Class Evaluation

I recommend all my friends to take AP Psych. I enjoyed this semester very much because of how much I've learned that I didn't know before. One thing that especially interested me was Mrs. Halfen's creative powerpoints. The graphics were so amusing, they often helped me understand concepts that were a little complicated. One thing I didn't like about the class is that I thought that we should have gone over the AP exam a little more thoroughly. Instead of just answering questions on a practice test, we could have gone over the questions we didn't know or had not learned before. My only suggestion would be to put more emphasis over the exam. Thank you Mrs. Halfen for making this class so much fun! I wouldn't have looked forward to coming every day if it weren't for you.

OCD

I was reading several articles about OCD. The subject really interests me because of the fact that I hear about it so often. There are reality TV shows revealing the lives of people all around the world who have atypical cleaning, touching, obsessive, compulsive habits. I personally know some "especially clean/hygenic" people that go over board trying to sanitize things. What could the cause be for these people to be such germ-o-phobes? One article says that stress is a major cause. I guess I can start to understand where the problem may originate. After the person realizes that they have OCD, are they supposed to lock themselves up in a germy room to get rid of the habit? Is it even a habit? Is medication the only solution to OCD?

Surveys!

Jung Typology Test- The questions to this test are pretty straight forward and easy to understand. I like how they were specific on whether or not you "speak loudly." In the end I disagreed with my results. They generalized too fast on my personality based on a couple questions that seem irrelevent with what I was considered to be. The validity of this test is not alright.

Hogwarts House- This test was extremely long and vague. The questions repeat themselves. When answering you get a choice between numbers one through 9 and I feel that it made the results extremely subjective. In the end, I was not categorized to a specific house, but three houses. HOW ACCURATE!


Big Five Personality Styles- The questions were too specific. The problem with that is that there were situations that I was never placed in before. The answer choices for us to choose were subjective as well, you had to choose from numbers one through five. Surprisingly I felt that the results were pretty accurate to what I perceive myself to be.


Big Seven Personality Test- There were a lot of questions that repeated themselves (that was annoying). Answer choices were vague/subjective. Accuracy- higher than medium.

Explain Your Brain: Attraction Test- I thought this test was fun because you had to rate pictures. LOL. The results were reasonable considering my answer choices to the questions. My evaluation to the validity is good. Many of the subjects in the pictures looked the same.

People Cease to be Trustworthy

Dear Boyfriend,

I miss you dearly. Freshman year of college is not so welcoming here at the University of Alaska. Everyone glares at you as if they want to steal your things. I had to use the restroom once during lunch, and I was carrying a lot of textbooks with me. A girl who asked to sit by me offered to watch my things, but of COURSE, I said no. I knew she offered so that she could buy time for herself to run away with my things. I had to visit the college counselor regarding my schedule, she started asking me very very personal questions. Can you believe it? She even wanted to know what country my parents were from. I told her, straight up, that I don't discuss personal information because I didn't trust her. She immediately said how sorry she was, WHAT AN ACTOR! By the way, I hope you've stopped going to that gym, you know, with the young gym instructor. I don't like how she tries to make conversations with you. She should be doing her job, and you should be working out without having to make "friends."

Zeenat

Case Study #11

Case Study 11: A 38-year-old man has been increasingly anxious about his job in a large manufacturing company. He feels that he has been passed over for a promotion several times. The patient is preoccupied with many small events and conversations that have occurred at work during the year and worries how his superiors will interpret them. He finds it difficult to control his worrying. During the day at work he feels restless and edgy. At home he is irritable and has difficulty sleeping. He wife asks him about work but he doesn’t want to talk about it.

Looking at the patient, one can generalize that this man is suffering from Generalized Anxiety
Disorder. The words, "several times" signify that the anxiety this man is suffering from has been a problem for a while. He shows three of the most significant symptoms that occurs when you have Generalized Anxiety Disorder 1) He is restless during the night 2) He is on an "edge" 3) He is very irritable.
I recommend several remedies for the patient. One suggestion is to take antidepression medication. Another is psychotherapy with a professional present. Relaxation methods may be
a wise technique as well. Example: Deep breathing.

A Notorious Meltdown

Celebrities are the cream of the world's crop, they are the beauties of mankind with talents like no other. In the adolescent group, childrens' hearts beat to the tunes of "Hanna Montana." Fashion statements, perspectives, and behaviors are reflected off of celebrities by everyday people.

What happens when these "role models" of life fail and loose the admiration in themselves?

After all..."No one's perfect."

Lets take the infamous Marilyn Monroe into consideration. For those who don't know, Monroe was an actress and the perfect icon for a "blond bombshell." Being one of the richest celebrities of her time, it would be expected that she had led a happy life. On the day of her death, she was found laying with a bottle of sleeping pills beside her. It was proved she had an overdose, and that it may have been an act of suicide. Prior to the incident Marilyn was said to suffer from depression and known for mixing alcohol with drugs. She was attentively watched by a psychoanalyst as well. She was also diagnosed for being bipolar, an illness of the mood. Tracing back through her childhood, one may find occurrences that may have ignited her end. Her mother had suffered from schizophrenia and had abandoned her at a young age. Marilyn was in and out of foster homes and worked long, hard hours in order to sustain. The question of how and why her death had happened in such a gruesome way leads one to ask the question on whether or not it was nature or nurture that triggered this woman. Could her mother's illness be a part of a long bloodline of mental haywire? Or is it her hard life of no parents and the spotlight of fame and riches that had pushed her to become a drug addict?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000054/bio

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761552273/marilyn_monroe.html