*Insert Clever Title Here.* - Mod 29

MOD 29

Have you ever gotten sick because of stress?  Describe your experience.

I actually can get severely overwhelmed with stress fairly easy, such as at exam time or near a big project deadline, and I do get sick because of stress. When I get "stress sick" I get extremely pessimistic. My views are just depressing, and I freak out about how much I have to do. Normally I am able to calm myself down after a while, and am able to proceed with the task at hand. But my stress can get so bad at times that I just need to stop working and go run it off or take a break. My stress has gotten to the point where I miss sport practices to catch up on work, just so I don't have to experience a stress "episode." I try to prevent them at all costs by staying caught up with work and not procrastinating, and if that means missing a swim practice or such here and there, that is a sacrifice that I am willing to make. Stress attacks are not an experience that I enjoy or look forward too.

Do you behave differently in different situations?  Have people ever accused you of having different personalities?  How did that make you feel?

I don't think I act differently to the point where it appears that I have different personalities, but I definitely act different in various situation and when I am with different groups of people. Normally I am a fairly laid back, good natured guy. But if I ever need to take responsibility or a leadership role, I adapt very quickly and naturally. There are also situations where I will do the opposite and be less responsible and serious, such as if I'm just hanging out with my good friends. I think that everyone act's differently in various situations fairly often, but there is quite a drastic difference between acting differently in a certain situation and having multiple or split personalties. It's normal to be able to change how you behave to adapt to the situation at hand, but when it comes to the point that you are essentially two different people, that is when it starts to become an issue and psychological concern.

Ain't Nuthin' But A "Pysch" Thang - Mod 17

MOD 17

Describe a time when you learned something observationally.

A time when I have learned a skill through observational learning would be how I learned to play chess by watching my cousins and uncles play. When I was learning to play chess, I would get killed every game, not because i didnt know the rules, but because I didn't know any strategy. Over family get togethers, we'd play alot of chess, so when I wasn't playing, I was watching. By carefully monitoring and paying attention to the moves made by my other family members, I soon begain to pick up the strategy. Eventually I was able to come up with strategy on my own, but I started by using the strategies that I picked up from hours of watching other games of chess.

Describe a time when someone learned something (good or bad) from you observationally. 

Although I'm sure that people have learned bad things from me observationally, I am going to dwell on a good situation. A couple years ago I took a friend ice skating with my family. Although my family were all seasoned skaters, my friend had never skated, and was dreadful. So I had him carefully observe me as i slowfully demonstrated and repeated the various motions and movements of basic skating. Soon enough he was able to skate straight by observing me, and within an hour he was able to turn, stop, and figure 8, all by watching my modeled behavior. Not only did I teach my friend how to skate through observational learning, but I went on to teach the entire Canadian Olympic Men's Hockey Team to skate through the same process.

Mo Mods, Mo Problems - Mods 4/5/6

MOD 6

What do you think will be your most vivid memory of high school when you are 50, based on your experiences to date? Why will this memory stick out?

  All though there are several high school experience of mine that seem very important right now, I doubt that many of them will remain as relevant over the tests of time. However, I do believe that I have one major experience from High school that will remain just as important and prevalent in the future. as it dose now. I am of course talking about my 7 years of Middle School/ High School cross country. Cross country stopped being just a sport for many many years ago. And instead it has morphed into so much more than that. My cross country team is literally like a family to me, and some of my coaches are like father figures. I have learned so many life lessons through cross country, that I doubt I will forget them when I am 80, let alone 50.

Have you or someone you know been subject to ageism? Describe the experience.

Unfortunately, I do know people who have been subjected to ageism. My grandparents on my mother's side are in a retirement home and suffer from Alzheimer's. I've noticed a drastic difference between how people treat them, and how people treat my grandparent's on my dad's side, who are completely healthy. It's unfortunate how society treats our elders differently just depending on their mental and physical health states. I'd like to tell myself that I treat both sets of my grandparents the same, but it isn't true. It's just easier to communicate with elders who don't have health issues than it is with those who do. I'm not proud of it, but unfortunately that's how society operates.

Mod 9: The Classiest Mod of All Time

Imagine that you suddenly lost your hearing. How would you feel? What would you need to do to adapt to your new condition? Give specific examples.


Not gonna lie, I would be totally pissed if I lost my hearing. It would be a total bummer. I rely on my senses so much in almost every single aspect of my day to day life, and I think I would really have a hard time adapting to the loss of any of them, let alone losing the ability to hear. Without the ability to hear, I would have to completely change my ways of communication. I would most likely have to learn how to either read lips or sign language, or a combination of the two. Bottom line, I really hope I never completely lose my hearing, in fact, I think I'm going to turn down my iPod volume right now as we speak. 





