Chapter 15 First Impression

If I needed therapy, I think humanistic would be most effective, followed by cognitive, behavioral, and finally, psychodynamic. I think that humanistic therapy would be most effective for me because a lot of the time, when someone tells me I’m doing something wrong, even if it’s right, if there’s a doubt in my mind that I could be doing it wrong, then I will believe that I’m doing it wrong. I think that by increasing self awareness and by learning to trust myself, that could really help me out. Cognitive therapy would be the second most effective because it even states that self-blaming is one of the things that feeds depression. While I’m not depressed, I do tend to self blame a decent amount because I tend to think that I could have done something better. Cognitive therapy would allow me to evaluate myself in certain situations and see that maybe I could have done something better, but maybe I couldn’t have. Behavioral therapy would be third most effective for me because I somewhat get where the therapists are coming from when they say that the problem behaviors are the problem, but I do not completely agree with that. Yes, sometimes the problem behaviors in certain situation are the problem, but I do not think that they are the only problem, and I also like to believe that self-awareness can fix some problems. Finally, psychodynamic therapy would be the least effective because I don’t really agree with comparing different relationships to try to determine what the problem is. While comparing relationships can indeed determine some problems, I do not think that these relationships should be compared because they are not built equally, nor are the actively participated in equally.

Media Production

Getting recommendations from someone is not something we put a lot of thought into. You’re looking for a suggestion to see if anyone else knows someone or something that could help to solve some kind of problem you have. Some people value others’ suggestions, and some people wave them aside. However, it is now being tested that a machine may give better suggestions than other people. New research indicates that machines do indeed give better recommendations in a field that is usually very human-like area, humor.

Participants in this study were given a series of jokes and asked to rate them on a scale from -10 to 10, with -10 being the least funny and 10 being the most funny. However, each experiment in this overall study had a slight difference in how the assessment was made as well as what additional questions were asked. For example, one of the experiments allowed the participants to know whether the recommendations they were being given were human or machine, while a different study told the participants the opposite source of where the joke truly came from. (Ex. If the joke came from a machine, the participants were told it came from a human and vice versa)

Participants from this study were selected from two different locations: the Museum of Science and Industry or Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly selected, but some of the participants responses were dropped due to various reasons including: incomplete responses, failure to comply with instructions, failure to pass manipulation check, or giving the same rating to every joke. In total, there were about 3,750 participants recruited to partake in the study, but only 3,647 of the responses were recorded.

These results should have the ability to be applied to the general public because the participants were selected from the general public. I do not think that these results should be specified to only those from the museum or from the Turk because the people there are no different from the everyday person.

The results of all of the studies were quite interesting. First, it was determined that computer algorithms can generate better recommendations than actual people. This was based off of personal preference of the subjects. Second, the computer generated recommendations can be created from very little information. In the study, the computers that were generating the recommendations did not have any personal information about the person, beyond the ratings which they gave to the jokes. Finally, it was concluded that people preferred human recommendations over machine generated ones, despite the accuracy of the machines being higher. People seem to value human recommendations higher, which influences their opinion of the recommendation. This goes to show that even though it may not be as accurate as a machine, there could still be some value to human recommendations.

Reflection

As I went through the article and wrote my summary of it, I decided to include some of the 5 critical questions, but not all of them. I thought it would be important to include the first two questions about selecting participants and operationalizing values because I thought that it would be useful information the reader should know. However, because the groups chosen were already the groups that would be partaking in the study, there was nothing to write about how the individuals were separated into groups. I also decided to not include whether or not the study allows for causal claims, because I think that based off of the information given, that answer can be figured out by the reader. Finally, I did include the ability of the study to generalize to the public. I think that this is important because it was not included in the study, but it is important because machine recommendations are already working their way into the life of millions of people, so I thought that it was important to point out.

Compared to the article, I think that my summary shares the most prevalent of the 5 critical questions. Both my summary and the article talk about how the study operationalized the values for the subjects, but that was the only question that was included in both. I decided to also share how the study could be generalized to the right population as well as how the participants were selected because I thought it was important in the study. Neither my summary or the article talked about how the participants were split into groups or if the study allowed for causal claims. I think this was a good move because the reader can determine from the information given the answer to both of those questions.

