Class Assignment Week #1 (Due Saturday 29th)

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Welcome to the History & Systems hybrid class. We would like you to spend a little time orienting yourself with the class blog site. Please read the course description on the 'Home Page.'http://www.psychologicalscience.com/history/

What we would like you to do now is to go to the following page and read some of the blog posts on various types of assignments left from the students in the class before you. This will give you an idea of what we expect from you. 

Reading Activity Example:
http://www.psychologicalscience.com/history/2012/12/reading-activity-week-15-due-tuesday-3.html

Topical Blog Example:
http://www.psychologicalscience.com/history/2012/12/topical-blog-week-15-due-thursday-2.html

Last Year's Final Project: http://www.psychologicalscience.com/history/2012/12/week-16-final-assignment-2.html


After reading the posts please answer the following four questions:
1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?

(Please notice that we often ask the question 'Why?' This is because we want you to support your answer in-depth. While 'Why?' is a short question, we expect a long well thought out response.)

Thanks,

--Dr. M

106 Comments

The posts that I liked the best were the more detailed ones. The lengthy, detailed posts made the person who was writing them look like they knew what they were talking about. I also liked the posts that were not as formal. I liked the posts that showed the writers opinions and personality like when somebody was saying they didn't like something they read because it was about business and they don't like business. Those same reasons are also what made some blogs better than others. The better blogs were the ones that sounded intelligent and the person sounded interested in what they were writing about. These blogs have changed my mind a little about the history of Psychology because I did not know a lot of the facts that were mentioned in the previous blogs had anything to do with Psychology such as the blog that mentioned World War II. I did know that we would be talking about past psychologists and the work and the contributions that they made to society. So, yes my view has changed because I thought the history of psychology would mainly focus on names and dates. The one thing that I was most interested in was the magical numbers that one person mentioned. Other than that, there is nothing yet that I am highly interested in.

-M.S.

I happen to agree with the person before me. I like posts that had detail and had more content and information in them. In those posts you could see how much extra research and work the student put into it. Some students chose to write about the same person in the topical blog, so it was fun comparing what the students wrote. Those who put in more detail or expanded on what they learned I seemed to like better, so I do think that some blogs were better than others. I think it's important the students make a connection to what we learn and somehow try to relate it to our own lives, so I liked it when students did that in the blogs as well. The students will be more likely to retain that information if they can see it present in their lives currently as well. It's easy to tell whether a student is interested in the topic or is rushed or not. Grammar is a big indicator and it does make a difference while reading the blogs. The people who took their time and really researched the topics seemed to have my interest. Reading these posts have made me a little more excited. I think it will be interesting to learn how these famous people in the field of psychology got their start. It will be learning about people, but they've paved the way for tomorrow and that's intriguing. Well I am excited to learn more about how and why different fields of psychology started and just learn about the people.
~ J.M.

I.B.

I liked the posts that were more medium length. The ones that were really short made the writers look lazy and like they were simply trying to answer every question with minimal effort. The really long posts seemed like the writer tried go out of their way to write about everything that they know in an attempt to brown nose basically. I like it when the students answer the questions and elaborate a little bit. Also, I would hate reading those really long posts. The middle length posts seemed better in my eyes. Mt view of this class has changed. I was anticipating boring names and dates. But it looks interesting to see how psychology had so many influences and alterations to the way people viewed the discipline and the human mind in general. I'm not really interested in learning any particular thing, but i will enjoy seeing the influences of how modern psychology came to be.

While I was reading through these posts, I felt that the individuals that should compassion to a specific topic to be more interesting to read. By showing their opinion on the different subjects it made the reading much more enjoyable to read. I also liked the more detailed posts showing their strong interest in the subject and explaining why the specific topic intrigued them. I personally liked when one individual was talking about Miller’s law and the magical number 7. I have always been interested in memory storage and process so this topic was of particular interest to me. I also found that the topic of lobotomies to be very interesting and the fact that 18,000 people participated in getting holes drilled through their skulls is just mind blowing. I do have a different perception on this class now and have realized that this class will not just be names and dates. I look forward to learning about cognitive psychologists, such as Jean Piaget, and his work with children and how they are intellectually different from adults. I do believe that some posts were better than others simply because others put more detail into what they were talking about rather than just generalizing the information without any terms. This class seems very rewarding to the individuals that take it and I look forward to learning more about the history of psychology and the individuals that contributed to its development.

