Journal

Name, p 1/1, 25 April 2022

Example: Reflective Journal

NAME

PS450: Reflective Journal

Week of XX:

The first chapter brought up for me the famous saying, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” by George Santayana. In other words, history will keep repeating itself until we learn from it and apply that lesson to change. Nothing can change if a lesson is not learned.

Then, how when anything is occurring in the present there is always a history behind it to be understood how it got to that point in the present. When studying psychology, we are interested in trying to understand human behavior and the psyche behind it, so an individual’s past is essential to it. I believe that humans are innately good and pure, it is their upbringings and experiences in their past that turns them to act out and develop and intent to harm out into the world. This is also played out on a collective level as we are looking at in psychology’s history.

Understanding history and how it correlates with what is happening in the present makes for critical thinking skills to be at play, like I am doing this moment writing this, thinking critically.

I feel as though Descartes dualistic perspective on how the mind and body were separate does both an injustice. Even though he believed they had a direct influence on one another, I believe they are more as one. One cannot exist without the other, so it is more than just an influence on one another. The mind is not just limited to humans, all living things have a mind, it is consciousness that is different.

Week of XX:

Müller’s doctrine of the specific energies of nerves really makes me think. We experience the world not through our sight, rather how our nervous system, our internal world, is interacting with the external world. This makes me think a lot about how I have panic attacks and so my nervous system is perceiving a threat and so my biological response is fight or flight mode, hence the physical symptoms of fast heart rate, lightheadedness, etc. But why is my nervous system perceiving a threat. There must be some kind trigger that my nerve fibers are sensing, I wonder what that is? Hmmm I will have to think more into this.

Thinking about the Nervous System Structure this week reminded me of how going to see a chiropractor for spinal realigning has helped stop my panic attacks significantly. Because my spine was out of alignment, my nervous system synapses were on overdrive trying to overcompensate for the height difference I had between my right and left side of my body. Once she realigned my pelvis and there was no longer a height difference, I felt so much relief in my nervous system, like I simply felt more relaxed. I experienced first-hand understanding how the nervous system works hand in hand with the spine. Sherrington’s work on discovering the synapses was very significant in the history of psychology because it led to an understanding of the nervous system, which is so important because it is what we are perceiving the world through.

Week of XX:

Reflecting on the psyche assignment, I really enjoyed it. Looking into where the term psyche comes from and the Greek mythology behind it. It really resonated with my outlook on our existence as humans. Being “spiritually awakened” I believe there is truth in all religions, it is all talking about the same thing, in completely different, distinct ways to its culture. So being able to look at human beliefs from a unified perspective I completely understand the origin of psyche, representing human consciousness’ constant battle of the soul, truth and love, and the ego, greed, and betrayal. Despite psyche giving into her ego and betraying her true love, their true love conquered all.

If you look at life from your ego, it leads to lack, greed, etc. But from the soul, a oneness perspective, you stop seeking outside of yourself, which is the key to happiness. As humans we have a choice which way our consciousness perceives from, ego, or the soul. Ego existing only as the brain does, but the soul existing beyond death. It is our true essence.

I feel as though the threshold concept was looking into the human psyche, or consciousness, to see at what point do we perceive a difference in our environment through a psychological reaction.

Week of XX:

Thinking about Darwin’s theory of evolution, I think it is interesting how he held it back for as long as possible out of fear of how it would be received by the scientific community, as it challenged a biblical understanding of human origin and development. It is interesting to think that even back then scientists hold back their research findings out of fear of being scrutinized for out of the box ideas. It makes me wonder if many scientists throughout history have not published their findings to society to keep the peace and status quo. Often even when you present truth, if it goes against the collective belief system, you will be personally attacked and can even lose your job and credibility over it, which is sad. I wonder if Charles Darwin would not have ever came forward with his work if it wasn’t for Wallace’s similar ideas at the time and his letter. If Darwin was alone in his evolutionary ideas, would he have ever felt secure enough in it to share?

Was ADHD a survival adaptation? So many people today have a diagnosis of ADHD or characteristics of it, I bet it is so common now because it allowed humans to more successfully multi-task and therefore better equipped for survival. I have an ADHD diagnosis and I can attest to the fact that I operate on a high-pace, highly effective manner, compared to those I know who do not have ADHD. I feel as though I accomplish things a lot more quickly and efficiently than others, making me think it is an adaption to help for better success and survival.

