Lesson Learned

í Abu Ghraib is the old prisoner in Iraq that before the American invasion, it was used to torture Iraq’s enemies. Later it was used by the American for Iraqi prisoners. In April 2004, the torturing that was going on inside the prison came to public attention. The photographs of various abuses toward the detainees were taken, and were released. Some prisoners were beaten, some were ordered to form a human pyramid, so that the American soldiers could take photographs with their proud smiles on their faces. In my opinion, it is wrong and there isn’t anything that can justify those actions. Each individual has no right to abuse others regardless of their unfortunate deeds.

í What lessons were ignored?

In Abu Ghraib, the claim that society and environment can affect each individual’s personality and thoughts, and that every person has a potential to be evil are ignored. Milgram and Dimbardo’s experiments were the evidences that prove that those claims are true. Milgram performed an experiment by selecting random people; letting them controlled the electric machine that would shock the victim, if the victim spelled the given words wrong. The victim, however, was only pretending since there’s no electrical shock, but the person selected wasn’t informed about this. Under the authority (the professor wearing a white lab coat) the performers followed the professor’s instruction. The level of the shock increased each time the victim spelled it wrong. About 60 percent of all the performers reach the highest level of the shock, which if it was real, it could severely injured the person.

In Zimbardo’s experiment, college students were randomly selected to be acting in the prison-hospital. Some were assigned to be the prisoners, and some were the one who took care of the prisoners. In 6 days the experiment was stopped, although the experiment was meant to last for 2 weeks. The participants’ behaviors change: they become more violent and some become sick. Afterwards, when they were removed from the place, their personalities came back to what they were before. These experiments prove the claim that is involved with social psychology.

Experiments with ES kids

On Thursday 8th 2007, we performed an experiment; testing KG kids (about 4-6 years old). We tested them on their “senses of conservative”, their “egocentrism”, and etc. As you would see from the results, Jean Piaget got the stages for development right, however, he was wrong about the ages at each stage.

One of the experiments that were testing on their sense of conservation was that we were using different containers: flasks and a taller container. The certain about of rice was put into two flasks to let the kids compared the differences. They all said that they contain equal amount. Then, we poured the rice from one of the flask into the taller container without adding anymore rice. And, we asked the kids again whether which one has more rice in it. Almost all of the kids said that the taller container has more rice.

Another experiment we did that tested their sense of conservations as well. We have two equal amount of clay. At first, we let the kids compared the two amount (Then, they probably say they’re equal). The next thing we did was crushing one of the clay in front of all the kids. Then we asked them again whether they are still the same amount or not. All of them said it’s the crushed one is bigger (that is probably because they saw it as a bigger shape).

We then asked some questions to test their geocentricism. Some of the questions are “do you have a brother or sister? Does she/he have a brother?” None of the kids can answer them right. They can’t think from other people’s point of views.

Results of the Emotional IQ Test

	Emotional IQ
Your score = 106

My score for the emotional intelligent quiz was 106. The score was slightly above the average. I was expecting higher score, however I do realize that sometimes I blame myself in such a minor problems. I still know how to make myself feel better at the time; within the certain period of time, I would return to normal state of emotions. The description said that I would be able to solve my problem and also enjoy helping others solve their problems. I think that is true.

Emotion and Motivation:
Short Articles Questions and Answers: “Buried Alive”

Identify the motivation of the survivors.

The story, “Buried Alive,” is about the plane that crashed in the subzero atmosphere of the Andes. The plane carried a rugby team who was on their way to Chiles. Many people died and the survivors did their best to survive. The first thing that cam into their minds was to find shelter, since they was in a very cold atmosphere. The survivors gathered to stay in what was left of the plane. They learned to which is the best way to survive, and eventually the survivors decided to eat human flesh in order to survive. Their motivation for all of doing all of those things was the motivation to survive. It was their instinct to find the shelter and water. But overall, it was the motivation to survive that drove them to do all those things, even to eat human flesh.

"ABSTRACT RANDOM"

On Monday, we were assigned to do a test that would reflect our ways of thinking. It turns out that I am an “Abstract Random”. A characteristic that could be applied to me are that my actions depend on my emotions. I admit that I am an emotional person, and when I am frustrated, I cannot concentrate on my work. When I am happy, I also wouldn’t be able to work since I am always too hyper. Another characteristic is that my view of time is always a restricted period of time. I always do things on the last few days, such as packing my suitcase for a week trip. Another thing is that when I communicate I have to communicate with gestures and visual, it is especially true when I try to communicate to another AR (Abstract Random). We know what we are going say without actually saying it out, which was true, because when we were put to discuss in groups, Euy and I proved that statement. We were able to communicate through “Yeah? Yeah… YEAH! YEAHH!” There’re a lot of other qualities that can be able to apply to me, however, these are the strong characteristics.

