Developmental Theories

     The development of adults never stops. The key point to be noted is that health and well-being generally improves as you get older, up until a certain point. Then you reach a point were you reach a physical peak, gain weight, lose height, and women enter menopause. Early in life, birthday cards are joyful and celebrate growing up, but when you start to get old people start to enter a stage of fear or denial about how old they really are. Most of their thoughts about growing up are negative and this is why as people get older the cards start to get more sincere or more of a joke, to comfort the receiver. When the person was young they got happy cards to celebrate them growing up, but now that they are getting old they no longer want to celebrate getting older, because it makes them remember that the end is that much closer. When we are kids we have momentum and don't even have the end in mind, but when you start to grow up death becomes a very common topic in life. When you get older, most of the time you will slow down your whole life and get ready for retirement and other events to try and soothe the thoughts of getting old. In the end, I think cards start to get more sincere or reassuring, because no one wants to be reminded how old they are getting and how they are slowing down, but if the card makes you laugh about it or feel a sense of pride about your age then that is always a positive. Some cards also talk about reaching milestones in life, like living to an unexpected age. People also start to lose their memory and other things relating to them, and cards will often make some sort of fun of that and this helps the people laugh about themselves. After all, no birthday card is made to actually hurt someone. They are constructed to celebrate or congratulate the many adventures you have or will endure in your lifetime.

What I have learned

     In the Introduction to Psychology, I learned that there are many branches of Psychology such as structuralism, behaviorism, and functionalism. Structuralism looked to study what made up the human mind by using introspection. Functionalism is a more detailed branch where it focuses on how our mental and behavioral processes function. Mostly, it focused on how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish. Functionalism is probably the most important function in our life, because it allows us to survive and flourish and if we didn't do this there would be no point to have any other life processes. Functionalism effects me everyday in my decisions, because I make moves to adapt to for example, maybe I get more homework than normal, then I adapt and change my time schedule so I can finish all of my homework. Over the years I have adapted to many things and this is one reason why I might still be alive today. As a human we find ways to adapt especially in Wisconsin when we have the changing of seasons. In winter we adapt by wearing heavy clothes, gloves, boots, and hats. In summer we adapt by wearing shorts and a t-shirt. The main point being that our mind is always running and working to help us flourish. The mind also controls our behavior and our behavior is a very important part of everyday life. I also learned how behavior is affected by the bio-psychosocial model.
     The very first interesting thing I learned in chapter 1 was a tendency we call hindsight bias. This is when we think we knew what the outcome was going to be the whole time, when really we had absolutely no clue. This is very interesting and relevant to me, because I often use this tendency of hindsight bias, especially when I am making a guess with my friends and I am right. I will often guess on deal or no deal and they will pick a different case and I will say, "that's gunna be a high dollar amount and I am right, then I will say I knew it." When really I had absolutely no clue, but it's just I thought I knew it. The reason why I think I may know things or what I may think is common sense is really deceptive. The way I am thinking when I use hindsight bias is by no means critical thinking which is a very important term in this chapter. This is looking for hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.
     In chapter 4 the subject of nature versus nurture was what the chapter was about. It also was very involved in using twins to describe how genes affect a human. Identical twins are the closest to each other than any other relative because they come from the same egg. They have the same genes and therefore are similar, but they may have different counts of those genes, causing one twin to be more prone to disease. Identical twins may have slight differences between them, but for the most part they do almost everything the same as each other. The genes that the twins get are random from the two parents so even if both the parents are successful in sports the child may not even play sports. This impacts me to know that just because my dad may be successful in his life doesn't mean I will be successful in my life, or just because my mom is a nice and hardworking person doesn't mean I am going to be the same way. This is deceptive to me because I thought that I would just get these traits, but actually I will have to work and possibly change to be like them. Back to the identical twins, they are always really close because they are from the same egg, where as my brother and I don't get along at all and right now he doesn't care to hang out ever. In fact, he seems to be nothing like me.
     The most interesting piece of information I learned is how misleading our mind or thoughts can really be, and that is why we have to be critical thinkers. I find this interesting because I always thought that, that gut feeling you get is the most accurate source and you should believe it, but by taking this class I now know that this assumption is by no means right. It just seems like there would be a logical explanation for why I get that gut feeling.
    That leads me into my first question. Why do we get gut feelings when making decisions?
Why do we often question ourselfs?
Why do we really develope the way we do?
How random is the mind and how detailed?

Psychology

All these random thoughts,

What do they really mean

I try find an answer,

By thinking critically

Then I find a science,

Called Psychology

Now all my thoughts,

That I had before,

Are easy to explain,

And float right out the door.