Final Blog

This week we finished up the chapter with Social Psychology.  There was a concept in there that was called social inhibiting.  This simply means that you do worse in something when there are more eyes on you while you do it.  An example that would represent this would be if Johnny was playing basketball and during practice he could shoot free throws for days and make them no problem.  Then when it came to games Johnny couldn't handle the pressure from other people watching him and he wouldn't perform as well as he would when he was just practicing.

I have related to this, and even more specifically to this example.  This also happens to me for a lot of other things, also.  So generally, when I get up in front of people I have an instant increased heart rate that happens and I can feel the pressure breathing down my back as I am trying to do my task.  This has caused me to do poorly in some speeches that I have given, to miss important basketball shots, run slower in track, and miss important passes that were thrown to me in football.  I will have to live with this and hopefully gradually get over this so I can be continuously accomplishing the things that I do in front of people to the best I can.

Glogster

I learned that when a conversion disorder happens that it is because of an unknown cause, but some say that it may be the result from the brain coping with a threat that has happened. I also learned that conversion disorder is more common in females than it is in males and will most likely occur when a person is in their young adult years. This can happen when a very tramatic event has happened and this results in paralysis, blindness, or inability to swallow.

I believe that the best psychotherapy therapy for this situation would be use a behavioral therapy technique.  The therapy that I choose would be the exposure therapy. This uses systematic desensitization to treat anxieties by exposing people either through their imagination or reality to the things they fear or avoid. This therapy would be the best because it would expose the patient to how the traumatic event was not their fault and then they would realize that they are only paralyzed in that spot because it is all in their mind. When they are exposed to this reality, then they will be able to use that part of their body again.

If it came down to it, the one biomedical therapy that could be used for this wpuld be psychosurgery.  Psychosurgery is used to change a behavior in someone.  This would help best because when someone has a conversion disorder they are either paralyzed, blind, or inability to swallow. If their behavior was changed this could allow for them to not be paralyed, blind, or unable to swallow. The brain allows a person to move. Thus, when this tissue can be damaged that is causing them to be paralyzed, this should allow them to be able to move again. This type of therapy is a drastic measure that would most likely not be an option for people because what they do is go in the brain and destroy tissue in there.

Narcissism

 Narcissism is a personality disorder that deals with a person being super full of themselves and has to brag about themselves 24/7. Just imagine being with someone where all they talk about is themselves and they can't get enough of themselves.  How annoying would that be to listen to?? I know that there are some points where people say things and it makes them feel good that they have done something good.
I know I feel great when I tell someone the accomplishments that I have done, but going further than that and talking about it non-stop is definitely going too far.  You know how it is to be a teenager and to say that you have done something better than someone else. There is that sense of "I'm better than you" that makes you feel good, and people diagnosed with this disorder must feel all the time. :)

http://mrcannonpants.edu.glogster.com/narcissism/

Higher Achievement

In the experiment, kind of, that we did in class, we had to choose 5 different garbage cans to shoot for with a beanie bag. When we decided which one that we chose then that would determine if one was a higher achievement or lower achievement.  It turned out that I was lower achievement because I went for the farthest one.  I was lower achievement because one with lower achievement will always be the risk taker because if they don't accomplish what was wanted to get done then they have an excuse or a way out explaining why they didn't have success.  A higher achievement person would have chose either the 3rd or 4th garbage can because that one would have been the one that would have given them some of the most success and most money earned. In real life I am not always a lower achievement, sometimes I feel the need to just win instead of going for it all and it feels good to have that higher achievement.