Extending Reading:
"It's Magical it's malleable, it's memory."

1. What is the relationship between memory and selfhood?
:”We remember, therefore we are.” The article mentioned that our selves are created by the “creative blending and reblending of experiences and emotions.” So our identities are defined by our memories of those passed events and feelings. Some of us think that our experiences constructed our personalities; however, it is rather the memories of what we experienced that shaped who we are. Certain psychologists would say that memories are like “bedrock”; we remember exactly what happened. But later in the article you would find that memories are malleable that you can even create the false memory. Therefore, we can conclude that our sense of self is acceptable to changes.

2. What new discovery about memory do you find most interesting?
: The new discovery that I found really interesting is the new sophisticated Pet scan that are able to recorded the neural impulses that are the one that hold our memories. Another one that I am fascinated by is the drugs that might be use to prevent the certain diseases that cause memory loss. If the psychologists are able to prove that they can be used to prevent those diseases, one’s life might not be ruined. Therefore I think the drugs will be very beneficial.

3. What is the homunculus crisis?
: Homunculus crisis is the mystery associated when memories that psychologist could not be able to explain. Who is controlling our memories? Why do we remember a certain events, but not the other? Do we really have control on our memories?

4. Which theory of dreams finds support in the experiments by Lynch?
: Lynch proves that rats’ memories improved when they sleep. The brains would send particular patterns of impulses, which are called ‘theta waves’. Lynch’s experiment supports the biological dream theories; Vertes’s and Hobson’s. Vertes’s theory states that we dream because our brains prevent our body to clip into a coma stage by sending an impulse. Another one is Hobson’s, which states that our brainstems randomly send neural impulses.

5. How can some memories become indelible?
: There are some memories that are indelible, which mostly are the emotionally arousing experiences. Sometimes the brains might take that kind of situations as the “fight or flight” situation. Our systematic bodies would secrete the stress hormones, which surprisingly have effects on our neurons. They strengthen the storage of memory of that event. That occurs naturally because we need to remember those events in order to survive in the future. Therefore it all depends on the hormonal regulations.

6. How can amnesia and repression be explained?
: Many psychologists believe that amnesia and repression is the result of the malfunction of hippocampus. It is possible that the subjects remove their conscious in the repeated traumatic events, thus, the memory dissociates and eventually was lost. However, the repression might not even be true since sometimes, our imagination and perception could be confused because according the research, when we visually imagine something, there’s an activation in the part of brain that works when we percepts something. Therefore there’re a few explanations for amnesia and repression.

7. Explain the following statement: "Memory is more reconstructive than reproductive."
: Memories have often been lost through times. We build up our memories according to what we already know. We think it should happen that way, therefore, we thought it happen that way. Memory is not reproductive because we are not capable of remembering every detail of an event. It is rather reconstructive because we build our own memories according to the knowledge we already have and the clues we are given.

8. What new paradigm of memory is now emerging?
: The new paradigm of memory that is now emerging is that memories are reconstructed and they are the “blending of fact and friction.” We create and recreate our memories from “experiences and emotions”, and those memories shape us in some way.

9. After reading this article, what conclusions can you make about memory?
: My conclusion on memory is that they are extremely malleable and a very sensitive matter. Some events are stored as a good memory due to our hormonal regulation. Some are vague, because of amnesia or repression resulting from the traumatic events. Some are very indelible, while some are lost through time. After I finish reading this article, the only conclusion I could come to is that the memories are very flexible.

Memory is Often a Reconstruction

Today there’s another activity in class that shows us about how memories could be reconstructed. The teacher showed us a set of pictures, in which we were told to remember, and later we were given a sheet that describes each of those pictures, and we have to draw the images we have seen.

We found out that there’re two different sets of words given to students. And those words influenced how we draw the images. For example, one of the pictures that looks like a crescent moon, on one paper, it says that it is a “crescent moon” and on another one it says that it’s a “C”. Therefore people would reconstruct the images according to what are used to describe them. Those who received the paper that said it’s a letter “C” would draw a big letter “C” while those who got the paper that said it’s a moon, would draw an image that is more similar to the original one.

This experiment demonstrates that memories are often reconstructed to what we already knew. We know how a “C” is written therefore we assume that the picture that was shown before is more like a letter “C”.