Author: etfallon

How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

etfallon on

How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior written by Leonard Mlodinlow discusses a unique perspective on the human brain. Many don’t realize how our unconscious drives we are not aware of motivate our behavior in our everyday lives. For example, an individual’s need to eat, have sex, or seek out love are all examples of our unconscious mind depicting our behavior from an evolutionary stand point. Often times many people get so caught up in the busyness of life they don’t take the time to think about their behavior and the reasoning behind it. This book provides an answer to that question. Minlow’s book dives deep into the unconscious state of the brain and the impact it has on our lives.

 

How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior discusses the many psychologists who attempted to seek out a reasoning for our behavior. From the 1800’s to modern day psychology, this book talks about the different theories behind behavior as well as background knowledge on the history of this research. While at first this bored me, I later found it helpful to learn about the foundation of research before continuing my reading. It helped me with my overall understanding of essentially why our thoughts control our behavior. It also defines what an unconscious state of mind truly consists of and how humans are unaware of what processes happen in the brain. I found this to be very interesting learning about which parts of the brain control or emotions, memory, learning, etc.

 

This book also analyzes the psychodynamic aspect of psychology as well as therapy. The psychodynamic theory consists of essentially our unconscious psychological processes (for example, fears) that relate back to our early life. This approach was first introduced by Sigmund Freud, one of the world most influential yet controversial psychologists. Mlodinlow often discusses Freud’s work and its’ impact on the psychodynamic approach of psychology and treatment. As for psychodynamic therapy, this therapy focuses in on how our childhood or past experiences influence or current behavior and how we can become more self aware in order to better ourselves. 

 

Mlodinow also discusses the use of subliminal messages used in everyday society and the effect that can have on ones brain and their actions. I found this espescially interesting because it was the first time I had ever heard of this concept and Mlodinow emphasizes the effects. It heavily focuses in on the brain’s perceptions of cognitions (thoughts) and labels of emotions leading to our perceptions of events and experiences that happen to us. 

 

I overall found this book to be very very interesting and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in psychology or is looking to explore the reasoning behind their behavior. I would caution that it can be very boring in the beginning when Mlodinlow discusses the early history of psychology but it is very essential for understanding the rest of the text. This book can also be very helpful in exploring one’s own reasoning behind their behavior. 

Friends

etfallon on

Friends is an American sitcom airing from 1994-2004 that focuses on 3 men and 3 women in their late 20’s living in the same apartment complex in New York City. Monica Geller (played by Courtney Cox) and Ross Geller (played by David Schwimmer) are brother and sister. They are 2 of the main characters and are very close throughout all 10 seasons. Monica is a chef and Ross is a paleontologist who eventually becomes a college professor. Monica and Ross are both very organized and type A, while Ross is more of a nerd. Ross’s college roommate and best friend Chandler Bing (played by Matthew Perry) is also one of the main characters. He and Ross remain close throughout the show and he ends up in a serious relationship with Monica, and the 2 eventually get married. Chandler works as an accountant and is often found making sarcastic and pessimistic jokes towards his friends. He is not super close to his parents and uses his friends as his main support system. In the very first episode, Monica ends up reuniting with her best friend from high school, Rachel Greene, (played by Jennifer Anniston). Rachel and Monica had their differences as Rachel was the popular girl in high school and Monica was often the victim of many jokes from her peers. All throughout high school, Ross had a crush on Rachel but she viewed him as Monica’s older dorky brother but that soon starts to change. When she finds Monica, Rachel has just been cut off and is running away from her wedding. Monica takes her in and eventually Rachel lands a job working at Ralph Lauren and finds her way. Throughout the rest of the seasons, Rachel and Ross remain in an on and off relationship but end up having a child together. Their 2 other friends, Joey Tribbiani (played by Matt LeBlanc) and Pheobe (played by Lisa Kudrow) are big parts of the show as well. Joey is an actor on Days of Our lives and is the stereotypical guy who often goes out with girls and enjoys watching sports. Phoebe, a massage therapist, is a free spirit who often sings in the cafe and gets herself into trouble. She had a rough upbringing as her mother killed herself and she was living on the streets of New York City by the age of 14. Although her twin sister Ursula did not, and the 2 do not keep in contact. Over the course of 10 years, this group of 6 friends experiences life together in New York City and help each other through relationship, family, and work problems.