Week of XX:

I really resonate with William James. He stood in his beliefs, even when It challenged the status quo. I am also very interested in consciousness and feel as though it is where our spiritual nature lies. I saw a quote one time that said something like “By keeping science and spirituality separate from one another does both an injustice”. I believe that the day that science embraces the supernatural and metaphysical, is the day we advance further than ever as human species. Despite critiscm, James argued that spiritualists and mediums should be investigated with an open mind. Human psyche does not believe in what it cannot understand and that is its downfall. I believe James was on to something with his ideas, if only the scientific community investigated spirituality and mediums in search of truth, even if it is uncomfortable. But once again, the fear of how the public reacts keep them away from researching that topic in terms of science.

If I go on to get a PhD in psychology, I will research those taboo topics that James mentioned. I will do research that merges both science and the metaphysical, even if it makes others uncomfortable. I want to do meaningful research, not mediocre research that does not help humanity develop, which I believe this kind of research would.

Week of XX:

What stood out to me from the reading is how at the 1906 APA presidential address James Angell, said that “Structuralists were more likely to ask, “what is consciousness?”, while functionalists were more concerned with asking “what is consciousness for?””I feel both are equally important questions to understand consciousness as a whole. I feel as though functionalism was given a lot more focus, while structuralism was not given the necessary focus it should have been given as well. I feel psychologists should look more into what exactly consciousness is.

I feel as though even today we lack an understanding of what consciousness is and is not. It is something that should be given more importance to. It may help us take big strides in understanding of who we are as humans and what we are doing here. It may help make more sense of our internal worlds, as well as how it directly influences our external worlds.

I am not surprised that functionalism was the one more focused on as it was more logical and straightforward, as structuralism could be more spiritual, and we know how science feels about that touchy subject.

Week of XX:

Binet’ individual approach to psychology was so successful and helped the development of psychology because once a collective mind studied, became individual minds. It gave way for helping individuals develop in areas where they are weak. It gave hope to people that they can change and become strong in what they were once weak in. I think that was a turning point in the field of psychology.

It gave way for each person to start learning about themselves and their strengths and weaknesses. Being linked to a collective mind does not help anyone better themselves. Individual psychology is what we use today in therapy and clinical settings to treat individuals. Depending on a person’s history, how their mind works is going to vary accordingly so being aware of that is so essential in success treatment for mental illness. In my clinical psychology class, when we learn about different psychotherapy techniques, the one best to use always depends on the individual’s history and characteristics. It was cool to relate this topic to another class and even my job at the psychiatric inpatient hospital.

I also recognized that the mental testing movement gave way for the DSM criteria in diagnosing individuals with mental disorders, and neuropsychological evaluations. Once psychology took an individual approach, it gave way for the average person to achieve more as they are now their own, distinct mind, rather than a collective mind.

Week of XX:

Wertheimer’s Productive Thinking stood out to me this week. He argued that thinking was inhibited by the way the educational system was based on rote learning and rule memorization. I do believe in general, the average person does not think critically, rather off programming beliefs, with a close mind to other alternative truths. I think the way the educational system is constructed is behind this lack of productive thinking.

Lewin’s research also stood out to me. I believe his research looking into different types of leaderships and how it is most and least effective was significant. I resonate with how he believed that his research should contribute to the improvement of society, because that is how I feel about the research I will do in my career if I do go ahead to get a PhD in the field. I want to study our multi-dimensional nature as spiritual beings having a human experience, I want to prove it to help society understand on a deep level what we are doing here on Earth. I believe that will help improve all the greed, hate, and materialism at play in our present society. I will be a humanitarianism activist. I have a lot of respect for Lewin and seek to have a meaningful impact of humanity with my research as well. It was inspiring to read about him.

Week of XX:

The study of behaviorism in psychology is my favorite. I think it is because the behaviorism psychotherapy technique is the most powerful to me. I learned about it in my clinical psychology class and have also applied it to my personal struggle with panic attacks. With panic attacks we are conditioned to associate certain situations with the attack and therefore avoid those situations, but that is maladaptive because it impairs everyday living.

With behaviorism, a behavior can be habituated to the situation. Going back to my example, in that situation, when the panic arises, not escaping, sitting with it as peak panic arises, and after a couple minutes pass the body automatically starts to relax since it realizes it is not being threatened as it feared, and now the behavior is habituated to that situation. Behaviorism is very powerful because it asks you to slowly face what you fear, could be re-facing trauma, but it has the most profound results because the situation or trauma now does not have all the power over you.

It was interesting to learn about the history of behaviorism and how it came to be as I am very in awe of the therapy technique. Emotional responses hold the most weight, and Watson studied this.