The pop culture article was written with what seemed to be the reader in mind. It had a small intro that allowed for a smooth transition between the topic of the research and the research itself. The scholarly article seemed to be written with the research in mind, and the reader secondary. It focused on the research very thoroughly and was not written to be read for entertainment. My summary was more like the pop culture article I think. I think I wrote my summary to tell the reader about the study, but also to be a little entertaining. It was more a strict summary of the research so that the reader could read my summary, and know what the study was about and the results of it. Three different approaches for the same study, but each with their own unique way of conveying the information across for different purposes.

Sources:

“Why Ask a Machine for a Recommendation?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, http://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/choice-matters/201905/why-ask-machine-recommendation.

Yeomans, M., Shah, A., Mullainathan, S., & Kleinberg, J. (2019). Making sense of recommendations. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.2118

Chapter 14 First Impression

I thought this simulation was very cool to be a part of. It was interesting to be taken through a day in the life of a schizophrenic, and it helped to show the things that are not normally depicted by the media. Without much knowledge or background with schizophrenia, this video really helped to show someone what a schizophrenic could experience in a typical day. I think that the voices heard played a key role in how I personally felt in the simulation, and the continuous conflict did not make focusing easy. The hallucinations were quite interesting to see and would not settle well with me if I was experiencing them.

In the media, schizophrenics are typically depicted as very insane or crazy. They are shown as people with no control of themselves or the actions they take, and are spoken of as if they are an alien. They are treated as someone completely different and isolated from the real world. This is not how it should be. While schizophrenics do experience things that a “normal” person wouldn’t, this does not make them insane or crazy. Yes, the hallucinations they experience and the voices they hear are typically associated with the mentally insane, but the life we followed in the video does not seem insane. It was certainly different, and the person acted differently than a “normal” person would have, but I think that the media takes things too far with people who have mental conditions, and pushes the boundaries with how they show them.

Chapter 13 First Impression

For the first personality test, I do not think it was very accurate. The results it gave me only seemed partially true for me, but then again maybe I don’t even have a good perception of myself. Two of the results it gave me were not what I would have expected, while the other two were what I expected, but not necessarily to the extent in which I thought.

The second personality test seemed farther off from the first! The first two sentences of the second test do not describe me at all, in my opinion. However, the rest of the text did do a fairly good job of describing how I would act in certain situations, what ethics I uphold, as well as what my methods are for figuring things out.

The third personality test I agree with the most. This one I think accurately described the big five factors as well as placed the correct scoring with them all. However, because I think this one is most accurate, it may actually be the least accurate. I know that since I’m me, I should be able to tell what my big factor scores are, but sometimes people just don’t realize how much of something they are.

The fourth personality test, while my favorite because it was the shortest, I do not think describes personality. Everything told to me in the fourth personality test described my current feelings in my current situation. I don’t think that what I’m feeling right now is going to be my personality. I think that it just tells me what my personality is in this very moment, not what it is overall.

Chapter 9 First Impression

Governor Miller made quite a bold statement with his idea of the Mozart effect and distributing a cassette or CD of classical music to the parents of each new born child. I personally do not believe in the Mozart effect, and think that this was a foolish idea to do this.

First, this idea that listening to Mozart will increase intelligence is only a theory. This just means it is an educated guess that is used to attempt to explain something. While it would be interesting to explore this theory some more and actually test it, I don’t think that a personal belief of this theory justifies spending $105,000 to do it. Additionally, the money spent was spent based on the idea that he theory holds true. If the money was spent to experiment if the theory was true or not, I think then it could be justified some more, but the fact that the governor just spent the money because he thought it would work is not a good decision.

Also, who is to say that the parents will even play the music in the household to even try to increase the intelligence of their child? There is no reinforcement to ensure that the music will be played. In addition, how long is the music to be played for? Is there a certain amount of time that states the music should be played for x minutes during a certain time of the day? Is it better to play the music while the child is asleep or awake? Up to what age should the music be played? Does the theory explain why it only contributes to the intelligence of young children? With all of these questions unanswered, I think spending $105,000 to give out free Mozart was not the best idea.

Chapter 11 First Impression

So I’ve never really gotten too stressed about things. Tests and quizzes don’t stress me out. Job interviews don’t stress me out. Don’t ask me why, because I have no clue why these things don’t stress me out, but they just don’t. For the occasional event I do get stressed about, I take some very thorough steps to ensure I can try to minimize the stress as much as possible.