Greys Anatomy

etfallon on

Greys’ Anatomy is a TV show on ABC that began in 2005 and is currently on it’s 16th season. It focuses around Meredith Grey the daughter of a world famous surgeon who recently died from Alzheimers, and an alcoholic father who she later reconnects with. The show follows her life from when she began as an intern and eventually up to her becoming an attending at her own hospital. Throughout this show, she reconnects with her biological sister Maggie, meets her husband Derek, and has 3 kids. Together, Meredith and Derek adopted their first kid Zola, who was a pro-bono patient from Africa. Later on they have 2 kids of their own, Bailey and Ellis. Her husband Derek, a neurosurgeon at the same hospital, dies in a car crash right before the birth of their 3 child, Bailey, who was named after the boss of the hospital. Throughout all 16 seasons, she meets friends like Alex and Christina, who are also her co-workers, who help her through the hard times of losing her husband and surviving a plane crash. In an earlier season, the main characters were on a private plane to deliver donor organs to another patient at another hospital. The plane ended up crashing which causes trauma for all of them that they all work to overcome. Many of them suffered injuries and all had to find each other and get help after the plane had crashed. In the current season, Meredith is at risk of losing her medical license over insurance fraud. A newly Hispanic man who recently immigrated to America couldn’t afford a surgery for his daughter and applied for aid from the government but wasn’t eligible for financial help. He was working 2 jobs while it was just him and his daughter in America and the rest of the family was back in Mexico. Meredith seeing this wants to help so she says it was her own daughter who was receiving the surgery. Her best friend Alex, and the former boss Richard, both knew and helped her perform the surgery. This results in all of them being fired and forced to find other hospitals to work at. Despite Meredith owning the hospital. Meredith has to do community service as a consequence which she often skips to look after her children and ends up in federal prison for 30 days. While she is in prison, her sister Maggie and boyfriend look after her children but it is difficult for Meredith to not be at work or not around her kids. For Alex and Richard, they find a new hospital to work at which is a low rated hospital that doesn’t have the resources to properly take care of patients. They are trying to turn the hospital around so that patients can receive good care but nothing seems to be working. I really enjoy this TV show because I find the medical world very interesting and I like how they also focus on the medical advancements being made each day through research and testing.

Standardized Testing

etfallon on

Each year in America, every student is forced to take multiple standardized tests with the purpose of measuring what they have learned. The irony is that these tests tend to do the exact opposite of what they were designed for. Many times when students score poorly they immediately label themselves as, “dumb”, or  “stupid”. It seems as if American society has used standardized testing as not only a measure of learning but also a measure of worth. I too, among many other Naperville North students, am guilty of using a test score to determine a sense of self-value. It seems almost impossible for a student to not put emphasis on a test score when they are surrounded by an atmosphere that is constantly reminding them how important their score is. Students are told from the moment they enter high school that their SAT or ACT score is used to determine what college they’ll be accepted to. Which in the mind of a teenager also determines how the rest of their lives will turn out. While I do not think testing all together should be dismissed from schools, I do think it’s our job to stop putting so much emphasis on them. 