Week of XX:

I really enjoyed learning about the evolution of behaviorism and how it developed to what we know today. I was specifically very intrigued by Skinner’s ideas and contributions to it. He really helped academia understand that behavior is shaped by experience/ consequence. We can all appreciate how Skinner’s work sought to improve society as a whole with the use of behavioral techniques, clearly an important contribution to the field, and the betterment of society.

I found it interesting that not all behaviors were equally conditionable, how the animal’s instinctive behaviors could limit the power of the conditioning. In trying to conceptualize this I thought of this. How someone who grew up poor and with a lack of resources mindset, may not be conditioned in terms of reward with money in the same way as someone who grew up middleclass, not always focusing on lack. The person who grew up poor has an instinct of there not being enough, and therefore that will play a part in limiting the power of conditioning. That is why how we are raised and programmed is so critical because it becomes instinctive, and that is hard to change, being shown in Skinner’s discovery.

Week of XX:

This chapter was the most interesting to me. Understanding how the mentally ill were once treated helps us not repeat the past of that. I work in a psychiatric inpatient hospital, or what was once called, an asylum. It is mind blowing to me the way humans have treated other humans when they act in a way that they do not understand. It is sad but thank God for Dorothea Dix and others who helped reform asylums and the treatment of the mentally ill.

I find Freud fascinating. Specifically, his work into the unconscious, or subconscious mind. I believe that is where the key to a person’s healing lies. I got hypnotherapy done a month ago and it was so powerful. I wanted to see what trauma memories from my childhood were suppressed in my subconscious in order to bring them to my conscious awareness so I could get to the root of my anxiety, and by exposing it and processing the emotions properly, I could set myself free of it. It worked. I accessed memories I did not know were there. During the hypnosis session the therapist was guiding me using the technique that Freud developed, free association. It is so interesting to relate that experience of getting into my unconscious mind to when it was developed.

Slips of the tongue, or Freudian slips, hold so much meaning to me. I believe nothing is a coincidence as there is always an unconscious reason, as Freud says. I never knew that the ideas that I have about life and my spiritual beliefs tie into his discoveries. That is mind-blowing.

Week of XX:

It is interesting to learn that behaviorism therapy really took off after world war ll, with the help of Joseph Wolpe’s development of systematic desensitization. I can see how the world needed that kind of powerful therapy after the trauma of world war ll.

I really resonate with a humanistic approach to treatment as well. I believe I use this type of approach in how I interact with the patients at the psychiatric hospital I work at. I give them an unconditionally positive interaction, despite how they may have acted out earlier in the day or toward other staff. The patients really respond extremely positive to me because of it, compared to my co-workers, who do not use this approach. The chapter says that in doing this, “being a model of the self-actualized person…” I never realized I was even doing this, but I do consider myself a self-actualized person, maybe not all the way yet but I am well on my way there and by being so strong in myself, I send that out to others and lead by example. I did not know Carl Rogers developed this type of technique that I use but think it’s so powerful to relate it to how I interact with the patients.

I also enjoyed the topic of self-actualization, as it is something I have been aware of and am trying to reach. I am dedicated to self-mastery and self-actualization is a part of that. Humans do have the power to create the life they seek, even with a traumatic past. It is once the individual no longer wants to be a victim to their circumstances, rather a warrior and take their life in their hands. Everyone can reach the point of no longer being tied to their past but getting to that point of breaking the cycle is the hardest part. I see it every day at the psychiatric hospital.

Week of XX:

In seeing the shift in history from behavior therapy to cognitive therapy, it made me think of CBT, Cognitive Behavioral therapy, which I am writing a research paper on for my clinical psychology class. It is a highly effective therapy technique that starts by using cognitive techniques, and then incorporates the behavior component as well. Once the two techniques were combined, strides were made in treatment. Both behavior and cognitive therapy are efficient on their own, but together even more so.

Stanley Milgrim’s obedience study has always been a powerful point in psychology’s history. I learned about it in my applied social psychology course. It reminds me of how we are programmed to seek guidance from authority figures ever since a very young age while in school. We are programmed to not think for ourselves, rather what we are told by those in authority positions is our truth, therefore situational pressures do overcome individual personality.

This also reminded me of the diffusion of responsibility idea. If someone is on the ground yelling for help in a busy store, individuals feel less responsible to help as there is many other people around to help and so they do not, and when all those people around have that same idea, no one is helping the person. While if someone is on the ground yelling for help in an empty store and it is only you and that person, you will help. Humans are very influenced by other humans, especially in a group setting.