It's really beginning to feel like fall now, the leaves are changing colors, it's getting colder and the Redskins are... well, they're the Redskins. It was wonderful coming home and seeing everyone. It's good to see that not much has changed except for a few haircuts. It felt short though, I was only really home for 3 days, during which I tried to cram sleep, catching up with friends, seeing family, shopping, getting a haircut, getting my nails done, and eating at places I missed. I didn't get to do all of the things on that list. I did however do a lot and in the end barely saw my parents or Drew. I did spend enough with Drew for him to tell me that he now takes showers every day; at least something I nagged him about got through. I can't wait for Thanksgiving!
Being back at school is quite nice. I was more excited than I had anticipated to get back and see my new friends. Mid-terms have come and gone, I only had one so it wasn't a very stressful time, and I'm already starting to think about classes for next semester. Along with my usual worries I've been putting a lot of thought and effort into being healthier. My softball coach is big on fitness and essentially said that he favors physical condition over talent, which means I need to put a lot more focus on what I eat and how much I work out. I also just feel like this is the best possible time for me to get as healthy as I can; I'm young, I have the resources, and I genuinely want to feel better about myself. I feel like I've been trying to "get in shape" for years but something was missing. At this point in time I feel more intrinsically motivated than I ever have to really commit to this.
I think that's about it. I know people are still trying to figure out the comment section, but until then send me an email! Love you all!
Number of days until Thanksgiving break: 33
Number of desserts I've eaten since being back: 0
Corinne at College.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Not Sleeping
So, part of being a college student is thinking about a major. I don't have to declare until the end of next year but I'm fairly certain that I want to major in psych. Apparently a lot of people say that they want to major in psych and end up changing their minds when it turns out to be something much different than they expected. While I know a lot can change, I am still fairly confident that psych is something I will remain interested in. People have different interests, something they are intrinsically drawn to, that lead them to have a predisposition for certain fields. English majors like literature, biology majors like organisms and how they work, math majors like... math. I like people. Plain and simple. More specifically I like people's minds and I want to understand them better.
If there is one thing I have taken away from my high school experience and life in general, it is that all people, every single person, is crazy in their own respect. Now I don't mean crazy in a clinical sense, I just mean weird, different or quirky. We have very specific things that make us happy, sad, angry, relaxed, anxious or content. I think this craziness is extremely interesting, and the weirdest part is that even though everyone seems so unique, we secretly aren't. There are numerous, universal behaviors that all humans exhibit, no matter their culture, age or gender. This is what I'm learning about in my cross-cultural psychology class. It takes place once a week on Tuesday for 3 HOURS. It's a bit of marathon of a class but I actually like it. Or at least I like the material.
One of the concepts we've been learning about is the principle of learned helplessness. It shows the relationship between how a person believes they can perform and their actual performance. For example, let's hypothetically say I believe I am terrible at math because my nasty math teacher told me I stink at it and I didn't do very well on my last math test, even though it was calculus and something that over half the world will never ever need to know anyways. (Bias? What bias?) This means I will do more poorly on a math test than I am actually capable of doing. Instead of naturally being bad at math I learned that I was bad at it and my capabilities reflect that. So when I underachieve on math tests it is not because I just don't get it, it is because I've learned to give up on it since I think "I'm bad at math". This is, in my opinion, a major flaw in the human psyche and while I am not going to go on a campaign to stop learned helplessness I do think that if more people knew about it they could really help themselves and others.
Learned helplessness is something that can be considered a universal trait of human beings. We have all had experiences with it before and so have the French and the Eskimos and the Aboriginals. There are so many other phenomena that work the same way; if people realized that we all suffer from the same downfalls I think we'd live in a better place. And that's why I like psychology.
Days at school: 38
Number of times I cursed the rain today: alot.
If there is one thing I have taken away from my high school experience and life in general, it is that all people, every single person, is crazy in their own respect. Now I don't mean crazy in a clinical sense, I just mean weird, different or quirky. We have very specific things that make us happy, sad, angry, relaxed, anxious or content. I think this craziness is extremely interesting, and the weirdest part is that even though everyone seems so unique, we secretly aren't. There are numerous, universal behaviors that all humans exhibit, no matter their culture, age or gender. This is what I'm learning about in my cross-cultural psychology class. It takes place once a week on Tuesday for 3 HOURS. It's a bit of marathon of a class but I actually like it. Or at least I like the material.
One of the concepts we've been learning about is the principle of learned helplessness. It shows the relationship between how a person believes they can perform and their actual performance. For example, let's hypothetically say I believe I am terrible at math because my nasty math teacher told me I stink at it and I didn't do very well on my last math test, even though it was calculus and something that over half the world will never ever need to know anyways. (Bias? What bias?) This means I will do more poorly on a math test than I am actually capable of doing. Instead of naturally being bad at math I learned that I was bad at it and my capabilities reflect that. So when I underachieve on math tests it is not because I just don't get it, it is because I've learned to give up on it since I think "I'm bad at math". This is, in my opinion, a major flaw in the human psyche and while I am not going to go on a campaign to stop learned helplessness I do think that if more people knew about it they could really help themselves and others.
Learned helplessness is something that can be considered a universal trait of human beings. We have all had experiences with it before and so have the French and the Eskimos and the Aboriginals. There are so many other phenomena that work the same way; if people realized that we all suffer from the same downfalls I think we'd live in a better place. And that's why I like psychology.
Days at school: 38
Number of times I cursed the rain today: alot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)