At the beginning of my junior year, my parents and I decided it would be a good idea for me to start one on one tutoring for the ACT. I had previously taken the other required standardized tests such as the PSAT and PACT and my scores had marked me in the “below average” category. My parents had brushed it off, claiming “I was just a bad test taker” and that I was smart but my test scores didn’t always reflect that. It was a really bad feeling to receive my scores in the mail, just to open them and find out I was labeled based on a number. While I wasn’t thrilled upon receiving these scores, I somewhat brushed it off because I still had a year or 2 before I had to start seriously thinking about college. When my parents decided to sign me up for tutoring starting junior year, I was somewhat eager to take the ACT and be done with it. I began going to tutoring twice a week which took up most of my time after school but I already had the mindset that I was bound to get a “below average” score no matter the amount of tutoring I received. Going in with this mindset only made testing harder for me, but how could I feel confident knowing I was below average? My parents and tutor began to worry more and more about how I would be able to get into the colleges’ of my choice and as a result, I only became more stressed. They wanted me to figure out what college I wanted to go to, what they’re requirements are, if they superscore, and if I had any chance of getting accepted. It seemed like I had to somehow figure out the rest of my life just to take a simple test. Looking at the majority of my college’s requirements, I began to get nervous that I wouldn’t be able to get accepted anywhere. I began to feel less compared to everyone else, and it was like I really was “below average”. While it’s common knowledge that standardized testing isn’t a perfect system for measuring intelligence, I also think it’s important to consistently remind high schoolers that these tests aren’t everything. The reason these tests cause so much stress for teenagers is the amount of pressure and emphasis that’s put on them by teachers and parents. When I had finally taken the ACT for the first time in December of my junior year, I had not received the score I was hoping for. At this point, I had been spending 2 days a week preparing for it and even doing extra homework that was given to me by my tutor outside of school. On multiple occasions, I had woken up at 6 am on Saturday mornings to take a practice ACT for 4 hours with my tutor to make sure I was ready. I scored high on these practice tests but when it came down to the real ACT I cracked under the pressure-there was almost a 10 point difference between my practice tests and real tests. It seemed like I was capable of getting the score I desired, but sitting down in a chair for 4 hours, knowing that every college I apply to will judge me based on this score, terrified me. I had thought about the fact that my parents and tutor had always said the same thing, that I was just a bad test taker, but I had to watch my peers receive perfect scores. After talking it over with my tutor, she had informed me about something called test anxiety. According to the American Test Anxiety Association, about 16-20% of students have severe test anxiety and another 18% have moderate test anxiety. This causes students to blank or freeze on tests and also causes students to perform 12 percentile points below their peers (about half a letter grade below). With that being said, I think it can be concluded that it is unreasonable for anyone- including colleges- to label, base, or judge someone based on a test score. The teenage years can be a time of vulnerability and confusion and high levels of pressure can only add to that. I think it’s important to realize that teenagers are very irrational thinkers; one mistake to a teenager can feel like the end of the world. In order to solve this issue, I think it’s time to stop putting pressure on students when it comes to standardized testing. Instead, reassure them that one test doesn’t define how smart they are or what they will do with their lives. It wasn’t until just this past month that I had taken the ACT for the fourth and final time and finally gotten a score that I was proud of- which is a perfect example of needing to feel comfortable and less stressed in order to do well on a test.

As a high school student and someone who just very recently overcame the struggle of taking standardized tests, I think it’s important we talk about the pressure the ACT and SAT puts on students. It’s a topic being more and more talked about each day as more people are becoming more aware of it. I encourage anyone reading this, whether you’re a student or teacher, to take a step back and think about how a test score is just a number and how it doesn’t measure intelligence. I hope that in the future students will be able to take these tests and not feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. 

 

Works Cited 

“American Test Anxieties Association – Joining Professionals, Researchers, And Educators.” Amtaa.org. N. p., 2019. Web. 14 Oct. 2019.

What are the pro’s and con’s of technology?

etfallon on

It’s no secret that technology has made a long-lasting impact on everyone’s modern-day lives. While the internet can have both positive and negative effects on our sociability and brain, it’s true that it can be a resource for almost anyone and any question.

Technology impacts brain development, especially if an individual is exposed to electronics at a young age. It can affect things like memory, attention, and sleep cycles. According to mdhs.unimelb.org, “Attention and focus in humans has been examined by brain scans. A study using neuroimaging of frequent Internet users showed twice as much activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain compared to sporadic users. This is the part of the brain that is used for short-term memory and quick decision-making”. This shows the negative impact technology has had on our brain, almost as if we are always over-stimulated and working at 2x the pace we need to.

Having too much exposure can also cause Digital Eye Strain, according to American Optometric Association. Symptoms include things like blurred vision, dried eyes, headaches, and neck and shoulder pain. Holding a phone while slouching unnaturally or leaning-forward position can cause excessive pain in the upper back area. According to healthline.com, “An earlier study found that among teens, neck-shoulder pain and low back pain rose during the 1990s at the same time that the use of information and communication technology was increasing”.

