First I would would explain how sensation is your senses working like the sensation of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Then I would tell them how perception is how your body analyzes and decides what is happening when you sense something.

I found the topic of perceptual set to be rather interesting. Like in the case with these pictures of the supposed loch ness monster, some people saw a monster and others simply saw a log. The way people can skew things in totally opposite directions is astounding.

I read the article; Psychology Of Magic: 3 Critical Techniques where magicians talked to psychologist about their magic tricks. Psychologists are interested in the principles of magic because magicians have been carrying out informal behavioural experiments on people for centuries and have built up a huge array of techniques - many psychological - to create their mind-bending effects.

Psychological misdirection is the more subtle way magicians perform their tricks. This is where the magician leads spectators to believe they've worked out how the trick is done. Once this 'solution' is suggested people are much less likely to notice the clues that crop up as to how it's really done.

I found this very interesting because I didn't think that magicians could trick us so easily. The subtlety of their misdirection is very intriguing and I wonder how no one notices.

Blog Post #6

I interviewed my grandma and learned that teenagers then aren't that much different than teenagers today. They worried about their looks and craved jobs and such just as teenagers do today. Though I was surprised to hear that they didn't have any electives. They just studied the general subjects. And they were more relaxed about the future. I don't think I would have minded being a teenager at the time. They were more relaxed in school, not like they didn't try but they didn't plan the way we do for college as much.

It kind of reminded me of my family and I. I tend to get into absurd arguments over the littlest things with my mother all of the time. I don't usually get into arguments with my dad though, he's kind of mellow and hard to get mad at. Also I like to be alone now a lot too. Even though I fight with my mom a lot I think we still have a rather strong relationship.

In chapter 4 I learned a bit about gender and aggression. I was not surprised to read that men are more aggressive than wormen. That seemed pretty obvious to me. Also in a relationship violence such as slapping or throwing objects is often mutual. That surprised me a bit. Girls tend to slap a bit when their boyfriend annoys them or throw little things like pens and such, but I can't really picture guys slapping a girl. Throwing small objects that wouldn't hurt, yes but not slapping.

In chapter 5 I learned about the Sensorimotor Stage. Sensorimotor Stage is from birth to nearly age 2, babies take in the world through their senses and actions. Very young babies seem to live in the present, they lack object permanence- the awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived. I found this interesting and makes me think that is why, like my baby sister, they cry so much when you leave their vision sometimes. They may think you don't exist anymore.

Blog Post #5 - Nature, Nurture, & Human Diversity

There were many things that I have learned from this chapter. One of the more intriguing things that I learned from this chapter is the fact that Fraternal twin are genetically no more similar than brother and sister. I had always thought that there was something more between even fraternal twins but really fraternal twins are just like me and my brother. Twins are generally though of by me as a genetic oddity but really there is nothing different about them and regular siblings, fraternal twins anyway. On another surprising note about twins I had never thought of the Olsen twins as fraternal because they look so much alike, but I found out, courtesy of my Psychology text book, that they are not identical twins.

Nature vs. Nurture, the largely debated topic which is the focus of this chapter. When it comes to personality there is not one that is more important than the other in molding it. They both influence the type of person you become. Our appearance, determined by genes influences how our peers react to us and influence us. Genetics and Environment are hand-in-hand in our development.

I read this one section about seperated twins. I was shocked when I read the similarities between this one pair who were seperated at birth and were apart form 37 years. It seems impossible that those kinds of things could happen. This also gives support to the Nature side of nature vs. nurture. With Identical twins the similarities are astounding and it seems they must be influenced at least partly by their genes.