My first step in minimizing my stress is to ensure that my daily routine does not change significantly. I’ve tried to change it up before when I’ve gotten stressed, but that just made me more stressed about the entire situation. I will wake up at the same time, eat breakfast at the same time, workout at the same time, and do my homework at the same time I would on any other day. The next step I take in minimizing stress is to ensure that I get a good couple nights of rest. Sleep deprivation is something that I’ve noticed does not treat me well if I am stressed out. Making sure I get enough sleep allows me to still feel good when I wake up and go to the gym, and it helps keep my stress in check. One thing that I do like to change up is that I will take somewhere between 5-10 minutes of my day to meditate. A lot of people may laugh at this, or joke around about it, but it has really worked for me in the past and still does. It clears my mind, relaxes all of my muscles, and just leaves me feeling good afterward. I think these things help me keep my stress levels low, and keep me going through the stress.

I’m not really sure of any other stress-reducing techniques I could incorporate into this routine. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know because I would like to try new things as well.

Chapter 10 First Impression

I do not think that this criteria is appropriate to determine whether some is eating healthy or has a mental disorder. First and foremost, the criteria states that it does not have a set standard for what is considered obsessive. It states that individual beliefs may vary and I think that is the biggest problem. If you can’t set a standard for which to compare how people are acting, how is someone to diagnose this mental illness? I think this is the problem with a lot of mental illnesses and even some addictions. There is not a clear universal standard for which to say whether or not someone is addicted or obsessive about something to the extent that it can be considered an illness.

Another non-specific qualification in this criteria is when the article states that violation of dietary restrictions set by one self can cause exaggerated fear of disease. First, there is not a standard for what dietary restrictions must be met in order to be considered eating healthy or obsessive. Also, there is not a baseline for exaggeration. What some people may see as exaggerated, others may see as normal. I understand that it is going to be difficult to set standards for these things when each individual is different, and hoping to achieve something different by eating healthy, but this lack of standards makes it difficult to determine whether someone is just eating healthy of is obsessive about it. If there was some way to set standards for things like healthy eating vs obsessive healthy eating, and other mental disorders, I think that would be the best thing to try to do.

Chapter 3 First Impression

I think my current sleep habits are actually quite good. I like to go to the gym a lot, and if I don’t get enough sleep, I don’t feel the best when I workout. This feeling forces me to get enough sleep because otherwise I would have a really bad workout. I sleep anywhere from 7-9 hours a night, usually on the higher end of that range. I don’t like to sleep in so I usually wake up around 7 or 8 in the morning and get out of bed shortly after. Sleep, in my opinion, is one thing that many students think they can skip over because it’s not as important as they think, but it really does make a big difference in almost every aspect of one’s life.

I think a realistic amount of sleep for college students is the 7-9 hour range. The problem with a lot of college students, and the reason they don’t sleep enough is because of laziness. Many college students do not plan out when to do their homework well so they leave it till the last minute and cram it all in one night. I think one major way to improve these sleeping habits is to try to go to bed at the same time every night. This will hopefully induce a habit of when your body begins to shut down for the night. Another big thing that could help with better sleep habits is time management. If college students would manage their time better, then they wouldn’t need to cram for tests or do an entire project the day before it is due.

Chapter 8 First Impression

I think that some memories are much stronger than others because of the frequency of them. Everyday things such as getting into a car or waking up from sleep seem so ordinary, so we just disregard them as simple things that will continue to happen as long as we live. If something strange were to happen to one of these ordinary events though, it would suddenly have a lasting impact. For example, if you wake up one day and your bed is covered in blood, that memory will be stronger and more vivid than the day before when you woke up and everything was normal. Events like 9/11 are very rare occurrences, so when they do happen it becomes a very strong memory. Another good example is family deaths. Only one family member can pass away once, so when it happens it becomes a prominent memory.

I think the only way to study how accurate these memories are would be to interview people who have remembered an important event. The problem with this is, though, it would be very difficult to compare the memories to what actually happened. Take 9/11 for example. Many people say they remember exactly where they were and what they were doing at the time they heard of it. However, if that person was alone at the time of 9/11, how would you confirm that they were doing what they said they were? There’s nobody to validate what the person said is true. I think it would be an interesting thing to do, but a lot of problems would come up while trying to verify a person’s memory.