Psychology Class Questions
Psychology Class Questions was a journal Greg kept for a psychology class, answering questions about his opinion on different topics. He shared it to his Onision site as a text document. (Source)
Questions and Answers
Q 1. Should humans try to control their own heredity? Who would decide what characteristics should be developed? Who would get them? For what purpose? Would you endorse the use of genetic engineering to delay or prevent aging?
A 1. No, I do not believe humans should attempt in modifying or controlling their own heredity. We should accept our flaws, and our positive features as a whole, and not as a light and dark side of our own lives. I cannot answer the other questions due to my response on the first, however, to answer the last, I would not endorse the use of genetic engineering to prevent aging… as I believe we all have a time to die, and to change that is to destroy the value in your natural life... and with that you become a prosthetic figure… a tare in the virtues of expiration dates.
Q 2. Parents who receive genetic counseling should be told:
a. There is a one percent chance of having a child with a chromosome abnormality, or:
b. You must realize that it will happen or it will not.
A 2. I believe that potential parents should be told of all possible defects and flaws in any procedure that they are about to undergo.
Q 3. Should children conceived by donor artificial insemination or by donor egg be told about their parentage? Should records be kept that would allow them to find their donor fathers or mothers if some extraordinary need were to arise? What would be the psychological impact of knowing that you were conceived in vitro?
A 3. I believe that children should know all the facts as soon as they are able to understand them in a respectful and mature manner. Records should be kept in any medical activity, the records should also be opened to whoever was involved significantly in the acts recorded. The psychological impact of this knowledge would vary from person to… basically I can’t answer this considering my ignorance on the subject, and in fact that the results would be more opinion related over any alternative.
Q 4. Should mothers-to-be be punished for drinking, smoking, or using drugs during pregnancy? What about for eating junk-food? Should a waitress serving alcohol to a pregnant woman be arrested?
A 4. Pregnancy to me is a “privilege” not a right… but then again I realize anyone capable can have a child, and yet I wish not every one “capable” would be so “able”. In answer, those who have a history of drinking, smoking, or using any drugs at all should not be given the opportunity to conceive, and those who do violate these logic-based standards should be penalized for mentally damaging another human being. I do not believe that junk food effects child development as much as the alternatives, yet treating yourself with “junk-food” is still a deconstructive activity, and potential mothers should be encouraged to stay away from such unhealthy foods… not punished necessarily. Waitresses should be arrested on the spot for serving alcohol to pregnant women. Also, pregnant women taking in alcohol should be fined.
Q 5. Should employers be obligated to provide pre-school care for their employees children?
A 5. No, I do not see why employers should feel such burden as consequence to hiring them. Parents should already have taken care of how their child will be monitored while they are gone. Employees are there to financially benefit their employer, nothing otherwise.
Q 6. Do you think that basic parenting skills should be taught in public school? What about information on pregnancy and family planning?
A 6. Yes, in grades 11 & 12 (in answer to both).
Q 7. In view of the importance of infant attachment and the participation of fathers in child-care, what changes would you recommend in maternity and paternity leaves from work? Would you change the traditional division of labor in maternal and paternal roles? Why or why not?
A 7. Leaves from work? [looks around] Um… The mother and father should always appear happy to see their children when arriving at any daycare center, and they should also appear happy and excited to return later while dropping their child off. I do not believe the parents should alternate pickups in a sense that it is better to stay consistent with who drops them off, and who picks them up. But I do believe both parents should be involved in most every aspect of their offspring’s lives. I believe that the motherly and fatherly roles are doing just fine as long as they stay stable and continuously similar to one another. Society has made it very far since the first mother and father collaboration, I believe that it would be ignorant of me to suggest that I know of a better method.
Q 8. Traditionally, mothers and fathers played different roles in the development of a baby. Now many girls are raised by their fathers, many boys by their mothers alone. How do you think this will affect their gender role development. How could that affect their social and interpersonal development.
