Dual Enrollment Experience: Reflection on Psychology Class

Introduction

It is my final week in my first dual enrollment class, Psychology. Being in this class was a total mishap for me. This is because of last year’s registration. I was initially only going to take one dual enrollment class, which was English 1101 because I thought taking two would put a lot of pressure on me, because of the classes I was planning on taking this year. So they put me on the list to join Spanish I at the high school if there was a slot left for extra sophomores to join. They told me that there was room for me, but when I got my schedule Psychology was on there instead of Spanish. I did not want to go through the trouble of getting my schedule changed because that would change my class periods I had friends with. So just leaped a faith and thought maybe having Psychology was not going as bad as I thought. Also, I found the topic to be intriguing, so I was ready to conquer this class.

My Experience of Psychology as a Dual Enrollment Class

This class has been outstanding, I have learned so many new topics and how these topics apply to me and my life. Chapter 1 in Psychology was probably one of the boring topics because it was just an introduction about Psychology and what it is and the history behind it. From this chapter, I have learned that Psychology means the study of the mind and behavior. The history of Psychology goes way back to two men by the names of William James and Wilhelm Wundt. These two men helped psychology become a scientific discipline. Wilhelm Wundt was known for being a structuralist so he believed that cognitive experience could be broken down into parts by introspection. Another famous person that contributed to Psychology was Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud was known for believing that to understand one unconscious mind, you will need to look into their conscious behavior. He examined this by slips of the tongue and dream analysis. One last, but a very important person was William James. He was the first American psychologist, who believed in functionalism. Functionalism is how one’s mental activities served as adaptive responses to their environment. This chapter was very boring, but still intriguing because it showed the perspective of others’ theories and ideas, which led up to what Psychology is today.

Favorite Parts of the Dual Enrollment Class

Chapter 3 was personally my favorite because it talked about Biopsychology. I want to join the medical field, so this chapter intrigued me because it dealt with different body parts and systems. From this chapter, I learned that genes comprise DNA and they are a unit of heredity. Genes can determine your physical characteristics and psychological characteristics. This is caused by the relation between our environment and our genes. The next main topic discussed was the Nervous System. The nervous system is made up of two cells called Gila and neutrons. Also, within the nervous system, there are multiple different neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters have different functions. In many cases, some psychological disorders occur due to the imbalance of neurotransmitters. Also, the central nervous system is made up of the brain and the spinal cord. Then the somatic and the autonomic nervous system are part of the peripheral nervous system. The main function of the somatic nervous system is to mediate sensory and motor signals to and from the central nervous system. The major function of the autonomic nervous system is to manage our biological structures within the body like the organs and glands. The autonomic nervous system can be divided into two parts, sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions. Sympathetic deals with flight or fight, while parasympathetic deals with normal activity with relaxed conditions. Within this chapter, it even talks about the brain. The brain is a major topic in Psychology. The brain is divided into different lobes: frontal, occipital, temporal, and parietal. Each of these different lobes has different functions. For example, the temporal lobe deals with hearing and includes the primary auditory cortex. The last system mentioned in this chapter was the Endocrine System. The main function of the endocrine system is to create hormones from glands to regulate body functions.

Lessons from Psychology 

Another interesting topic I learned in Psychology was about thinking and intelligence. From this topic, I learned that cognitive psychology deals with the ability of one’s brain to perceive, analyze, think and remember. We use concepts to assist us in sorting out different information. For example, we initiate schemata, this is when we sort our information and thoughts that are related to clusters. We usually use schemata in social situations and our daily behavior. A characteristic of cognition would be intelligence. In psychology, many have created theories to explain what intelligence is and how it functions in ones' mind. Some people that came up with theories about intelligence include Howard Gardner and Robert Sternburg. Gardner believes that intelligence has many different factors, while Sternburg believes created the triarchic theory. This theory talks about how to have intelligent behavior you must have a balance of analytical and creative abilities. Certain factors influence intelligence, which includes your environment and genetics. Also, learning disabilities challenge intelligence. This is because it can cause major issues for children who are learning how to read and write. Learning disabilities are caused by problems in the mind and do not relate to your intelligence levels.

I always wondered how people and why acted the way they do. Also, I use to wonder how one gets the personality they have. I learned all my answers to these questions from my class. First and foremost personality is qualities that makeup one's distinctive character. As we talked more and more about personality in class I learned that Sigmund Freud, a major psychologist, came up with a theory called Psychodynamic Perspective. This theory states that your personality develops in early childhood experiences. With this theory Freud also stated that there were three main components to personality, these include the id, ego, and superego. Neo-Freudians were psychologists that came up with theories and concepts following Freud’s. Four main Neo-Freudians were Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Erik Erikson, and Karen Horney. These psychologists were most often criticized for their work. This is due to their information, which was based on philosophical thoughts rather than scientific research. Our personality determines how we think. Our personality traits can determine how well we handle stress.

Everyone experiences stress, stress is like a disease that continues to spread, until you do something to fix it. I was able to relate to this topic because I stress a lot. I learned more about myself from this topic. I was able to understand why I stress so much and different ways to cope with it. Stress is the way one reaction to an event or situation that is overwhelming or threatening. There have been scientific studies on stress and the impact one's health, these studies fall under health psychology. I also learned about the fight or flight response within this topic. Walter Cannon was the first person to come up with this response during the 20th century. The fight or flight response is our natural reaction to a threatening or harmful event to our survival. Certain things cause our stress these things are called stressors. There are many different kinds of stressors some may be long term, and some may be short term. These stressors may lead to serious illnesses. For example, Cardiovascular disorders occur frequently due to stress. Other disorders that occur due to stress include tension headaches and asthma.

Conclusion

Overall, I adored this class very much. This class has allowed me to get to know myself better, and taught me about various topics. One of my favorite memories of this class is going to be when we had that open discussion with the whole class. I learned a lot that day from our discussion, and I will miss this subject and class very much next semester.