Austins Blog

Awe Walk So the last week in class we talked about positive psychology and some ways we could use specific techniques or events in our life's to become more positive or happy. After our discussion we were called out to use some of these techniques in our lives or to go out and experience new things that would inspire certain feelings. With this push, I decided to go on what Dr. Pris called Awe walks. Over this week, I took two awe walks and they actually led to two awesome experience. The first walk I took was around the Abilene State Park. Though this park wasn't a new place to me it was still a new experience. I drove to the pool about 8 o'clock and got out of my car. Starting at the pool I decided to walk a path I had never taken before. I walked down some steps behind the pool down to a relatively empty creak. From here I could hear running water and actually happened upon a creek with a little more water. Here I found a large rock and sat down and listened the runnin...

Depression Dean Borcik Symptoms? "I was angry at the world and I consistently felt down for no apparent reason." Why did you decide to go to the doctor? "I actually decided to go the doctor because of an ad on TV I had seen about depression. It asked all these questions and every one I answered seemed to be yes. It came to my attention that I may be depressed so I decided to take action." Diagnosis? "The doctor came in and just started asking me an assortment of questions. That was all he really did and then he came to the conclusion that I was depressed." Major Challenges? "Marriage was great and everything seemed to be okay so I just blamed it on my job. I almost left a job that I loved and had had for 10 years." What was it like to live with Depression? "It was pretty much Hell. I didn't want to associate with anyone. Just wanted to be alone." Treatment? "At that point, they immediately put me on medicine. It...

#PsychStory Alright, so this story is not my own but of someone extremely close to me. This particular story of love and persistence is about Allie Borcik. If you don't already see the connection by name alone, this is my sister. Because this is a personal story I won't go into too much detail. Shortly after her 19th birthday, Allie gave birth to my first nephew, Matias. It was rough but if anyone could do it was her.  At the time, her and Matias's father were together but after showing a constant neglect towards Allie and a lack of motivation to do what a father should do they decided to separate. Discouraged by the fact she was now a single mother, she turned to family for help. Nevertheless, she continued to press on, to work hard, and to be the best mother she could be. Over the next five years, she spent time at some different kinds of jobs and had a few major relationships that didn't quite work out. She was confused about how to go about life as a single moth...

Behavior Modification Exercise So on a typical day I work out for about and hour and a half, eat pretty well and get a decent amount of sleep. However I don't exactly hydrate myself how I should. I typically drink any where from 44-80 ounces of soda a day. I know right, not too healthy. So for this week I decided to try to cut out soda. For each day I was able to go without drinking a soda, I would put 5 dollars towards a new video game and everyday I drank a soda I would remove 5 dollars. My Week/ Exercise Day 1 Alright so day one was a normal day I went to class and then my typical 11am workout. Afterwards I was pretty parched so I ran over to the pod and got myself a soda. Obviously I failed here, I forgot about the experiment but as soon as I took a few sips I realized what I had done and threw it away. The rest of the day went pretty smooth and I made sure there were no more slip ups. So I wasn't perfect for the day but seeing that I showed restraint and threw...

Learning/ Classical Conditioning Alright, so this week in my psychology class were learning about well "Learning". but the tricky thing is the learning we were talking about is not the kind that happens in any ordinary classroom. We learned how a psychologist would define learning. This learning is not taught by an individual but by everyday events that influence our future behavior. This learning happens when we notice them around us and relate them to others or relate a certain action to a consequence. Through this process of learning we become conditioned to react the same way. Its funny humans are not the only ones who have the capacity to learn and be conditioned. In the early 1900's, a Russian psychologist by the name of Ivan Pavlov made an accident discovery during an experiment where he was working with dogs. In this experiment Pavlov and his assistant had a few dogs harnessed up and they would then bring these dogs food. The intended experiment was to bring t...

          Alright, so today I took a personality assessment. I'd love to show you the results but first we need some explanation on what a personality assesment is and why we take them. A personality assessment is a test used to determine personal characteristics for diagnosing pyschological problems, assessing job candidates or simply out of personal intrest. Personality test can measure things such as feelings, emotional states or even how you approach your relationships.  So as you can see I took the Jung Typology Test. This test is based on Carl Jungs Personality theory. This test consisted of 64 question with 5 answer choices. The test has a total of 16 possible results along with some more precise percentages to show qualities such as extroversion or intuition. My results were as follows. ENFP EXTROVERT 41% ( I had a moderate preference of extroversion over introversion). INTUITIVE 22%  (I had a slight preference of intuition over s...