Reflection of Psychology 1010:

At the beginning of the semester I had a very general knowledge of what

psychology was. I knew it was the study of the mind and behaviorism but didnt know
exactly what that consisted of. I learned about different people who studied psychology
and their role in what we know now about behaviorism. I learned about the brain and
what happens within the brain and also learned illnesses that affect the brain. I was given
the privilege to work with a group of other students studying intelligence and what makes
up intelligence. Anatomy of the brain, illnesses of the mind and brain, and theories of the
brain is just a small piece of what I have learned in Psychology 1010 this semester.
Along with taking psychology this semester I was taking a human anatomy class.
It was so awesome to me that as I was learning about the different parts of the brain I was
also learning about what went on in each part of the brain. I learned in my anatomy class
each section of the brain for example the different ventricles, lobes, midbrain, ect. In
psychology I was leaning that the midbrain helps us orient ourselves in our specific
environment. I was learning that the pons relays information from the cerebellum to the
rest of the brain. It was perfect to be taking there two classes together because I was able
to not only see the structure of the brain but I was also able to learn what went on in each
sectional portion of the brain and how that effects the mind and thinking.
I learned in this class illnesses that affect the mind and brain. I loved learning
about these because I am studying to be a nurse and come in direct contact with people
that suffer from these illnesses daily in my career. I also learned about dissociative
disorders in which I had never heard of before. Dissociative disorders affect cognitive
processes in the mind. It is important for me to be aware of mental illnesses so that I can
recognize them in my patients and those I come in contact with so I can treat them
accordingly.
Intelligence is something that before taking this course I thought of as simply how
smart someone was. After doing a group research project on intelligence and creating a
website on intelligence I have learned that there is so much more to intelligence than just
how smart you are. Intelligence is something that has been studied for centuries. Some
believe that intelligence is something that runs in your family. Meaning that you either
have it in your genes or not. Others believe that your environment can determine your
intelligence. An example of this would be when 2 identical twins grow up in different
environments. Are the two twins going to have the same intelligence or are they going to
be intelligent based on their environment and experiences they have had growing up?
Depending on your outlook you may think they will have different intelligence because
of their individual experiences. Intelligence also has different methods of being
measured. As most of us know an IQ test is supposed to measure a persons general
intelligence. I learned that these tests only give you a score based on the average score of
what others have scored. They also do not take into consideration life experience.
Meaning one person could have a lot of background in a certain subject and not in others
and score high or low depending on what their background is in. Intelligence is a very
complex thing that has much more to it than just how smart someone is.
This class has taught me so much about the mind and how the mind affects the
overall well being of a person. I know that my job as a future nurse is going to be taking
care of the physical well being of my patients. Physical well being if directly effected by

mental well being. It is important that psychology is part of my career so that I am able to
fully assist my patients in good health.