A 8. In my perspective, I see the schooling and daily activities as the most memorable and personality defining areas of life. If you child is constantly punished, they will most likely turn out much differently than one who is not. Mothers tend to punish less harshly according to my limited knowledge, and with less punishment comes drastic personality change. However, statistically I believe that being raised by a father or mother is irrelevant in the area of sexual preference & appeal. Maybe a child will grow up more cold and uncaring if raised by a male figure over a female, but for the most part, in comparison to those drastically undeveloped (those abnormally feminine, or tomboyish) who are most likely raised with both a mother and father, the data from solo father or mother raisings concludes to remain insignificant. In other words, I don’t believe anyone should worry about a single father or mother raising a child unless the parent is mentally defective.
Q 9. What kind of a national infant care leave policy do you think would be appropriate? What impact would such a policy have on the child’s development? On the parents’ ability to be responsive to the child’s needs? On businesses? If you were a politician, would you support such a legislation? How would you justify it financially if you did?
A 9. This is another unclear question to me, but I will do my best to answer it appropriately. I do not want to list an entire policy of national child care, but I will say that children should be watched 15 out of 24 hours each day by a parental figure until the age of 5. At that time the parent selected for watching over the child can find a previously acquired occupation and enlist the child in a after-school (only) child care program. I believe it is fine to have children stay late after school, but to show up early is questionable. Children should always know that their parents care for them, and if they do not realize they are loved and cared for, than a parent should continue to stay at home, watching over them. The most important area of child development in my opinion is the affection and appreciation they are shown for their mere existence.
Q 10. Men – how do you feel about being involved in the child-delivery process? About being excluded?
Women – how do you feel about having your male partner involved in the delivery process?
A 10. How I would feel if I were a parent is perfectly fine. I only seek out equality in my emotion-related relationships… or so I try to…. And with that I would expect to be a regular subject for dropping off my own child at least three times a week.
C 1. Infants should be allowed to cry themselves to sleep.
R 1. No, they should never be allowed to cry themselves to sleep.
C 2. Physical punishment should never be used.
R 2. No, physical punishment can be necessary in some situations as many children who are not physically punished can have tendencies of walking over authority figures. However, most scenarios call for no physical punishment. Children also should never be hit/smacked in the face or punched in any way anywhere.
C 3. Teens should be able to make most of their own rules.
R 3. No, teens should have restrictions to most every activity they are involved in.
C 4. The disadvantages of marrying before age 25 outweigh the advantages.
C 4. I agree.
C 5. It is normal for all children to run away from home at least once in their childhood.
C 5. It may be normal, but I don’t believe it is normal. ;)
C 6. Stimulants should be used to help control hyperactivity.}
C 6. No, never, stimulants are terrible and can completely destroy children, or even adults psychologically due to thoughts that there is something wrong with them. The pills alone can lead to other pills… not necessarily those approved by the law.
C 7. Movies now rated PG-13 should be rated PG-18.
C 7. No, I believe PG-13 movies are fine where they are. However I believe films rated X and NR should be illegalized.
Q 1. If you could divide the people of the world into three categories, what would your categories be?
A 1. Category 1: TSC (the significantly corrupt: rapists, serial killers, drug dealers, etc), Vategory TIR: (the insanely religious: pretty much anyone who believes and dedicates their lives to/in unseen powers and deities of which show absolutely no hard evidence of actually existing), and Category 3: WSF (we sane folk: the rest of us)
Q 2. In what ways would our society deem you to be a good person? What unique qualities do you have that are not recognized by our society?
A 2. Society would see me as a good person for the things I have not done, not those that I have (community service, help to the needy, etc), for instance, I have yet to kill, rape, torture, drug-deal, drug-use, or intentionally hurt anyone. Unique qualities? I believe I have the great quality of recognizing every flaw in my speech etc and yet I continue without correcting it as I feel such flaws define me… but then again I eventually correct them…
Q 3. Where do you study? What could this say about your personality?
A 3. Study? Um… in my room. Which says little to nothing about my personality in my opinion.
Q 4. What traits do you have? How are these behaviors affected by your current life situation?
A 4. Technically I have plenty of traits… both negative and positive. I am a jerk sometimes, an aspiring funny man, a lover of women, and so on… I believe that I contribute to society with my humor, but hurt it with my occasional negative attitude.
Q 5. What childhood experiences were key in the development of your personality.
