Are You a Liar?

This article is from Psyblog and it talked about how people lie within just minutes of meeting a person. It talks about a study that was performed, it had 121 people that were going to talk to someone new for 10 minutes. They separated the people into three groups, the first group had to try to present themselves so the other person thinks your competent. The second group had to present themselves as likeable to the other people, and the third group was the control they had no specific goal. All the groups were secretly video taped, and at the end they were asked to point out their own lies. After that they got to watch the tape, and write down any time they were lying. 40% of people claimed to have told no lies at all. That probably isn't far from the truth, they had no motivation to lie to the others. While the other 60% of people reported some lies, with the average being just under 3 lies in the 10 minutes they talked.

Lies are broke down into five areas, feelings, achievements, plans, expectations, and facts. The study was broken down into these five areas, with the three groups. The competent group of women told more lies about their feelings, while the likeable group of men told more lies about feelings.

Overall this article was interesting, i found it kind of funny that men told more lies about there feelings so they would be liked. Another thing was that lying is broken up into two types, good lies are pro-social, while bad lies are used to swindle people. But in the end most lies come back to hurt us in someway.

Parenting Styles

When I read the three types of parenting styles, it got me thinking on what kind of parents I have. I would say that I have more of the authoritative kind of parents. They set rules that they expect me to follow, but they also let me know why they are setting these rules. Another part of this is if I behave, don't talk back, and do the things they ask me to. The rules become a little less strict, and I get to do more.

I've seen parents that are like the other two types of parents. And I am very thankful that I have the parents I have. I don't think I would be able to deal with the authoritarian kind of parents. Sometimes I don't do so well with all the rules that get set. So I might have a very big problem with that. But then I don't think I would like to have the permissive kind of parents either. Granted that might me nice because it would be easier to get what I wanted. But then I wouldn't be learning anything about for myself. And after a certain point I don't think that is a very good idea. Everyone needs to learn things for themselves sometimes, or their going to have a hard time in the real world outside of high school and living with their parents.

Chapter 5 - Developing Though The Life Span

In this chapter I found Piaget's theory very interesting. Piaget's ideas of schemas, and how they are mental molds that we pour our experiences into, and then he proposed two more concepts. The first is assimilate, we assimilate new experiences, or interpret them in ways that we already understand. The second is accommodate, as we grow older we start to adjust or schemas. Piaget also proposed that children progress though four stages, the first sensorimotor, the second preoperational, the third concrete operational, and the fourth formal operational.

Another part of this chapter was babies and their "stranger anxiety". They sometimes greet strangers by crying and reaching for people they know. Part of this is because they form schemas for faces that they know, and can not put new faces into the schema. But another part of this could be that they form attachments to people they know. Because for babies this attachment is a survival impulse. They attach themselves to people, normally their parents, who they are comfortable around and familiar with.

The final part of this chapter that I'm going to talk about is the three types of parenting. The three types of parenting are Authoritarian, Permissive, and Authoritative. The authoritarian are the kind of parents that sets strict rules and expects obedience. The permissive are the parents that gives into their childs desires, they make few demands and use very little punishment. The authoritative are the parents that use a little bit of both, they set rules and enforce them but they explain the reasons behind the rules.

Current Event #2

So this whole heritability thing is kind of kicking my butt. I mean I get that is has to do with my genes and everything. But the activities we had to do really confused me more then helped me. But I'll talk about the part that I do get. The whole sharing genes part, and how we should be more like our siblings then our parents. Well for me this is kind of true, but then again not really. Or at least not that I can see.

I have one younger brother, and to tell you the truth I think we are sometimes complete opposites. I guess maybe I think this because of the whole he is a boy and I'm a girl thing. But if I really look at it I still don't see how we are alike. We really don't look that much alike, we have certain features that are the same but not many. And are personalities are pretty opposite. My brother is very quite around new people, me not so much.

So I guess this is really the only part that I'm getting about the whole heritability thing. I guess I'll just have look at it a little more and see if I can figure it out.

Chapter 4 - Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity

The part of this chapter that I really found interesting was the whole twin studies part of it. One this was the whole difference between identical and fraternal twins. I always kind of knew the difference, but this chapter really helped me understand it completely. I knew that identical twins developed from the same egg, but I guess I never really looked into fraternal twins more.

Another part of this chapter was heritability. This part of the chapter kind of confused me. I mean I get parts of it, like that it has to do with your genes and personal traits. But really other then that I'm pretty much at a lose.

Overall I liked this chapter. I think it really made me look at the world around me and how it effects me. How the people around me help shape to the person I am. But also how my genes and traits that I get from my parents also make me the person I am.

Do Our Parents Matter?

For an assignment this chapter we had to discuss if our parents matter. I guess this is one of those things that as a teenager you kinda over look. But now that I've really looked at it. Yes our parents do matter. They matter a lot, they help make you into the person you are. The way they raise you, transfers into the way you live your life. Then how you will raise your own children someday. They help you though tough times you go though, and are there for all the good times too. Granted sometimes they can be the cause of the bad times, but they are always there.

If our parents raised us any other way, we wouldn't be the people we are today. So I pose a question, What do you think it would be like having either different parents or just being raised differently?

Current Event #1

So I thought since this whole chapter was about dreams I would post about one of the only dreams I can remember lately. I never really remembered my dreams before we started this sleep study. But now I'm slowly starting to remember certain dreams.