Having access to electronics can also have a lot of positive effects as well. About 2/3 adults think that technology has helped improve things such as medical science.  Over the years, technology has allowed many people to learn new things and communicate more effectively and easily. According to pewresearch.org, “Other ways technology is seen to have a positive effect on society include increased knowledge and understanding, improvements in industry and jobs and an interconnectedness of the world as a result of globalization”.

Overall, technology has lead to many medical advancements over the past 20 years and has helped ordinary American citizens have a voice. On the other hand, the overuse of technology can lead to many negative effects such as digital eye strain.

 

Are Our Prisons Over Crowded with People who are Mentally Ill?

etfallon on

Cyntoia Brown was only 16 when she was convicted of the murder of a man who she was forced to have sex with. She ran away from a cocaine addict mother at 15 and was forced into sex trafficking while also being brutally raped and assaulted multiple times. She was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison over an act of self-defense. Many people think the Cyntoia Brown case is an example of the unreasonable incarceration of a teenage victim.

For the past few years, controversies surrounding prisons have been the talk of American politics. According to a 2005 survey conducted by The U.S Department of Justice, there are approximately 356,000 inmates in American state prisons with serious mental disorders and only 35,000 individuals in state psychiatric wards. This means that there is about 10x more individuals with mental illness in state prisons than in hospitals. American prisons should not be replacing mental hospitals. Instead, American citizens on trial should be given access to the mental health care needed in order to get better. 

It’s not a coincidence that 6 out of 10 states with the least access to mental health care have the highest rates of incarceration. This shows a direct correlation between mental illness and those who are imprisoned. Instead of offering American citizens the help they need, we are sending them to prison which in turn takes a negative toll on their mental state. This also causes our prisons to overcrowd and is costing our taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Sending the mentally ill to prison instead of offering them help also causes the overcrowding of prisons. This can lead to poor prison conditions such as no healthcare, poor sanitation, and not enough food. In 2014, 18 states were operating their prisons at more than 100% capacity. This shows how common it is for prisons to overcrowd and for prisoners to be denied basic human rights such as food. 

While many may argue that criminals should be held responsible for their actions, and while I agree with that, I think that those who are incarcerated with mental illnesses or who have experienced trauma should be sent to a court-ordered rehab facility instead of jail. This would allow them to receive treatment and work on their mental health in hopes of being better individuals when released. It would also contribute towards improving the conditions of prisons and providing better resources for those in jail. 

Incarcerating American citizens who struggle with mental illness is a human rights issue. American citizens are deserving of basic needs such as food and healthcare, including access to mental health help. When one spends their life in prison, they are stripped of their rights and oftentimes their mental health becomes more severe, causing an even more unsafe environment in and outside of a cell.

About Me

etfallon on

My name is Ellie Fallon and I live in Naperville, Illinois with both of my parents. I have 3 older siblings, 2 sisters and a brother, who have all graduated from college. My oldest sister Kalie graduated from Ohio State and is now going back to school at the University of Colorado Boulder. My brother Drew and sister Molly are twins and both live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Molly graduated from Marquette and is now studying to become a nurse practitioner at Alverno College. Drew studied business at the University of Miami-Ohio and got a job in Milwaukee and now he and sister get to see each other very often because they now live less than a mile away from each other. My parents and I frequently make trips to Milwaukee to see both of them. My parents also both graduated from Marquette University which is where they met so they both really enjoy visiting my sister. For the past 3 years, I played lacrosse at North and have met a lot of friends from being apart of a team. It also taught me a lot of valuable life lessons and I was able to form strong relationships with all my coaches. Even though I am happy I’ve played lacrosse for the past 3 years of my life, I’ve decided to not play this year because I want to focus more on college and my academics as well as senior year. I also really enjoy hanging out with my friends outside of school whenever I can and I enjoy being social and attending school events like football games. I also like spending my free time on the weekend outside and being active. I also like listening to music and going to concerts with my friends.