A 5. I’m sorry, I don’t remember my childhood… and I do not understand why.
Q 6. Which part of your personality is the most dominant – the id, the ego, or the superego? When? What kind of anxiety do you experience according to Freud? How would Freud categorize your personality.
A 6. I believe the superego is the most dominant element in my personality due to my concept of right and wrong, and how most often right wins over wrong. I’m not sure what kind of anxiety or categorization I would received through Freud’s observations --- as I believe that more often than not the category I am placed in seems foggy, and somewhat awkward with me as a part of it.
Q 7. How did your parents handle your toilet training? If you don’t remember, ask one of your parents or a sibling.
A 7. I peed my bed until I was 11, I believe that is enough said for now.
Q 8. What did you parents do to shape your personality?
A 8. Would not everything they do have some impression on my personality? That is my answer.
Q 9. Think of a habit you have that you are proud of. How did it develop.
A 9. I tend to drink water a lot, with a water jug often by my side… It developed because I found out a while back that water was good for me… so I started drinking it more and more often.
Q 10. Think of a habit that you are not proud of. What cues you to try to pay attention to as a way to change this behavior?
A 10. What? Um… probably the response of others would most likely influence internal urges for positive change.
Q 11. Think of someone from your childhood who provided you with inconsistent affection or responsiveness. How did that affect the person’s “reinforcement value” and your behavior.
A 11. My mom sometimes ignored me, but that did not affect the “reinforcement value” as I knew why she would do it. My behavior was calm most often as I realized what was the problem, and just walked away.
Q 12. What “conditions of worth” were applied to you as a child?
A 12. I believe that being an offspring of my mother defined my worth in itself, as well as objects under me, and so on. I guess a condition would be when I take a cookie from the cookie jar, and am not supposed to… mother catches me, and I am punished, but somehow that did not affect our relationship… other than knowing what not to do.
Q 13. What are you willing to change in your life? What are you not willing to change, at least now?
A 13. I’m willing to change my clothes, I’m not willing to change my hair. I’m willing to change my Toyota’s color, I’m not willing to change my personality unless it appears significantly flawed in some way. Understand?
Q 14. How self-actualized do you feel you are? Using a 1-7 point scale rate the degree to which the ten characteristics of self-actualizers seem to apply to you.
A 14. I believe I am nearly completely self-actualized. I could not find the ten characteristics, so I’m sorry, I do not know.
Q 1. If you could change the brain or nervous system in any way to improve them, how would you do it, and why.
A 1. If I could, I wouldn’t change it. Fear of flaw due to my own modifications, and pure violation of pure ethics would drive me away from the activity entirely.
Q 2. Have you known someone who has had a stoke or other brain injury. What were the effects? How did the person cope with the injury?
A 2. No, I have never known a person who encountered a brain injury.
Q 3. A member of your family has been having outbursts of hostile and aggressive behavior. In the past year, they have become virtually incontrollable. Brain surgery has been recommended as a way to alter the persons behavior. Would you condone its use?
A 3. As I said before twice, I would not approve of any physical altering in attempts to improve on what has been natural for some time.
Q 4. Which part of the brain would you be most afraid of sustaining damage to.
A 4. I would hate to have any portion of my brain damaged, and with this, I would be equally fearful as having the knowledge that part of my brain is missing would terrify me… as with any other part of my body. However in that situation, removing the memory cells from my brain might make it a whole lot more bearable… so anything other than the memory cells would terrify me.
Q 5. Robert Orensten has urged us to recognize that full use of human potential should take advantage of the specialized skills of both the cerebral hemispheres. Roger Sperry changed that “our educational system tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.” Do you agree? What changes would you make in the educational system if you do?
A 5. Yes, I agree. I would subtract some of the Math/English and add the Art/Design classes.
Q 6. Can the brain ever expect to completely understand itself? Or, is the brain studying the brain like trying to lift yourself by your bootstraps?
A 6. I believe we can understand large portions of our brain, but many areas are far from full definition.
Q 1. Has anyone ever called you or someone you love “crazy” or “insane”? How did you feel?