Do you like certain foods better because of their taste? Is texture important to you in the type of food you prefer to eat? Do you notice the appearance or color of food? Why/why not?


I love to eat. In fact, if it wasn't for my hyperactive metabolism, I would probably be a tubster. I think that the pleasure of the senses is one of the reasons why eating rocks so much. I am a huge fan of spicy and flavorful foods, because the flavor just absolutely  indulges my sense. Texture and color can be appealing, and can often add to the whole eating experienec. Personally however, I will never judge a meal by it's cover. I know first hand that there are foods that look absolutely revolting, but taste incredible.  So bottom line, as long as the food has decent flavor, I am not to concerned with the appearance or texture.

Mod 3: I have a bad headache :(

Please answer the following questions using a minimum of five sentences each.

1. If you had to choose between losing feeling or losing the ability to move, which would you choose, and why?
If I had to choose between losing feeling or movement, I think I definitely give up my feeling. I would rather go through life being continuously numb, than spend my life being a meat sponge. What good is feeling if you all you can feel is yourself laying on a bed or sitting an a chair your entire life? The way I look at it, you can compromise witht he loss of feeling, but once you lose your ability to move, your choices and options in life are pretty limited. As long as you can move, you can still a somewhat normal life. To me this choise is basically a no brainer.

2.For experimental purposes, animals’ spinal cords are damaged so that scientists may see the results and determine if regeneration of nerve tissue is possible. Do you think the potential benefits of this type of research outweigh the harm to the animals? Why or why not?
This is a tricky question for me to answer. I don't believe in harmful testing of animals, but I also can see the benefit of it for the sake of human medicicine. Personally, I dont think we should harm animals in experiments. Instead I think we should use case studies with animals, the same way we do wtih humans. If an animal already has a damaged spinal cord, then we could observe the results and such. But I am definitely not a fan of doing harmful experiments on animals.

3.Imagine what life would be like without a specific part of your brain and explain.
That would suck man! I love all of my brain. I couldnt imagine myself living without both hemispheres of my brain. In the video they showed people who lived with only their left hemisphere. I dont think I could adapt to that kind of life. It hurts my head just trying to think about it. I don't think i could handle that kind of situation. Although if I had to choose between suffering through seizurres and losing half of my brain, in the end, I would most likely give up my right hemisphere. Although I hope that I never have to make that choice!

Mod 2: The Mod of Champions

1. In our culture, the masses often believe everything the media says word for word, and the media uses this to it's advantage. When a study finds a correlational link, such as a link between Tylenol and asthma in children, the media can then state that  "Tylenol may raise asthma risk in children," which is not what the study said. By delivering the findings this way, people will infer the report the wrong way, and assume that Tylenol can lead to asthma in children, when this could be completely untrue. The media is essentially twisting the findings of the study. For all we know, the correlational link between the two could have been a negative one, not even a positive correlation. Just because the media says something, does not always necessarily make it the truth.


2.When the media delivers a report such as saying that "Tylenol may raise asthma risk in children", they know that their report is taken out of context, and therefore might not be true. Instead of phrasing the statement as a fact, the media could rephrase the finding to say that "A recent study found a correlation between Tylenol and asthma in children." The problem with this though, is that this is nor nearly as interesting. People are much less likely to get worked up over a correlational link found by a study, instead of a casual link that implies that the two are related. The problem with the media, is that they will always chose the angle that will get a reaction. Nine times out of ten, that reaction will be a miss implied casual link, not an accurately portrayed correlational one.

Mod 1 Response: The Beginning of Something Awesome

Which of the psychology fields, perspectives or careers interested you the most and why?
When I used to think of careers in Psychology, I formed a visual of an old guy with a beard asking me questions about my mother, but psychology is much more vast than that. I think the careers that would interest me the most would be the ones that combine psychology with another skill. Such as being a business psychologist, or being a psychologist for a company or a firm. I'd have other skills, but my psychology background would give me a wider and broader perspective of the workplace around me. I also think that it would be interesting to monitor the behavior of toddlers, from a psychological point of view. Children are interesting enough as it is, so they are bound to be much more interesting from the eyes of a psychologist.

What are some psychological questions you always wanted to know the answers to?
 I am interested in the conscious and unconscious drives that push people to do things that we know aren't in our best interest. If we know something is bad or will have negative consequences, why do we proceed anyways? I am also interested in the "devil and angel on your shoulder" concept, the little voices in our head that argue right and wrong. People as a whole are fascinating, and it is really interesting to see just what makes us "tick", and what makes us who we are. I also think that it would be interesting to compare how psychology differs in different cultures. Is it different? Or would it be surprisingly similar, despite the cultural differences.