"Escape and Return"

Readers Digest: November 2008 p. 23

This article was about a woman named MacDella Cooper. MacDella grew up in Monrovia, Liberia with a loving mother and step-father who worked for the United Nations. Back in 1989, when she was 12, a man named Charles Taylor (and his rebels) came and captured her step-father. This left MacDella and her 2 older brothers alone for 4 months (their mother was on vacation in the States). Once their step-father never came back, and one of the rebels said that they would return to make MacDella their wife, all 3 siblings decided to leave and go to a refugee camp. It took them 6 months to walk to the Ivory Coast (were refugee camp was located). And it took them another 3 years to receive their immigration papers. Once in the states their mother was in Newark, New Jersey working multiple jobs and living in the projects. MacDella had not expected America to be the way that her life now emulated. But despite it all, she loved high school. She then went on the receive a degree in electronic communications and worked in fashion business. Back in 2004, she started her MacDella Cooper Foundation, which supplies children in Liberia with clothes and Christmas gifts every year.

This article relates to our psychology class because MacDella's struggle and triumph throughout her life was driven through motive. From the time her stop-father was captured and her siblings and she decided to talk for 6 months to the refugee camp was pure motivation. Motive is the reason or purpose for doing something. MacDella and her family did not want to die because of the rebels, do their minds gave them the drive (taking action to fulfill a task) and determination. Once MacDella got to the states, she had secondary drives of what America would be, but was mistaken. This is how this article related to Psychology.

Toddler Brawl

WSPA Channel 7 News: November 20, 2008 Time: :15

This article is about a news report that I saw on television. For nearly 2 minutes a father video taped his two toddlers fighting continuously. Throughout the tape, you could hear the father laughing and urging the fight to proceed. One of the children fighting was in so much distress that he wanted the beating to stop but the father told them to keep going. Another child (the eldest, around the age of 5) tried to break up the fight, but was quickly removed. The mother of the children was outraged. She could not understand why their father would let such a thing happen.

This article relates to psychology by way of Chapter 5 (Learning- positive and negative reinforcers), the defense mechanisms, and learning by association. When the children were fighting this was an obvious sign of aggression caused by the frustration of another stimuli (someone hitting another person). The negative reinforcement of the father urging the fight on was wrong and should not have happened. Also, the negative reinforcement of pulling the 5 year old off of the fight was wrong. This could cause him to believe that fighting and letting a fight continue is okay, when it really is not. This is called associative learning (learning from whats in the world around you). The initial fact that one of the sons hit another was the defense mechanism of displacement. And the fact that the father suppressed the information was repression. That is hot this news report related to psychology.

The Movie and Biography of Antwone Fisher

antwonefisher.net

A movie that has both, inspired and taught, many people in the world is the Biographical movie "Antwone Fisher". This movie (which is based off of a true story) was about a boy named Antwone Fisher. Antwone Fisher was born to a teenage mother, who was in jail. He went through a number of foster homes where, in some, he received love and affection, while in another, he received a number of years of abuse (12 to be exact). In the movie, as a child and young man, he was scarred by the torment that he endured. Once he turned 18, he decided to go to the Navy. The flash backs still followed him. As a young man, it was hard for him to be close to the opposite sex because of the type of abuse he went through. In the movie, he endured physical, sexual, verbal, and mental abuse. Throughout the movie he also struggled with the longing to be reunited with his biological family, (this ties in the the motivational fact that everyone needs meaningful affection). By the end of the movie, with the help of a female friend and an Army Psychologist (which he became friends with), he finally found his biological family and the mending process of his life had began.

As of now, Antwone Fisher is screen writer, author, and film producer in Hollywood. He has a collection of poetry called "Who Will Cry for the Little Boy?", which depicts his life struggles and how he became the man that he is today. He is truly an inspiration to all people.

This movie relates totally to Psychology because from the beginning of his life he was brought up in an environment that statistically said that he was bound to fail. Being born in jail, and ultimately having to go into foster care sometimes makes people think less of the person because they assume that the person isn't really being taken care of. 12 years of abuse can weaken a persons confidence, cause depression, self-helplessness, and numb the person from feeling any type of emotion connections towards other people. There can be many trust issues with people who a person is not familiar of. Flash backs (located in the Long-Term Memory) and other mental and physical problems can also occur. The person can wake up in cold sweats or even be hyperventilating. When Antwone Fisher was trying to locate his biological family, he would become very frustrated with himself and other people, which then caused him to become aggressive (this relates to Social Psychology). In a particular scene in the movie, Fisher became very frustrated with his Psychologist. He displayed the defense mechanism, displacement, by arguing with his Psychologist about his problems and trying to blame it on him. I believe he also showed sublimation by joining the Navy so that he could mold his anger and discipline himself. Growing up Antwone Fisher knew that he had a rough life. When he grew up to become a man, he used his struggles for good, and triumphed over his obstacles. His mind drove him to be motivated to become the man that he is today, and that should be inspire anyone.

