ABOUT THE CLASS
"Cogito, ergo sum" - René Descartes
During the two years of Psychology HL, I had the opportunity to fully understand what Descartes meant with that quote. Even though I didn't want psychology, I decided to take a leap of faith, which I will never regret. I learned about the biological, cognitive, and sociocultural aspects of psychology but personally and most importantly, I was able to understand myself. Human behavior is something complex, however, this class seemed easy as how it was taught. I will always be thankful to Julian for all the discussions, stress, and emotion he provoked. As that's why this class was my favorite among all. I was able to further develop skills such as interpersonal relationships. Due to this class, now I have a bond I never had with a group of people, which I now call my friends. This is just one example of many other skills I developed during my two years. |
IB Score
?/7 Professor
Julián Gómez |
MY WOKR
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MOCK PAPER 2IB CHARACTERISTIC: REFLECTIVE
In preparation for May 2021 examination, we did mock IB exams, the one I chose is was Paper 2. In which we were asked about abnormal psychology. The question asked about the role of clinical biases in the diagnosis of abnormal psychology. I chose this examination as evidence for the IB characteristic of reflection. Psychology itself is a reflective subject, as the workload is enormous, we must identify our strengths and limitation, such as which studies I remember and which ones I don't, as they are required for a better exploration in an examination. During my study sessions, I was able to reflect upon my strengths and weaknesses, one of them was abnormal psychology as I didn't felt confident enough about the knowledge I had. Yet, as I was able to identify this weakness, I was able to improve, obtaining a 6 as a grade. The most challenging thing about this examination was the nerves, even though it's normal, being nervous is another weakness I have. I didn't felt confident enough before the exam, which was the most challenging thing. Not trusting in oneself can totally change the outcome of something. However, I still remember how I felt the moment I read the examination question. I felt relief. Even though I felt as I didn't know enough to answer, my body entered into auto-pilot. As I knew this topic was a weakness I decided to study some of the studies that might be handy. Thanks to that, the autopilot knew how and where to fly. The lesson I will always keep from doing this examination is to trust in myself. I will always trust my knowledge but I shall not trust that I know everything. By analyzing my strengths and weaknesses, I was able to improve, acquire the knowledge I was missing, or practice what I partially had, this made the difference between success and failure. |
HAMSTER TRAININGIB CHARACTERISTIC: PRINCIPLED
In this project, we were experimenting with a hamster its ability to learn and remember a maze. This is called neuroplasticity and it's the ability of the brain to relocate function or in this case grow the hippocampus. We decided to use positive reinforcement as an incentive for the hamster to learn and we concluded the experiment with an improvement in the time taken by the hamster to complete the maze, therefore supporting the idea that he learned the maze or parts of it. I chose this assignment for this IB characteristic as conducting non-human-animal experiments also involves dignity, just as in human-animal experiments. As part of the assignment, we were needed to state the ethical guidelines and implement them. As the failure of implementing the corresponding guidelines could result in the death of the hamster, thus we took action to prevent harm. As of fact, till today, May 20th, 2021. The subject "Chefcito" is still alive. During this experiment, I felt satisfaction, as I was able to apply the knowledge we've acquired throughout almost two semesters. Also, I felt fear, as handling animals for experiments is delicate and as I mentioned, failure to do so can result in harm or death. Therefore the feeling of fear can be interpreted as responsibility. The sense of responsibility and awareness of the possible consequences is one takeaway I will always use. Even though this isn't something new to me, this was a good practice. However, I never thought this principle would also apply when acquiring knowledge. I was able to conclude that acquiring knowledge shall not interfere with the well-being of anything. |
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GROUPTHINKING AND IRRATIONALITYIB CHARACTERISTIC: CARING
During the beginning of COVID, we started with the topic of CATUB, which is the cognitive approach to understanding behavior. In this assignment, we were learning about group thinking and its effects on irrationality. In pairs, we needed to build a marshmallow and spaghetti tower. However, only one team member could build, meanwhile, the other one helped, suggested, and gave advice. I chose this work as part of the characteristic of caring, as this was an emotional activity, where fear and happiness were constantly swinging respect and irrationally interfered. In this case, both I and my partner needed to be respectful with each other and hear each other ideas. By doing this, we were able to achieve the tallest tower in the class. As they say "divide and conquere" or in this case "teamwork makes the dreamwork". As with all competitive activities, I felt the adrenaline rush, but also I felt anger, happyness, and many more feelings. At any given time, the tower could start collapsing, which I was the one how would stop it. However, the other person needed to identify the failure, yet due to the limitation of video calls, this was very difficult. This made me feel frustrated and desperate, as I would rush the other person to find the failure however, she wasn't able to see it. That's were the respect and tolerance came in. Thanks to that, we were able to work as a team. I think this assigment will help me in the future as it demonstrates my hability to work as a team and my ability to adapt. Even a long distance, I was able to adapt and work with it, which is a future job that will be a very usefull ability. |
Copyright © 2021 Juan Pablo Meraz