Why Thought Suppression is Counter-Productive (Extra Credit)

http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/05/why-thought-suppression-is-counter-productive.php#more-6059

This article explores the reason for the thoughts we try to suppress coming back at us. They looked at many tests done, and found something called a "Thought Rebound." That is when the thought that is trying to be surpressed comes back stronger, and happens a lot. One study had some people try to not think about a white bear. The other people weren't told to do anything. They spoke their thoughts out loud, and any time they thought of a white bear they had to ring a bell. The ones trying to not think about the white bear rang the bell twice as much as the others. This is shown to happen a lot. It happens more with emotional memories, as more tests have found. Then it was thought that practice as suppressing a memory made it easier to suppress. This theory was tested and it was found out that that was a correct assumption. Practice makes perfect.

At the end the article ponders why this would happen. To some people it seems like their brain is being disobedient. A theory known as "ironic processes theory" explains that when the brain is told to suppress something, the unconscious checks to see if it is being correctly suppressed, while the conscious is trying to distract itself. Once the unconscious picks up on a signal that reminds it of the suppressed thought, the distraction turns off and the suppressed thought comes back up.

This was a great article, that wasn't just interesting but also comprehendable. It was concise and to-the-point, and I got everything I needed to know out of it. Thought suppression is something I sometimes wonder about, and this article was very helpful in my understanding of the subject, in not just why it happens, but also how it happens.

It is also very relevant to psychology, especially people trying to suppress bad thoughts. A person might be trying to suppress the thoughts, and after reading this article realize that that isn't helping, and try to find something else to do. This is something a lot of depressed people have to deal with. This article also includes a paragraph about how suppressing bad feelings of depression makes them come back stronger, and is therefore unhelpful.

Panic Attacks and Anxiety (Extra Credit)

http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/panic_attacks/anxiety.html

This article explains the different sides of anxiety attacks, such as how we got to have them, why we have them, how they spread to different situations, and how to cure them. It begins by giving us a story about a woman who lived in a tribe, way before technology, who was gathering twigs in the wild. She encountered a bear near a rocky cliff, and was attacked. It was a bad experience, so whenever she was near another rocky cliff, she would have what we now call a "panic attack", a great feeling of unease that made her run away. This story demonstrates that we are not 'man the hunter' as we have been called before, but 'man the hunted', we had to be careful and fearful of wild animals that could attack us, and so we would have panic attacks during times when we encountered a situation similar to one we had previously experienced that was frightening.

Since our brain makes us panic when we come in contact with someone that reminds us of our previous experience, we can have panic attacks at unrational times. This article uses the example of having on in a car, and then having more while being on a bus or train, because they are similar. Even though they don't present the same danger, the situation is still the same in certain ways and so your brain still reacts. This is because we 'err on the side of caution', or are over cautious, because that it how we survived.

I think this article was appropriate and relevant for the world of psychology. It brings new insight into why we have panic attacks, and then wraps it up with ways to cure unhelpful anxiety attacks.

It was interesting and unique and very helpful to me personally.

Multiple Intelligences in Nokomis

My learning style from the multiple intelligences is mostly musical, and Nokomis doesn't really cater to that learning style a lot. We do have a lot of great music classes and everything, but that doesn't reach out to our other classes that are required, like maths and sciences. It doesn't even reach as far as drama club, where we could do things like musicals. Doing a musical came up as an idea for us to do, but we never went through with it, and that upsets me because doing a musical would have been a great opportunity. I love Drama, it's what I'm doing for my major, and using my learning style of musical learner along with that would have helped me a lot.

I remember back during my Freshman year my English teacher would let us listen to music while we wrote journals, and that was always very helpful. Sometimes teachers let us listen to our iPods, but they never incorporate it into their subjects.

The comment I left on: Toy Guns

I get that the article advocates for both sides, but what else do they say about both sides? Like, do they explain why or how gun fuels aggressive behavior? I feel like this article isn't really explained very well to me.

Also, since I don't know who Smith is, I'm not really sure what you're referring to when you talk about his 15 page work.