LInks to Pictures:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Structural-Iceberg.svg/280px-Structural-Iceberg.svg.png
http://www.tamilnation.org/images/art/penn/a22.JPG
http://www.thepsychfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/defensemechanismsdn.jpg
http://fac.hsu.edu/langlet/lectures/dev/Erikson/Erikson8.gif
http://modoathii.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/zi070815.gif
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Karen_Horney_1938.jpg
http://staff.gc.maricopa.edu/~jpell/blackboard/MASLOW.JPG
http://www.kaboodle.com/hi/img/2/0/0/28/4/AAAAAhdeyzoAAAAAAChL4A.jpg
http://c.myspace.com/Groups/00000/96/08/208069_m.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HXXM0JGCL._AA240_.jpg
Information for Context Sources, as well as helpful links:::
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9041087/Karen-Horney
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm
Approaches to Psychology Textbook -- William E. Glassman and Marilyn Hadad
http://www.freudfile.org/
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Entry #11: Bonus – Reflection on Writing the Psychology Blogs:
To me, these psychology blogs had two benefits: First, it helped me learn more about the actual concepts – people can listen to lectures all day long everyday and the information still won’t sink in until they can reiterate it and apply it to their own lives. One of the things that I love about psychology is that it is extremely important in my everyday life and that I can apply it in my interactions. The other way that I benefited from this blog assignment is that because it asked for personal experiences and examples, not only did I have to relate it to myself, hence making it more likely that I will remember it, but also it helped me begin self reflection. I have always been a “thinker” – I like to contemplate decisions before I make them, and I always think about the outcomes of things. But this made me think in a different way – it made me contemplate how I fit into all of these theories. The one that I think I benefited from the most was the last one, the self case study. I think this because this once gave me more freedom to explore my past and present without constraints of a theory, and it helped me think about my behavior and sources of motivation as a whole instead of as within each theorist’s ideas. This blog was a lot of work – all in all, I wrote almost 9,000 words! But I definitely see the benefits of this work, and for that I am glad.
Entry #10 – A self case study:
One of the most useful ways of examining different aspects of psychology is through the use of case studies. A case study is a detailed description of a single individual. A good case study “captures the essence” of a particular individual’s behavior. The value of this research method is that it provides good contextual detail for the behavior of the individual. Case studies originally rose out of medical practice, where developing a clear picture of a person’s medical history would help reach a correct diagnosis. Many basic advances have come from the use of case studies, particularly in the area of brain function. However, there are some limitations to case studies. One important one is representative ness – a case study is a sample of one and so a researcher must be careful not to generalize about general populations. However, in many cases important aspects of a case may in fact be applicable to a broader group.
A self case study is taking yourself as a case study – or in other words writing a psychological autobiography, which is a reflection on who you are and where you are going in the context of psychology. To do my psychological case study, I am going break it up by answering a series of questions that will together form my self case study.
Who are you?
Wow – this is a question that I think is hard for ANYONE to answer. (In all honesty, I’m not sure why I set myself up to attempt to answer this one!) I think the best way for me to describe who I am is in a series of words and phrases: typical teenager, inquisitive, Jewish culturally but not religiously, questioning, curious, easily captivated, likes to try new things, American living in India, an optimist in life but a pessimist in love, in love, appreciative of the little things, open, interested. In my mind, I think my superego is often dominating the conflict, although often in situations, especially since I have become a teenager, my id seems to have more power, but my ego also maintains my good grades and good relations with my family, friends and significant other (at least for the most part).
What incidents seem especially important in shaping who you are?
There are many incidents that seem important to me in shaping who I am – the first, I think, is my relationship with my sister. While we were very close from the time we were little babies until I was about 11, we grew apart – probably because of our age difference. But when I turned 14 we became so much closer, and by the time I left for India right before I turned 16, she was one of my best friends. While I used to feel extremely inadequate in her shadow, I have learned that we are different people with different ambitions and personalities and that while we may fight for some of the same things, such as our parents attention, there is no need to. I used to try to reflect her actions, but after being away from her I realize that what she did was open me up to new things and help me gain independence, once I came to terms with the fact that I am not supposed to be like her in every sense. Another extremely important incident that has shaped who I am is coming to India – being thrown into a situation where you don’t know anyone and you are expected to live with all these people from different cultures for a year, and work with them every day, with no safety net is a scary but life changing thing. I have changed my views on a lot of things and become much more open to experimenting with things in life – I have chosen to try to live life to the fullest, although my studies are still a top priority.
Another extremely important event in my life that has changed the way that I feel about things and they way I think about things, as well as I behave is when I found out that my mother has Huntington’s disease. It’s a genetic disease that both my sister and I tested negative for, but ever since my more has been diagnosed the dynamics of the relationship have changed – I take care of her instead of the other way around. It’s been as if I have grown up without a mother from the time I was around 10 years and her disease has only gotten worse and worse. At first it was extremely hard for me to cope – I thought that if I ignored it or neglected it it would just disappear – it took me about two years from the time I found out to tell all of my close friends. But I have definitely developed as a person since then and I am comfortable talking about it and telling new people --- it’s a part of my life and if they aren’t going to accept it, that’s their problem. I try to help people understand how it has changed me – it made me grow up faster, confront my inner strength, and mature differently. I think that it follows those sayings: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. While this disease may be killing my mother, I am not going to let it kill me – I will bend my life to this disease, but in no way will I compromise my life for it. It has added responsibility and different dynamics within my family, but once you learn how to deal with it and you come to terms with it, I think that it has only made me a better person.
What is your heart’s longing?
