How would I start my first blog post? I guess hello will have to do. Hello, my name is Allyson and I am taking the Psychology 105 course. I decided to take this class because I have always been interested in the way the human mind works and the different processes that take place. I like asking the ‘why’,’if’ and ‘how’ questions which psychology touches on quite a bit. Although I am very intrigued by all of this, I do not have any background in the subject area. I do read different articles about studies conducted by psychologists but that does not really classify as background.
When I hear the word psychology, I think of a broad scientific area of study that revolves around the human mind. It is so hard to pinpoint a specific thought about the word but I can imagine high school counselors and therapists as this is the first picture to pop into my mind.
When looking at the course schedule, three topics of study stuck out to me. First, moral development because I have always been interested in when people start developing a sense of right and wrong. Second, classical conditioning because I have read books and different articles about the conditioning of the brain and I want to expand my knowledge on the subject. Lastly, stress because I have experienced different types of stress. The good motivating stress and the type of stress that makes you want to curl up into a ball a cry. I want to understand what our bodies go through and why we respond to stress the way we do. Although I am intrigued by many of the topics of discussion provided in the syllabus, there are a few that I am not interested in. First, ‘what is addiction’ because it is not very prevalent in my life so it will be harder to connect personally to the information. Second, ‘chemicals and consciousness’ because the information just sounds like it will be dry and unexciting. Lastly, ‘the scientific method’ because I have learned this process in every science class I have ever taken since middle school and I am over it. By the end of this semester, after reading, studying, and sitting in class for three days a week, I would like to know the answer to one question. How can the human brain think through situations so quickly without ever experiencing that problem before?
Ally'sCollegeBlog 
Welcome to the course Allyson! The processing power of the human brain is pretty incredible, and we will talk some about how it goes about sorting through information and coming to decisions. This will come up several times over the course of the semester, but perhaps most when we talk about stress. Also be on the lookout for the blog prompts for Chapter 10, where there is one related to how the brain runs simulations of possible outcomes and how that affects our emotions.
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