organism, it would be interesting to study what we think and feel.

I chose IB Psychology primarily because I realize that living in society requires frequent interactions with other people. Being able to understand what they are thinking and how they are feeling, and being able to emphathize with their emotions will make my relationships with others strong and long lasting. Through the study of Psychology, my goal can be achieved. Apart from learning about others, I could learn more about why I feel or react a certain way to situations, which I could not understand in the past. I believe that taking IB Psychology will not only give me a better insight to the world, but will also give me a better understanding of myself.