Is EQ importance EQual?

Have we stretched the idea of intelligence too far when we apply it to our emotions? I have never thought of it this way but our keys to true success is our EQ. You can be extremely smart and successful but I believe that you will never reach your full potential if you do not have a high EQ. Having a high EQ consists of being able to percieve, understand, manage, and use emotions effectively. To me this translates to being able to know how others are feeling and interact in an appropriate manner in a social setting. It's true that there are many highly intelligent people in the world who lack basic social skills and they are very successful in their profession but are they successful in their personal lives and relationships with others. If someone doesn't have a high EQ, they may not value personal relationships an important or necessary aspect of life. However to me, a person can't have a truly fulfilling life without personal success in their career as well as in their personal life. I believe it is wise to value emotional intelligence highly because it leads to personal connections and feeling included in society.

Learning Language

Dora the Explorer. Go Diego Go. Ni Hao Kai-Lan. These are just three of the plethora of television shows geared towards teaching kids a different language. In each episode, children as young as 2 or 3, learn colors, numbers, and words for everyday objects. Why? Because studies show that learning a new language becomes more difficult with age. Similarly, David Myers in our text said that young children have a readiness to learn language. Although there is not "critical period" to learn a second language, thoses who learned it before age 8 understood the grammar as well as native speakers.

In order to test the validity of these studies, I did a little experiment of my own.. Once again, Alex (age 4) came in handy along with my dad (age 41). I taught them each 10 basic spanish vocabulary words at the same time so the teaching was the same for both. The teaching consisted of showing them the word along with correctly pronouncing it. I also asked them to repeat the word. They both had a little difficulty with this :). 30 minutes later, I separately quizzed each of them by saying the word in English then asking them to translate it to Spanish. While my brother got 7 correct, my dad only got 3 correct... Even though this study may not be very reliable, the results were pretty significant. It definitely displayed to me that learning a second language is best done when young. This is probably why in recent years, many tv shows have popped up claiming to teach a second language. Do they work? No one will know until the children watching the shows grow up and society can see how their language skills have developed compared to previous generations. But it is an interesting topic to think about...

My Life is "Psych"adelic!

Psychology: the science of mind and behavior. No wonder my life connects to psych class in so many ways. My life is full of crazy behavior and even crazier minds. And because of AP Psych, I feel that I now analyze the world with a psychologist's point of view.

Placebo Effect.

*Placebo effect: experimental results caused by expectations alone, any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent*

During one night of spring break, I was very tired (the reason will be explained later), so my friends told me I should try a 5 hour energy. I never know if I can believe that energy drinks really give you energy, so I said they would have to put it in my drink without mentioning it first because otherwise I would believe I felt more energized, the placebo effect, even if the drink didn't truly make my body more awake. If they had just given me the 5 hour energy, I would have probably thought I felt more energized aka the placebo effect.

This was a fitting example because most people experience the placebo effect when given a drug.

Brain Organization and Handedness

I saw the movie, The King's Speech, over break. The king's therapist was asking him about his childhood, thinking that his stammering problem was caused by a tramatic event. It was revealed that the king was born a true left hander but was punished when he used it. Therefore, he grew up to be a right handed person.

This got me thinking about the brain and how which hand is dominant affects it. The king's brain organization was probably screwed up when he, as a young child, was forced to write with the right hand. This may have causeds his stammering problem.

This movie was a good example of how your dominant hand is more connected to the rest of the body than just to the arm. Psychology is about the mind and the king's mind probably malfunctioned when he was little because of the hand confusion in the brain.

Stimulants and Withdrawl

*Stimulants: drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions*

*Withdrawl: the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug*

Although I am not a religious person, I decided to test myself and give up coffee for lent. I drink coffee every morning so this was really going to be a challenge. Caffeine, the stimulant in coffee, increases wakefulness and alertness. The second day of my challenge, I was incredibly tired and had major headaches, two common side effects for caffeine withdrawl.

This minor addiction of mine displayed how drugs could seriously impair your life on a major scale. If my symptoms are fatigue and headaches, it is scary to think about the more serious side effects of wtidrawl from other stimulants or drugs in general. After only a few days, I was experiencing negative side effects.