Keep it Balanced!

Readers Digest: November 2008 Issue, Pg: 87 "Health News You Can use- Rebalance Your Brain"
This article talked about technology and our brains. The article pointed out that technology has enhanced our lives by making things easier. In particular, video games can improve hand-eye coordination but can suppress the frontal lobe. They explained that technology in itself, can cause us to lose the social connections which protects us from stress.
This article relates to our Psychology class because with technology, such as a simple calculator, a person may develop a self-helplessness attitude about Math or other subjects. This can then cause unnecessary stress levels which is bad for our health. This article also relates to our Psychology class because it mentioned the frontal lobe, which deals with memory, attention and problem-solving. All of which can be hindered by suppression of the frontal lobe.
So to keep our minds balanced, we should balance our times in the things that we do. We should alternate between regular family dinners, computer-centered lifestyles, returning phone calls, and doing homework.

Is Everything Hard to Remember???

Readers Digest
"Memory Tricks You Won't Forget, New Ways to
Retrain your Brain"
Issue: March 2008 p. 96-101.

This article explained the multiple ways to "Retrain your brain" into remembering the everyday things that we as human beings forget. The article explained ways to remember things such as: shopping lists, peoples names, or where we left something. The following techniques that they used were: paying attention, visualizing a name, creating memorable associations repeating where we left something, making mnemonics and a host of other techniques. The article also talked about why women never forget certain events and men never remember certain events. The reason for this is because for women there is a better blood flow to the brain, along with estrogen that helps women remember better. When it comes to remembering traumatic events, estrogen and neurons play a role in women being able to recall the horrible experiences that they may have endured.
This article relates to our Psychology class in many ways. The multiple techniques were all related to Psychology in some way. In our Psychology class I learned that the reason why we forget is because of the Decay Theory, which is the act of forgetting something over any amount of time. I also learned that the simple act of paying attention takes effort, is limited, and improves the mental process. If a person would make an effort into remembering something, then they could improve their mental process overall. Paying attention is a product of reticular formation in the hind brain. This type of formation particularly deals with attention and arousal. Another technique, which is creating memorable associations relates to Psychology because when we create memorable associations we use the sensory memory senses to use sights or sounds to remember something. We also can relate uncommon things to remember things. For example, we can relate the color "Red" to remembering someone named "Ruby". Another technique that many people use, and was described in the article was repeating something continuously until processed. This is called maintenance rehearsal (method that involves repeating information in order to remember it). Mnemonics are used when trying to organize information in order to remember it. For example, "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE" are mnemonics usually used to remember the 5 lines (E, G, B, D, F) and 4 spaces (F, A, C, E) on a musical staff.
This article covered many ways to remember all sort of things. Many of which can help people in all different areas of life. Whether it be from day-to-day or special tests of some sort.

Child Development- Molestation

Essence Magazine Issue: October 2008 p. 136

The particular article that I will be analysing is about a form of abuse used against children. The abuse is called sexual molestation. In my article, famous comedian/actress Monique revealed that when she was just 7 years old, her older brother started the horrible act of molesting her. She went on to explain that he would lure her into the family bath room with candy, and then proceed to molest her. He ended up doing this 4 times over a course of 4 years. Finally, when she was 15 years old, she revealed to her parents what had been taking place for the past 4 years. If the torment of her brother was not enough, the fact that her parents did not believe her did not make it any better. They said that if it really happened then it would surface again. Now that Monique is an adult, she felt that she could not and should not hide the secret anymore. She does not want people (particularly children) who have been through her same predicament to suffer any longer.
This article relates to my Psychology class because Monique had to go through a mental process of whether to reveal that her brother was molesting her. I feel that many children are traumatized by horrible experiences like this and ultimately suppress their feelings (Repression- excluding uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and desires from consciousness) because they feel that they aren't able to tell anyone what is going on. This could lead to unhealthy behavior such as Self-Inflicted abuse, Depression, and abuse against others. This also causes ample amounts of stress to children, which can cause weakening of the immune system, and over time they can become sick. Another way that this article applies to our Psychology class is because the parents went into denial by saying "if it really happened then it will surface again". Denial is the act of refusing to acknowledge a painful or threatening reality, and Monique's parents did just that when she had said that it was their son that had done the molesting. The knowledge of their own son inflicting so much pain on their daughter was just too terrifying to believe. When Monique briefly explained how her brother would molest her this was an example of her Episodic-Memory because this was an event that she could vividly see from her past.
There are many ways that molestation can cause harm to children. Not just physically but mentally, and spiritually. There can be bodily harm, self-esteem problems, and many trust issues. With or without treatment, acts like this can affect children years after the event occurred. Children may have flash backs about a particular event in there life that can cause emotional distress (they may act out or become very anti-social). We can help by listening to children and have them talk about things that are going on in their lives. Our children should not have to stand alone in this fight. We must help them in all ways that we can. Children are our future, and we should.