AP Psychology Course Analysis

During senior year, I have thoroughly enjoyed taking Psychology AP and delving into the many intriguing topics that make up the course. The subject matter of this course is very interesting to me compared to some of my other classes like biology. I also believe that your teaching style has helped me learn the content well due to the topical outlines and entertaining lectures. Compared to other courses in which the teacher merely lectures in an organized fashion, this class has been very user-friendly in terms of understanding content. Overall, the three most intriguing topics that we have covered throughout the school year have been improving the ability to learn, sleep, and defense mechanisms. Firstly, I have enjoyed learning about how to …show more content…
While the previous topic helped me in my everyday life, sleep fascinated me. When I was about six years old, I saw an idea in a magazine about making a nightmare journal. My parents and I went to Providence Place Mall and bought the materials to make it. The book was composed of green string and googly eyes. Each time that I had a nightmare I would draw a picture and summarize the contents of the dream. This was extremely interesting to me because sometimes I would have the same nightmare more than once. I enjoyed writing down my dreams and discovering if there were any repeating patterns. On multiple occasions, there would be dreams in which I suddenly lost all of my clothing. This theme of nudity relates to a sense of embarrassment, and understanding the meaning of each dream was very intriguing throughout the course. Another intriguing aspect of sleep was how we forget the contents of dreams as time progresses. For example, during my childhood, I would often wake up and not remember any dreams. However, I enjoyed learning about methods to help remember dreams better. I have often attempted to lucid dream as well which is an interesting topic that we covered. I find it interesting that one can control their own dreams, and in some cases, I have been able to do so. Sleep disorders such as somniloquy and somnambulism were also deeply related to my personal life because my parents often say that I walk and talk …show more content…
I never realized how one uses various techniques to distort reality. Firstly, rationalization was used when I was in sixth grade in the major leagues of Little League Baseball. I was having a fantastic season and batting fifth in the lineup. In one particular game, I hit back-to-back homeruns and my confidence was at an all time high. However, then at the halfway point in the season, I hit a horrible slump. I dropped to ninth in the batting order and I believed that this was because the coach did not like me. My coach was particularly strict and often would become angry if I was one minute late to practice or if I was eating in the dugout. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that he did not like me as a person and was taking this out on me by lessening my playing time. However, in reality, I had lost confidence in my hitting ability which greatly affected my performance. Another defense mechanism that we learned about was sublimation which involves acting out impulses in socially acceptable ways. I often do this by watching either motorsports, NFL, or other sporting events. I also find that playing video games or riding my electric skateboard alllw me to do this. Overall, I really enjoyed learning about these defense mechanisms because they truly impact my everyday life. I use several of them each day which demonstrates the presence of psychology in the real