A 1. I consider it a compliment as they are also saying “I do not encounter people like you often, so this is a unique and horizon broadening experience.” (think about this, if you are “crazy” to the standard of normal, then you must be unique also… maybe not one of a kind, but at least rare, and that can most often be a compliment that was purely unintentional)
Q 2. Think of a behavior that you would label “abnormal”. Which definition are you using for this labeling process?
A 2. I am using a “What do I not often time see people do or hear them say?” approach.
Q 3. Imagine that you “heard” from others in class that “someone” in your class was “psychotic”. How would you feel? How would this information probably affect your behavior?
A 3. Depends on what type of psycho they were. Psycho killer, psycho hallucinator, psycho cookie maker… [shrugs] I would feel fine as long as they were not a injury threat.
Q 4. Have you ever known someone who abused or became dependent on drugs? How did the drugs affect their ability to function at home or at work? Were they able to eventually stop using the drugs? If so, how?
A 4. No, I have not known someone like that.
Q 5. Do you ever feel depressed? What situations seem to make the depression worse? What do you do to try to stop feeling depressed?
A 5. Yes I do feel depressed on occasion. Thinking about the situation without resolution can make it worse. I try to solve the problem which makes me less depressed.
Q 6. Describe one of your irrational fears. When and how did the fear develop? How does it affect your behavior? What could be done to reduce the fear.
A 6. I do not fear spiders, or bigger kids, or anything else irrational and non-life threatening.
Q 7. Have you ever tried to conform to the styles or wishes of others? Were you ever afraid of being a “geek”? How does that kind of conformity relate to the way we treat the mentally ill?
A 7. Yes, to my girlfriend’s wishes. Yes, when I meet a person for the first time. We believe that the mentally ill are actually ill because we compare them to the norm, and with that, they seem dysfunctional… maybe we are the ones who are dysfunctional. Why take away their paradise?
Q 8. Do you think that people who are mentally ill are responsible for their actions?
A 8. It depends on how ill they are, what type of sickness, and whether or not they can logically decide what is right and wrong.
Q 9. How do you define normal grieving?
A 9. Like the other responses, I have not experienced much of grieving, so I would not know how to standardize something I am so unfamiliar with.
Q 10. Are there some people in your life whom you would never want to see drung or high? What is different about these people.
A 10. I don’t feel comfortable answering this question. Seeing people drunk and high tares me up inside.
Q 11. Do you have any habits that you could relate to the addiction cycle? What are some of your triggers? What are your rituals like?
A 11. No
Q 1. Describe your most stressful life experience. Why was it stressful? How did you deal with the situation? What could you or others have done to make it less stressful?
A 1. I was falling in love, and one day I was stood up by the one I was falling for. She then stopped talking to me, so I cried for days off and on… It was stressful because I felt I loved her, and she hated me… I cried, that’s how I dealt with it. No one could really say or do anything to make me feel better, no one but her.
Q 2. Which is more frustrating to you – external or personal frustrations? Why?
A 2. Personal frustrations are more bothersome than the alternative due to lack in care for what most others perceive me to be.
Q 3. Describe a time in your life when you dealt with frustration through aggression and withdrawal. Did these reactions help or did they make the frustration worse?
A 3. I was pushed into a fist fight long ago due to my morals, and ideals. The boy (my age) cried after I was done… and I felt better.
Q 4. Give an example of each of the defense mechanisms from your own life.
A 4. It’s hard for me to compile a list of defense mechanisms when I am not a defensive person. I object when people violate my morals, but I don’t seem to fight back when I am in risk of minor physical harm, or otherwise.
Q 5. In what ways do you feel caught and helpless? What strategies have you learned to cope with these feelings? Are these strategies effective or ineffective?
A 5. I feel that something could fall from the sky and kill us all… I am caught in the crossfire of interplanetary rock hurling, I am helpless because my diameter is not greater than 500 million miles. I have no strategy for avoiding this demise.
Q 6. Describe times in your life when you felt depressed. Describe the feelings, the situation surrounding the depressions, and the ways you tried to cope with the depression.
A 6. Isnt this just like Question 1? I feel depressed when anything significant goes wrong. The feelings are deconstructive, and the situations are as I just said, significantly unpleasant. I try to cope by fixing the problem.
