Emma 7: Psychology

       Last year when we were picking classes, I chose AP psychology as one of my possibilities. At the time I didn’t know much about it other than I had an interest in areas regarding psychology such as cognitive disorders. Some of my friends that had also signed up for it told me that it would be an entertaining AP class that would be relatively easy to achieve good grades in. I also heard the teacher was very experienced and made learning psychology fun. Despite the positive reviews on the class,  I didn’t expect to love it as much as I do now.
After a semester of taking psych, I’ve come to a few conclusions about it. First of all, psychology is not just about the anticipated subjects that one would assume makes up the class. Most people tend to assume psychology and careers within this area are based mostly on anxiety, depression, and other abnormal cognitive issues. While that is an obvious part of the curriculum, those topics are only a small portion of it. We’ve covered everything from sleep to the anatomy of the brain to how sensation and perception work in only one semester. Being able to learn about so many unique topics that are unlike anything I have learned in school before has been a really fascinating experience. Psychology incorporates all types of subjects, not just what is expected.
Secondly, the brain is probably one of the craziest things to learn about. Everyone’s brain works in a different way even with simple things such as seeing colors. Some people can even connect certain words, colors, or symbols with everyday things like music. Even though our minds all work differently, our brains have the same principles in regards to many processes including hearing or observing things unconsciously. There are so many different aspects of the brain that are constantly working without us even being aware of this. Learning about how the mind works both consciously and unconsciously has allowed me to gain insight on not only my own brain, but everyone else’s around me. It’s an entirely different experience to learn about what is going on inside of you compared to learning about the world around you like so many other classes focus on.
Finally, I have discovered that I am highly uninterested in the biological components of humans. This class is the type that if you put the work into studying for the tests, you will do well on them. However, when the brain unit was going on, I had a very difficult time remembering any of the information I was studying. I probably should have studied sooner, but most of the time I start studying only two or three days in advance to the tests. I already knew from taking biology freshman year that it is not something I love to learn about, but the brain unit only confirmed this. Having to learn about synapses and neurons firing for almost three weeks made it very clear to me that biology is not my forte. If you take this class, I would recommend studying for this unit a week or two before the test, otherwise you will probably struggle with it.
Learning about what goes on inside of the mind applies to essentially every subject in the world because we use our brains for everything that we do. Mr. Angstadt is an amazing teacher, and due to having so many different topics in the class, you’re bound to find at least one of the units interesting. If you haven’t already taken it, I would definitely recommend taking AP psychology. What has been the most interesting class that you've taken so far?