Well I guess I have to tell you about my dream, so here it goes. I was just driving, thats what really struck me as odd, because I've never had a dream where I was just driving. But as the dream went on it turned out that I was heading somewhere and as I was driving I missed my turn or exit. Don't really rememeber what it was, but I missed it. And I couldn't just turn around and go back, but something wasn't letting me. This whole dream seemed kinda weird to me. So I looked up what driving could mean. This is exactly what it said, Highly personal symbol related to the self: The "direction we are headed" in life. And that maybe I'm taking some wrong directions, or wrong choices.

And this really kinda makes sense to me, because I've been thinking alot about some decisions I've made lately. I've been having problems with a friend, not just a friend a best friend. And I'm having a hard time dealing with what is happening. So maybe this dream is a sign, that the decisions I'm making are wrong, or maybe they are right and me wanting to go back was what was wrong. But then again it could really mean nothing, and I'm just overthinking everything.

IAT - Implicit Association Test

When I got done taking my IAT test, I was really kinda surprised with what my results were. I took the test about gender. It was weather you think a mans place is in the work force and if a womens place is in the home. Before I took it I was pretty sure that I would be pretty equal about both. But when I got done, it told me that I thought the women should be more in the home and a mans in the work force.

This really confused me, because both of my parents work full time jobs. I mean my mom works with the medical records for Aspirus, and my dad works for County Materials. So with both of them being successful in their jobs, and most of the time liking what they do. (I mean you can't always love your job.) But I figured that that little fact might play into my ideas a little bit. But I guess my subconsious mind had a different idea.

Chapter 3 - Consciousness and The Two-Track Mind

This chapter taught me all about dreams. Like that dreams are actually helpful to us. Because if we didn't dream we may just go crazy. And I personally really don't want to go crazy!! Dreams help us do things like satisfy our needs, file away information and memories, and to make sense of neural static.

Another thing this chapter was about was sleep. And how if the average person would just increase the amount of sleep they got each night by one hour. That you would feel better and not have to get so much sleep on the weekends to try and catch up. Then the little table they put in, that had all the questions about how you sleep. And if you answered true for three or more of them, it said you probably not getting enough sleep. Well I pretty much could have told you that one. I know I'm not getting enough sleep. But I think maybe this whole chapter really put into perspective what not sleeping could do to me.

I really thought this chapter as whole was good. It taught me a little bit more about why my sleeping habits aren't to good. And now I think maybe I'll have to start working changing how much sleep I get every night. I need to have sleep as a higher point on my priorities list.

Chapter 2 - Biology of The Mind

Chapter two was all about the brain and how it works. I found it really cool to learn that when you do something, its not just one part of your brain working. It's really several parts all working together just to do a small thing. You may not even know a certain part of your brain is helping with something. And how your whole body is connected with neurons, and those neurons control almost everything you do. They transmit different signals and reactions between them.

The second thing that found I really interesting was the way that scientists can do a whole bunch of things with electrodes in the brain. They can implant an electrode into a rats brain, in its reward center. And with it implanted in that certain part of the brain, the rat would walk across an electrified grid. Not carrying about the shocks it was getting, because it just wanted to get to the stimulation pedal. So it could press the pedal and send an electrical impulse to the reward center of its brain.

Lastly the book talked about how a persons dominate hand could be inherited. And how in one study 150 babies were observed during the first two days of life. Two-thirds of them laid with their heads facing the right. And when they came back 5 months later those same two-thirds would reach for something with their right hand. And the ones that laid with their to the left reached for things with their left hand now. I found it interesting that they think that could be related to which hand is more dominate for a person. And how they think that either the persons genes or prenatal factors influence handedness.

The Man with Two Brains

I really liked The Man with Two Brains. There are parts about it I think would be really cool. Like being able to draw two different pictures at the same time. Because with each part brain seeing different things, maybe you could get things done twice as fast. But then again maybe you wouldn't be able to.

But with the good parts come the bad. I mean not having the two parts of you brain connected doesn't sound so fun in some ways to. The part where they were showing him different things on each side of the screen. And what he saw on ones side he could say right away, but what he saw on the other side it took him a long time to figure out what it was.

I also think that this whole process is really going to help. I mean really the only way to learn about something is to do it. So we had to figure out what the brain would do if it wasn't connected. And its really quite a discovery, I mean he can still pretty much the same as he was before. But now he just has an extra brain!

The Brain and Behavior

My favorite activities from Serendip was definatly the blind spot ones. When I did those I learned that we have a much bigger blind spot then I ever thought we did. I mean I knew we had blind spots, after all that was a big thing is drivers ed. But doing those activities it really showed how much of a blind spot we have.

Nothing other then how big our blind spot is really surprised me. Those were the only ones that I really truely understood. I didn't really get the other ones. Although there was one about which color is square A and was it the same as square B. Those ones kinda made me think alittle bit. Cause I thought they were different until I went and moved one of them and they were both the same.

I don't really know how I can apply any thing about the blind spot or colored squares to my daily life. But you never know, things always change and they might help at some point.

I think that both of them really could change the way we look at the world. Cause with the blind spot you are always losing things in that spot. But with the squares that could really change our world, because you think two things are different colors but then you put them together and they are really the same.

I'm pretty sure I will look at the brain differently now. I mean it can always play tricks on you. You might never really know everything that is going on around you, because you might never be seeing everything.