Personal Space
*Personal space: the buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies*
Emily and I are going to room together next year and were talking about it one night. In addition to who will care for our pet rocks (The rockettes!), we also discussed more serious guidelines. We are both the type of people who need to have time by ourselves and enjoy or personal space. This may be hard to come by in a dorm, but just like when visiting other cultures, we have to figure out each other's personal space and work with it. Now we won't go so far as to tape off our sides of the room but we do know we can't be with each other all the time.

Different cultures, and different people, have separate ideas about what is appropriate for personal space. Having to live in a confined space with someone will teach both Emily and I about people's differing needs for personal space.

Crystallized Intelligence and Fluid Intelligence

*Crystallized intellligence: our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills*

*Fluid intelligence: our ability to reason speedily and abstractly*

My family tends to be competitive so at family get togethers, games can get cutthroat. During my cousin's birthday party this week, my family divided into teams to play Jeopardy. My grandpa was on my team. He is definitely an asset with all his crystallized intelligence so my cousins and I were happy to have him. However, we soon realized that although he knows a lot of the answers, it takes him awhile to retrieve them, time which we couldn't afford.

This truly displayed how fluid intelligence really does decrease as we age while crystalized increases. My grandpa knew the answers but wasn't able to speedily answer them. Our knowledge continues to accumulate as we age while our reaction times decreased. This real life example clearly displayed this discrepancy.

Sensory Adaptation

*Sensory adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation*

I visited a dorm room of one of my friends and as soon as I stepped off the elevator, the smell knocked me back. I knew it was a guy dominated floor but I didn't realize it would smell so...strongly. Although his room smelled too, after a few minutes, I didn't even smell it anymore thanks to sensory adaptation.

This was a great example of sensory adaptation because it allowed me to forget about the strong smell and focus on others things in the environment. It wouldn't allow species to survive if they only focused on the unchanging part of the environment so sensory adaptation allows the body to put unchanging stimulus, the smell, in the back of our minds so we can focus on the changing stimuli in our current environment.

Operant Conditioning

*Operant conditioning: type of learning in which behavior is strengthened in followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punished*

I love the show Modern Family. While watching it this week, a perfect example of operant conditioning came up. A gay couple adopted a little girl. In order to take the negative stigma off the word "adoption," they would clap whenever someone said it and then cheer. Then at the end of the episode, one of them said "adoption," and the little girl clapped because she had been operantly conditioned to do so. She had learned that people would cheer for her if she clapped after hearing the word so she did. The clapping was reinforced by the cheering causing the little girl to want to do the behavior.

Flashbulb Memories

*Flashbulb memories: a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event*
I am so excited to go to prom again this year and many of my friends are going as well. We were talking about it and reminising about last year's prom. I could remember the whole thing because it was a flashbulb memory for me. I had so much fun and was with all my friends so it was a great day which is why I still have a clear or flashbulb memory of the whole night.

Flashbulb memories allow us to clearlly remember an emotional or significant moment. I cleary remember almost all the details of prom since it was the first time I went and was really excited about it.

Living in a Silent World

I like the days I am in my silent house alone, no brother to ask me a million questions, no parents telling me to do something... But could I survive in a completely silent world everyday...As I write this, I am listening to music and having a conversation with my mom...How could I function? How would I feel connected to people?

Well there are 500 million people in the world who do it everyday. Some have partial hearing loss while others are completely Deaf. According to the psych book, Deaf people can feel just as connected to the world around them as people with full hearing. It says that Deaf children who grow up around other Deaf people more often identify with Deaf culture and feel positive self-esteem. This seems obvious but then I thought what if a whole family was deaf or most of them? Well according to Youtube, there are many such families like that.

A family that caught my eye was a family that had Deaf parents, two Deaf children and two hearing children. One of the hearing kids was 15 and the other three. The 15 year old talked about the challenges his family faces. Interestingly many of the stuggles he has, most teenagers experience such as his mom being overly involved in his life. However, he did say that when he went to school, he got made fun of for prounouncing some words wrong because he had copied how his Deaf father said them. He also said that the best part of being from a Deaf family is that when he got in trouble when he was younger, his teachers couldn't call home. His Deaf siblings actually go to a Deaf school and he says that is the best place for them because they can connect with people they typically wouldn't have met.

After watching multiple youtube videos about Deaf people, they all say they are content to be Deaf, that it's peaceful, and they couldn't imagine life any other way. Hearing people would say the same thing. It's hard to imagine never being able to listen to music, go through a drive through, or see a movie....However it might be nice not to hear my brother "singing" all the time though...