Psych Insight

Psychology Insight

Issue #5, December 4, 2013

PSA from a GRE Survivor

Upcoming Events

by Danielle Nelson

The worst abbreviation in the history of ever: GRE. It is the dreaded Graduate Record Examination that many graduate programs require for admission. The General GRE is comprised of three sections: Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical Writing. The Verbal section is made up of sentence comparisons, fill-in-the-blanks, and reading comprehension questions that help to gauge the student’s general English comprehension abilities. The Quantitative section is the numbers portion that presents a variety of questions including geometry, quantity comparisons, algebraic equations, numeric entry, and data analysis. The Analytical Writing portion is made up of two essays. The first is for you to analyze an issue and present your educated opinion on a certain statement that is provided for you. The second is for you to analyze an argument and essentially find the weaknesses in the argument to prove you are knowledgeable in argumentative fallacies.

So basically what I’m trying to say is that it is the most fun thing you’ll ever do. …not really. It’s pretty awful. But it will be less awful if you dedicate the time and effort to studying for it. Get a book, get a tutor, take a class, do a bunch of online questions, pray to the sweet Lord… do as many of those things as possible because in truth, this test is difficult. It asks questions that you may not remember from when you took math in high school or from those vocabulary books in middle school.

Even the most competent people need to study and get ready for this test.

Fall Quarter Course Evaluations Completing the course evaluations is a good way to give feedback to your professors about your classes. Many professors offer extra credit for completing these surveys, but your input is valuable regardless.

December 4 - December15 Final Exams Final Exams are held from Monday, December 9 to Thursday, December 12. We wish you the best of luck on all of your exams!

December 9 – December 12 Winter Break Winter break starts on December 12nd and ends on January 5th.

December 12 – January 5 “We are all much more simply human than otherwise.”

– Harry Stack Sullivan

My final piece of advice? The day before the test: relax. Sleep. Go for a long walk and clear your head. Sleep for like 85 hours the night before so you are rested and ready to go on game day. Good luck, my friends!

Quick Facts Test Name: GRE revised General Test Date & Location: Offered year-round by appointment, across the nation.

Exam Breakdown: Verbal, Quantitative, Analytical Writing

Is there hope? Yes. How do I study for it?

Prep classes, online or offline Practice books Practice!

Psychology Insight

Issue #5, December 4, 2013

Through the Camera Lens

The first pre-vespers of the year was on Friday, October 18, at Dr. Bruce and Charlene Bainum’s residence. Attendees enjoyed tacos, complimentary of the Psychology Club.

For this year’s Fall Fest, the Psychology Club sold Jamba Juice and frozen bananas.

We completely sold out the Jamba Juice, and our banana booth (and the suit) looked pretty good!

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Psychology Insight

Issue #5, December 4, 2013

Psychology Alumni, Where are They Now? Name: Carolina Meza Age: 22 Hometown: Oxnard, CA Graduate school: California School of Professional PsychologyLos Angeles.

What are you studying at CSPP? The degree I am pursuing is Doctor of Psychology (PsyD).

What is the most challenging aspect of Grad School?

The most challenging aspect is the transition from living in a dorm to living by yourself. I believe that living by oneself will help you mature from being a teenager to becoming an adult. School always brings its own difficulties, but the psychology professors in PUC really prepare you for graduate school (especially Dr. Fulton's test essays and Dr. Schneider’s multiple choice questions).

What is most rewarding part of Grad School?

The most rewarding part of graduate school would be the people and the professors. The students are no longer competing to receive the highest grades in order to be accepted into another school (although you may be competing for APA internships with other schools as well). In CSPP, the students help one another understand the material in order to later become a competent psychologist. Also, the professors want the best for you so they challenge your ability to think for yourself and do not spoon-feed you answers.

Is there anything you wish you did/didn’t do while you were at PUC? I wish I had taken Educational Psychology from the Education Department and Industrial Organization Psychology from the Business Department in PUC. I had not known that those were available. Also, I would work more than I did in order to save a lot of money to help me out with living expenses.

What is your one piece of advice for undergraduate PUC psychology majors?

It is difficult to just give one piece of advice. One broad piece of advice is to create good habits now, such as turning things on time, reading course material, exercising, eating well, volunteering, etc. Those habits will be beneficial when nobody is telling you what to do.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat A book review by Edna Tang

In “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” neurologist Oliver Sacks presents a series of case studies offering glimpses into the experiences of patients who live with diverse and often unimaginable neurological disorders.

From phantom limbs and severe memory loss to visual agnosia and musical epileptic seizures, his “clinical tales” range from the well-known to the utterly bizarre. Yet regardless of the condition, under Sacks’ pen, all of these tales become more than an objective, clinical diagnosis. His writing is graceful, inquisitive and even funny at times, and shows him to be a skilled and observant clinician. No matter each patient’s story, he maintains an attitude of hope and wants to help them find their strengths. These stories can make us thankful not only for the many abilities we know we have, but for all of the ones that we were not even aware we could lose. But also, and perhaps most powerfully, Sacks’ writing shows the compassion of a man who relates to his patients as fellow human beings. He never allows his readers to forget that he is sharing stories that belong to real people who, for all their neurological deficits or excesses, are not so different from you and I as we may think. As a result, his observations and meditations are not only peering in on people living with unusual conditions, but they are relevant to all of us. For example, after reading some of these stories, we may have to reconsider how we think of “illness”, human “personality” and “identity”, and what makes living meaningful. Notably, while Sacks has established a reputation both as an author and doctor over the years, not all of the press has been positive; some, including fellow medical colleagues, have suggested that his writing puts his patients “on show.” This was not my impression and these voices have been the dissenting minority, but read Sacks and judge for yourself!

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Psychology Insight

Issue #5, December 4, 2013

Helping Fellow Beings Article Summary

Social causes such as public health or reducing waste benefit the entire community, not just the individual.

However, because the benefits are shared among many, people may be reluctant to comply with social causes. Ahn, Kim, and Aggarwal (2013) examined anthropomorphism as a potential method for increasing compliance with social causes. They proposed that anthropomorphizing a social cause will cause anticipatory guilt, and consequently, increase compliance with the cause.

Three experiments were conducted to test out this hypothesis. In the first experiment, participants were shown a poster encouraging energy conservation. In the anthropomorphized poster, a light bulb with a face drawn in asked the viewer to “turn me off”. The control poster featured a light bulb without a face, and a statement that asked the viewer to “turn the lights off”. Those shown the anthropomorphized light bulbs reported more willingness to comply with the energy conservation message. The second experiment assessed anticipatory guilt as well as expected compliance; in addition to their likelihood of compliance, participants were asked to report their anticipated guilt if they did not comply with the campaign. Consistent with the first experiment, those exposed to an anthropomorphized poster reported higher compliance and higher anticipated guilt.

Posters used in Experiment 2

The third experiment was a field experiment, in order to measure actual behavior. Consumers in a coffee shop were exposed to a poster asking for donations for a tree-planting campaign. Number of donors and amount of donation were both higher when the anthropomorphized poster was used.

These findings suggest that anthropomorphism can be a useful tool in eliciting compliance to social causes. Especially considering expensive and often ineffective policies designed to promote such causes, anthropomorphism is definitely worth trying out.

Ahn, H.K., Kim, H.J., Aggarwal, P. (2013). Helping fellow beings: Anthropomorphized social causes and the role of anticipatory guilt. Psychological Science. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0956797613496823

Psychology Insight PUC Psychology Club One Angwin Ave Angwin, CA 94508

Work belongs to Lizz Lunney. Find her at http://www.lizzlizz.com.

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