Q 7. Make a list of 20 or more things that went well this week for you, or the things that you did well. You must list at least 20 items.
A 7. 1. I didn’t die. 2. My body is holding up well. 3. I came closer to getting these journal questions done. 4. I bought a new camcorder. 5. I don’t regret the buy. 6. I had a nice conversation with a friend. 6. I spent time with my sister. 7. I did not feel like a jerk this week. 8. I learned a little. 9. I came one day closer to graduation. 10. The weather has been fine. 11. I’ve expressed a lot of emotion recently… not all unhappy. 12. I’m glad I am alive 13. My car has not broken down. 14. Gas prices are not yet at $5.00 a gallon. 15. My computer is doing great. 16. I don’t hate my mother, and realize that I never really did. 17. I wrote a few poems. 18. I wrote a few letters. 19. I like life cereal, and was able to eat some recently. 20. This list is almost over. 21. I have an itch on my neck, and have hands to scratch it, 22. My knees have not given me trouble.
Q 8. With respect to stress, which “type” of personality do you most identify with? What genetic and environmental factors have “made” you this “type”?
A 8. I identify with a rare stress, mostly happy, cup-half-full, aspiring personality. The genetic factors seem irrelevant as my family members are not as tolerant as I am… I think.
Q 1. Describe a time when you were pushed to the limits of your endurance.
A 1. The kids at daycare love asking me silly questions over an over… it is somewhat annoying… but I can’t really recall anything better or more stressful and endurance-draining than that.
Q 2. Make a list of your five key “needs”. What drives the responses you take to reach a specific goal.
A 2. 1. Food 2. Water 3. Entertainment 4. Air 5. Gravity --- Um… I live… I strive to survive… with a smile.
Q 3. Can a person get too much of a “good thing”? Or could receiving a large quantity of “something” alter a person’s perception and definition of a “good think”?
A 3. Feed a potato lover a thousand potatoes in one week, and you have yourself a potato hater.
Q 4. Keep a “hunger pang journal” for three days, try to avoiding eating at habitual times and in response to external cues. Instead, delay eating until your body says you are hungry.
A 4. You mean people eat when they are not hungry? [raises brow] I’m not sure this experiment would work for me, I am hungry at the end of every day, which is why I only eat towards the end of the day.
Q 5. What emotional states predict when you will over eat or under eat?
A 5. With women I’ve heard this is different, but emotions don’t seem to effect my eating other than how hard I chew.
Q 6. How long can you recline without doing anything? If you haven’t tried this recently, give yourself a few hours to recline (no sleeping allowed). How does it feel? What kinds of thoughts do you have?
A 6. The thoughts I normally have “Will I die tomorrow?” “Will I graduate on time?” “Am I wasting my time by ‘reclining’?” and so on.
Q 7. Do you perceive yourself to be an under-achiever, over-achiever, or at-ability achiever? For which specific abilities? Why?
A 7. I am an over-achiever, under-achiever, and at-ability achiever. Sometimes I am inspired and others I just don’t care much for what I am doing. That’s just the “bottom line”.
Q 8. Which level of need in Maslow’s hierarchy do you spend the greatest time satisfying? Keep a “motives” log as you move through the day from one level to another.
A 8. I believe my greatest needs are those to survive through eating, sleeping, drinking (water), and generally breathing. Technically my “needs” are those and only those.
Q 9. Make a list of those thing you do daily that you would stop doing if it weren’t for intrinsic reward. What activities are most intrinsically rewarding for you?
A 9. No more school (I want a degree), no more work (I want money), and that’s about it. Everything else I enjoy… but I do enjoy both work and school on occasion… the bad outweighs the good however. School is most “intrinsically” rewarding for me.
Q 10. How moody are you? What cues do you give others to let them know “now” is not a good time to ask for a favor? Do you feel that you handle emotion well?
A 10. I’m not very moody at all, but I can hint irritation which is probably why I never seem to cross limits as those who stress me out leave the default safe-zone radius. I don’t mind favors, so I don’t “cue” anyone. I feel I handle the angry emotion very well what with the not physically hitting anything, or screaming.