Psychology overall has given me so many different perspectives on living life to

the fullest and more efficiently to a less stressful life. When it comes to taking apart and

comprehending the human brain and mind, we learn facts about them that is shockingly

convenient in everyday living. For me, the information gathered from psychology has helped me

with my life as a college student in how to live a stress-free life and receiving the most optimal

sleep every day. In addition to studying psychology, it has also taught me how an individual’s

memory works and why.

Learning psychology has given me so many different perspectives on living life to the fullest and

more efficiently to a less stressful life. When it comes to taking apart and comprehending the

human brain and mind, we learn facts about them that is shockingly convenient in everyday

living. For me, the information gathered from psychology has helped me with my life as a

college student in how to live a stress-free life and receiving the most optimal sleep every day. In

addition to studying psychology, it has also taught me how an individual’s memory works and

why. This course, Introduction to Psychology, has given me an essential understanding of

comprehending the most difficult psychological practices along with which branch it correlates

too.

Personal Life:

Taking psychology as a class everyday has definitely helped me in how I perceive everyday

living. The majority of people say that having eight hours of sleep is essential in being well
rested for the next day; but keeping daily sleeping patters, will result in people being more rested

than taking naps throughout the day (Grison, Heatherton, Gazzaniga). Studies show that getting

six hours of sleep on a daily basis is far better than just receiving only four. Studies also

informed readers about the 5 stages of sleep with Stages 1-4 then REM sleep, in other words

called, rapid eye movement’ (Grison, Heatherton, Gazzaniga). The first four stages of the sleep

cycle resets about ninety minute intervals before each stage reaches the maximum time needed to

wake up from REM to Stage I; “these stages are so close to conscious cranial activity” (Grison,

Heatherton, Gazzaniga). This course of psychology has not only has benefitted me with solving

struggles of everyday living, but overcoming both stress and anxiety each and every day. First,

taking psychology has showed me that any form of anxiety is not only socially acceptable, but

can be beneficial in some ways too. Studies have proven that when the human goes through the

processes of stress it is called General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS (Grison, Heatherton,

Gazzaniga). As a student in college, undergoing stress for my body, it enters a deeper

understanding of resistance to illness, viruses, and diseases. Going through any form of stress

will benefit the human body until the stress passes or when exhaustion stage weakens the body

(Grison, Heatherton, Gazzaniga). As a class, we learned that viewing stress is a good thing for it

helps the human bodies to rise above set challenges set in front of us. Harnessing that stress and

using it is a stimulant, more is achieved.

Academic Life:

Applying psychology to everyday school life is a whole another aspect of living that needs more

control and action. From past college experience, getting stressed due to large amounts of

homework from each class, I have learned to start working on assignments in little increments of
time. For example, working on a research paper or on a math assignment, I need to start those

assignments at the beginning of the week or two weeks in advance. Getting small amounts of

homework done, these tasks eventually build up and reaching the weekend, I can relax and enjoy

my days off stress-free. When it comes to proper time management, I must first locate my stress

sensors and tackle them and confront them as soon as possible before having a breakdown or

feeling overly stressed (Grison, Heatherton, Gazzaniga). Going over different copying

mechanisms, such as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, figuring out which style works for an

individual is key. Personally, my learning style is auditory meaning I gather information best

through the process of hearing and connecting relevant information to specific songs and even

music genres (Grison, Heatherton, Gazzaniga). Following, I am a hands-on worker, meaning an

approaching another way of learning, benefits the individual when knowing their actions of what

they are learning. This results in learning different methods to math problems; when I solve these

types of problems, I physically need to show my work on a separate sheet of paper with all the

steps shown rather than having a teacher solve the problem for me on a whiteboard. Lastly,

visual is my last learning style, meaning retaining information through watching.

Professional Life:

When applying psychology to the professional life, using everything of what is taught and

learned, this is applicable in becoming a high school teacher along the lines of being a therapist

too. Using social psychology in figuring out personality types for all individuals will benefit the

therapist when working with a wide range of patients and students. Using the ten most positive

characteristics in manipulating recipients to trust me as their counselor and befriending me as a

person (Grison, Heatherton, Gazzaniga). In addition, group sessions could benefit in large group

settings whereas it will only benefit the individual whereas many people participate in group

discussion share their problems, stresses, and fears. Like I said in my academic life above, time

management is a key factor when making a schedule in order to meet students and other patients

while not overburdening myself and even coworkers. When working with patients, it is good to

keep in mind the faultiness of the human brain is crucial. Upon researching this topic of false

memories, it came to my realization of how there are so many uncountable traumatic causes due

to memories being false. Further researching, I came across this interesting article, by Dr. Krissy

Wells and Dr. Christopher C. French, about how false memories can be easily formed. Likewise,

these actions by both Dr. Wells and French discovered that small verbal ques are subject by

actors or by psychics. In the end, these results swayed subjects towards in after it being placed on

the table (Wells and Charles, 2014). This raises the question of how much work is needed when

it comes to undoing false memories. But, however, that is another time for another place.

References

Grison, Heatherton, & Gazzaniga. (n.d.). Psychology in Your Life (Second ed.). W.W. Norton &

Company, Inc.

doi:https://digital.wwnorton.com/psychlife2-33302

Krissy, e., & Christopher Charles, F. (2014). Magic and memory: Using conjuring to explore the

effects of suggestion, social influence and paranormal belief on eyewitness testimony for an

ostensibly paranormal event. Frontiers In Psychology, Vol 5 (2014),

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01289/full