Attribution Processes

The other day, I overheard a younger high school student talking with some of his peers on the bus. He was telling them about how he had received a failing grade on an assignment, and then got into a fight with the teacher about it. The teacher had said what he had done wrong, but the student told his friends that the reason he failed was because the teacher "didn't know what she was doing". This is a perfect example of the self-serving bias, because the student attributed external factors to his failure on the assignment. However, as an observer, I formed an opinion that it was probably due to some fault on the student's part that he received the failing grade, even though I didn't even know him. This is known as the fundamental attribution error. I didn't even know this person, but I had already formed an opinion about the situation, and determined that he was at fault.

Mental Disorders

After reading the section in chapter 13 about schizophrenia, the part about paranoid schizophrenia caught my attention. My grandmother was diagnosed with dementia a few years ago, and she has always had a problem with anxiety and depression. She is never able to remember anything, which can be a sign of dissociative amnesia. Recently, she was able to acquire medicine to help treat her mental diseases, but she has become paranoid that my grandfather is not giving her the proper doses and is trying to prevent her from getting better. According to the book, this is a symptom of paranoid schizophrenia. She also believes that she is the only one in the family trying to help herself, which is a sign of a delusion of grandeur. By continuously taking her medications and seeking therapy, I hope that her condition will improve, and she can live at peace with herself and the people around her.

The Gambler's Fallacy Heuristic

The gambler’s fallacy is a heuristic in which someone continues to gamble even though the odds are against them. Even after losing, they will continue to gamble, essentially throwing away their money. My roommate exhibits this heuristic perfectly. He is addicted to buying scratch tickets and will not stop. Even when he loses several times in a row, he will continue to purchase more tickets. At times, this will even fuel his addiction as he believes that he is due for a win.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

OCD is a disorder that affects man people today. It is persistent, uncontrollable intrusions of unwanted thoughts, and urges to engage in senseless rituals. For many people it can be in the form of washing there hands multiple times, doing things over and over until they feel it is good, or organizing things One of my best friends suffers from a mild case of OCD, she has to keep her books and cd's in size order, and her closet is color coated. If something is out of place, she has to take everything out and reorganize it again.

The Availability Heuristic

This principle sates that basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. My friend Robert has believed this principle throughout his teenage years. He smokes about a pack of cigarettes a day. But he believes that smoking that much will not affect his health at all, because his grandmother smoked three packs a day since she was fourteen and is still perfectly healthy at the age of seventy. He believes the availability heuristic because his grandmother is an available source that shows that smoking does not affect her health at all, so he believes what is available to him instead of the statistics that he is told.

Risky Decision Making

Thinking and behaving irrationally, and making risky decisions is something everyone comes across in life. Over the summer, a friend of mine took part in very irrationally and risky behavior. She was at a party, and was consuming alcohol, which is the first risky decision she made that night. Her next risky decision was deciding to drive home still slightly intoxicated. Thankfully, her risky decision-making did not end in an unsatisfactory outcome, like a car accident or death, but it could have lead to these. Risking her life was a very irrational behavior and she made a very risky decision when she decided to drive home.

TED Video on Phantom Limbs

The TED conference video on phantom limbs was one of the most interesting videos we watched throughout the class. Vilayanur Ramachandran’s research was incredible, especially they way in which he was able to help amputees by removing the pain they felt. By placing both arms in a mirrored box, the amputees were able to feel as though they were moving their amputated hands or arms. This removed the feeling of a clenched hand which was causing them pain. One of my dad’s good friends had his hand amputated after an accident where he works. He does not feel pain, but he says that every once in a while he can feel his hand as if it was still there. In these brief moments, he will forget that he ever lost his hand. It was interesting learning from the video that it is a common experience, as well as some of the psychology behind it.