Psycho Discussion Board

Question: Some people believed that "all you are" is determined by the types and amount of neurotransmitters that ooze through your synaptic gaps. Do you think that all of your thoughts, hopes, dreams and aspirations are results of physiological processes; your love, your hate, anger and memories are only at the synaptic level? Why or why not?

My answer: Nope, I would never think that all my thoughts and everything that goes in between are results of physiological processes or only at the synaptic level and neither are they determined by the types and amount of neurotransmitters that ooze through my synaptic gaps. I would go back to Chapter 1 and think about modern psychology's seven major perspectives such as psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive among others. While I do acknowledge the fact that neurotransmitters could enhance my thoughts, dreams, hopes and aspirations, Ido think these neurotransmitters are only temporary. As for my memories being only at the synaptic level, I don't think so. As opposed to neurotransmitters that come and go, my memories have a better storage area far from my synaptic gaps. To quote Dory from Finding Nemo: "I suffer from short term memory loss. It runs in my family. At least I think it does. Where are they?"
Discussion board question number 2 is the more intriguing to me so let me go around the bush of my choice. I never heard about Anais Nin saying "We don't see the world as it is but as we are" before. About.com says that Anais Nin was a writer known for her published diaries. Like Anne Frank? Not really, she was born to Spanish-Cuban parents in France. Her name reminds me of Anais Anais which I pronounce as a neigh, a neigh, that characteristic high pitch sound uttered by a horse. The perfume, course! Was Anais Nin trying to tell her readers that they don't get it?

"Look guys, it's not what you think it is!"

I don't get it, either!

I could actually relate more with the Johari Window. Those windows tell a lot: part of it tells that what you see is what it is; what you didn't see; what nobody saw and who knows what nobody would ever see.



Thanks to cross-eyed kittens with lazy eyes, David Hubel and and Torsten Wiesel were able to study the effects of visual deprivation during the critical period for development of vision. Like half of the class who would be devastated to lose their vision, my sense of vision is the most important and would do everything to save it.

As for illusions, I understand illusions to be false perceptions. Like I have illusions of being so smart, then I talk smart when in reality, I really don't know what I am talking about
A Flashbulb memory:
 just got home from work and it was 9 PM in Whereimfrom, a country in Southeast Asia. The TV was blaring from some commercial and suddenly there was this breaking news alert. The TV showed footages of a burning building and then a plane come into the picture from out of nowhere and flies right into the other building standing close to the burning building. The TV footage was aired over and over on TV for the next days and weeks and I watched everytime waiting for the plane to come out of nowhere and hitting the second building.
Does childhood matter?
No, childhood should not matter more than adulthood or any other human development stages. Everyone must grow up, including politicians.

Children are resilient and can often overcome some problems related to physical abuse, neglect, separation from parents, mentally ill parents and inadequate parenting. When should society intervene to protect children?
Societal intervention should be the last resort to the protection of children. It cost so much taxpayers' money to take care of anybody's child. Minors who have become resilient and were able to overcome problems related to parental neglect or inadequate parenting should probably be offered a chance to be emancipated. It's the parents who never grew up who needs societal intervention such as correctional facilities.


Should we all speak up and object when we see parents verbally abusing their children in supermarkets, restaurants, or parks? What if they are physically abusive?
I would rather not say anything if I hear an adult who is probably the parent using adult language to a child. The cussing and swearing may be the regular language in the household. If the child uses in school the profanities he or she learned at home, that's probably the time the teacher or any adult within hearing distance should speak up. If I see an adult who is probably the parent, smacking a child in a supermarket, I'll look the other way. But if I see an adult, who is probably the parent, strangling a child in a supermarket, I would definitely call the police.

The three words that describe my personalities are:

• Agreeable
• Serious
• Self-assured

My parents who both have ancestors from China and believed in Chinese Astrology thought that I should be cheerful, perceptive and talented because I was born in the year of the horse. My friends who do not know much about Chinese Astrology think I may have been born in the year of the donkey instead. My friends are not as agreeable as a I am but they are still my friends. I agree to those who say global warming is a hoax.

Seriously, I also agree with Karen Horney (pronounced HORN-eye) disagreeing with Freud on penis envy.

Ten years ago I may have been less of being an agreeable, serious and self-assured person. Ten years from now I am sure I would still be myself.
If a learner died during the course of the Milgram Obedience Study, Milgram who is the designer of the study should recieve the longest sentence. The experimenter who conducted the study who is more of an accessory to the death of the learner could recieve a lesser sentence and the teacher who was instructed to give the shock that cause the death of the learner should be acquitted.

If I was a participant in the study, I might have been like everyone who are instructed to play the role of a teacher giving shocks as far as the experimenter tells me to go. As was shown in the video, the participant playing the role of a teacher was being instructed by the experimenter to continue giving shocks. As a participant, I would trust the experimenter and would have the understanding that the environment is simulated since I know that I am taking part in experiment. I would plead my innocence to the death of the learner I happen to shock to death. In the first place, I was deceived into taking part of the study having been told that the study is a learning and memory study.

Replicating Adolf Eichmann's behavior based on his denying responsibility in the Holocaust in the Milgram obedience study is, to me, rather farcical and sick. The reliability as well as the validity of the study is very questionable. Eichmann was a top henchman of Hitler and I don't see any correlation of his denying responsibility in the Holocaust to any kind of obedience that Milgram was trying to replicate. I can't imagine how deceived I would feel if I was a participant to the Milgram study and came out obediently capable of shocking a learner to death and would learn a year later that Adolf Eichmann was executed for his war crimes in Israel.

Learning about the Milgram Obedience Study however does not change my view about Social Psychology. Another experiment presented in the video was the experiment on leadership styles by Kurt Lewin. Some of Kurt Lewin's concepts were used in some community organizing models, a personal favorite was the Force Field Analysis. The concept was used to identify the driving and restraining forces in a community. I do come from a collectivistic culture.
After reading through articles and watching videos about polygraph testing, I decided I could not possibly beat a polygraph test by lying. The polygraph seems to me a very scientific device relying on physiological and biological responses of the body like respiration rates, heart rates and electro dermal changes. Given the chance, I would however take part in an experiment designed to prove that anyone can successfully beat a polygraph test by lying. I would love to do an experiment to see if I could beat a polygraph test by admitting to a crime I did not commit.

WikiHow.com has some interesting recommendations on how to beat a polygraph test.

1. Learn about polygraphs
2. Conceal your knowledge about polygraphs
3. Take a high quality antiperspirant and put it in your fingers and palm the night before and repeat the day you are taking the polygraph testing.

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 answers the question whether a polygraph testing as a requirement for employment is a good idea. The EPPA prohibits private employers from using a lie detector tests either for employment screening or during the course of employment. I would not mind however being subjected to polygraph testing if I want to work with the Department of Homeland Securities or National Security Agency. I am sure I could pass a polygraph test.

If I were to be born again, or reincarnated, I would choose to be born in Germany where I would be an intersex individual. I find being born straight in my current life very restricting. There would be things I could easily do if I was gender free. As a child, I develop the aversion to pink that I opted for rainbow colors early on. I never bought the idea that women are from Venus and that men are from Mars. To me, it takes someone from Uranus to come up with such an absurd idea.

As to who has it easier, society with all the myth that come with gender and sexuality does not make things easier for either men or women. Not every woman could be a goddess of love, beauty, sex or fertility and neither every man should be equated to any Roman god of war. Emerging laws and policies however like the legalization of same-sex marriages in some states and the don't ask don't tell policy are making things easier for both sexes.