I have never wanted anything more than to be happy. I don’t care if am successful or fulfill my parents expectations of me, because I have come to find that if you are happy, the people who truly care about you will support you because everyone knows that all we can ask for from life is happiness.
Describe your spiritual life and development.
I grew up in a very Jewish household – my mom is a Rabbi! As I grew up a big part of my life was the Jewish community, although I have never completely shared their beliefs in many respects, I think that the morals that come with the religion are respectful and good. The Jewish lifestyle was always important to me but since coming to India, where I have pretty much had to sacrifice that lifestyle. But, since coming here I have been thinking more and more about organized religion and realizing all of it’s negative aspects, and I have grown to think about and question the existence of god more. If I had to describe my personal religious status, I would call myself a Agnostic Culturally Jewish Theoretically Quaker because while I have not decided about the existence of god, I am very strongly culturally Jewish but as a form of worship I like the Quaker style, as well as what they stand for. My school in the states is a Quaker school and so I have a lot of interaction with Quakerism and worship in the Quaker way once a week with the rest of the school.
One of the most useful ways of examining different aspects of psychology is through the use of case studies. A case study is a detailed description of a single individual. A good case study “captures the essence” of a particular individual’s behavior. The value of this research method is that it provides good contextual detail for the behavior of the individual. Case studies originally rose out of medical practice, where developing a clear picture of a person’s medical history would help reach a correct diagnosis. Many basic advances have come from the use of case studies, particularly in the area of brain function. However, there are some limitations to case studies. One important one is representative ness – a case study is a sample of one and so a researcher must be careful not to generalize about general populations. However, in many cases important aspects of a case may in fact be applicable to a broader group.
A self case study is taking yourself as a case study – or in other words writing a psychological autobiography, which is a reflection on who you are and where you are going in the context of psychology. To do my psychological case study, I am going break it up by answering a series of questions that will together form my self case study.
Who are you?
Wow – this is a question that I think is hard for ANYONE to answer. (In all honesty, I’m not sure why I set myself up to attempt to answer this one!) I think the best way for me to describe who I am is in a series of words and phrases: typical teenager, inquisitive, Jewish culturally but not religiously, questioning, curious, easily captivated, likes to try new things, American living in India, an optimist in life but a pessimist in love, in love, appreciative of the little things, open, interested. In my mind, I think my superego is often dominating the conflict, although often in situations, especially since I have become a teenager, my id seems to have more power, but my ego also maintains my good grades and good relations with my family, friends and significant other (at least for the most part).
What incidents seem especially important in shaping who you are?
There are many incidents that seem important to me in shaping who I am – the first, I think, is my relationship with my sister. While we were very close from the time we were little babies until I was about 11, we grew apart – probably because of our age difference. But when I turned 14 we became so much closer, and by the time I left for India right before I turned 16, she was one of my best friends. While I used to feel extremely inadequate in her shadow, I have learned that we are different people with different ambitions and personalities and that while we may fight for some of the same things, such as our parents attention, there is no need to. I used to try to reflect her actions, but after being away from her I realize that what she did was open me up to new things and help me gain independence, once I came to terms with the fact that I am not supposed to be like her in every sense. Another extremely important incident that has shaped who I am is coming to India – being thrown into a situation where you don’t know anyone and you are expected to live with all these people from different cultures for a year, and work with them every day, with no safety net is a scary but life changing thing. I have changed my views on a lot of things and become much more open to experimenting with things in life – I have chosen to try to live life to the fullest, although my studies are still a top priority.
Another extremely important event in my life that has changed the way that I feel about things and they way I think about things, as well as I behave is when I found out that my mother has Huntington’s disease. It’s a genetic disease that both my sister and I tested negative for, but ever since my more has been diagnosed the dynamics of the relationship have changed – I take care of her instead of the other way around. It’s been as if I have grown up without a mother from the time I was around 10 years and her disease has only gotten worse and worse. At first it was extremely hard for me to cope – I thought that if I ignored it or neglected it it would just disappear – it took me about two years from the time I found out to tell all of my close friends. But I have definitely developed as a person since then and I am comfortable talking about it and telling new people --- it’s a part of my life and if they aren’t going to accept it, that’s their problem. I try to help people understand how it has changed me – it made me grow up faster, confront my inner strength, and mature differently. I think that it follows those sayings: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. While this disease may be killing my mother, I am not going to let it kill me – I will bend my life to this disease, but in no way will I compromise my life for it. It has added responsibility and different dynamics within my family, but once you learn how to deal with it and you come to terms with it, I think that it has only made me a better person.
What is your heart’s longing?
I have never wanted anything more than to be happy. I don’t care if am successful or fulfill my parents expectations of me, because I have come to find that if you are happy, the people who truly care about you will support you because everyone knows that all we can ask for from life is happiness.
Describe your spiritual life and development.
I grew up in a very Jewish household – my mom is a Rabbi! As I grew up a big part of my life was the Jewish community, although I have never completely shared their beliefs in many respects, I think that the morals that come with the religion are respectful and good. The Jewish lifestyle was always important to me but since coming to India, where I have pretty much had to sacrifice that lifestyle. But, since coming here I have been thinking more and more about organized religion and realizing all of it’s negative aspects, and I have grown to think about and question the existence of god more. If I had to describe my personal religious status, I would call myself a Agnostic Culturally Jewish Theoretically Quaker because while I have not decided about the existence of god, I am very strongly culturally Jewish but as a form of worship I like the Quaker style, as well as what they stand for. My school in the states is a Quaker school and so I have a lot of interaction with Quakerism and worship in the Quaker way once a week with the rest of the school.
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