-B.W. (Blake Wedeking)

My favorite posts to read were the ones over their own research. I enjoyed these because a lot of them went into the history of different psychologists, which is interesting to me. I also like them because you get to see what interests different people as they got to choose what to research on. I found the best posts were the ones that were detailed and descriptive, and with very few grammar or spelling errors. You can tell with these that those who wrote them put time into them, as well as went through and re-read what they wrote. Reading the posts have changed my idea about the history of psychology. I wasn't too concerned about this history aspect of the course, as I love history. However, on reading the posts I've discovered we learn a lot about psychology itself. I'm looking forward to learning more about women's involvement in the field of psychology.

C.W.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I enjoyed the posts that were spaced out. The ones that gave your eyes a break while reading. It made it easier for me to read and actually think about what they wrote. I also like the posts that actually answered all the questions and went into detail about why they were interested instead of a one sentence saying "Oh that was cool becase... the end" kind of thing.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
There will always be some posts better than others, not everyone is the same and people write differently. I also find posts better in different ways. Some posts are "better" because they are easier to read and don't make me want to skip over everything they wrote. While others have all the words clumped together without any spaces between question, so it makes it harder to concentrate. Other posts have better content and meaning, while other posts reflect that the person posting was not wanting to give there all that day.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not? In a way reading the posts has changed my idea of the history of psychology, or at least what this class is all about. I expected it to be a lot like Kim's classes. You would read the chapter and then summarize it in a blog post. But instead of just summarizing, this class makes you really think about what you enjoy and focuses more on yourself and not just the content. It will make me think in a different way. I have enjoyed all of Kim's hybrid classes and even though Otto's is very different I think I will like the differences in this class too.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? I read in one post that they did not necessarily like the chapter, chapter 13, as well as they had liked the previous chapter. They stated that Chapter 12 was about mental illness and that they had enjoyed that subject very much. I want to be a mental health counselor/therapist one day and I found this exciting when I read about someone else assigned to read about mental illness. It made me excited for this class and ready to learn.

JC

E.M.M

I really enjoyed reading about Erin Maries post. I liked Erin’s post because I felt as thought she wrote a good blog and used a good amount of terms that related to the chapter. There were definitely better posts then others. Like discussed in class most of the really good posts are longer. This is because they are normally packed with the best information and have more detail. Some people do not cover all of the questions in their blog posts as they’re suppose to. Therefore, the blog posts that are longer and answer all of the questions tend to be better. While reading the posts I realized that the way I am going to learn from this class is by stating what I liked the best from the chapters and what I disliked from the chapters and discussing why I liked of didn’t like some topics. Reading all of the posts haven’t changed what my idea of history of psychology is, but it has reminded me that I can learn about the history of psychology without memorizing dates and names. After reading all the blog posts I didn’t see anything specific that I found super fascinating. Most people wrote about the same people in their posts so I am sure there are other specific topics I will find more interesting. I think it will over all be interesting to see how psychology has developed over the years and all of the people who have made psychology what it is today.

K.K.

After reading through the class syllabus, home page, and online book I understand the requirements and class schedule for this class.

1)Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I enjoyed reading the posts that went into detail and had a clear understanding of what they were discussing. Also I enjoyed reading the posts that stated their own opinions. These posts allowed me to understand the topics easier and made me more curious. There were a few posts that discussed Behavior and Humanistic Therapies which I found very interesting. I have always been interested in topics dealing with behaviorism. Also there were a few posts that discussed Clark and Phipps who were famous for their doll studies. I remembered discussing the doll studies in a previous class which I also found interesting.

2)Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
While reading these posts I could tell who put more effort and time into theirs. This made some posts better than others. Those who put more effort into typing their posts showed a clear understanding and gave examples to help clarify. Also those who put their own opinions showed more interest into the topics they were discussing. I do not think the length of the posts determined if they were good or not. There were posts that included more terms then others as well.

3)Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Coming into this class I did not know what to expect. I have never been interesting in learning about history. Most of my history classes have been boring! However after reading these posts I realized there were interesting topics in history of psychology. This allowed me to be more open minded about this subject and change my idea of what it is.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
After reading these posts there are a couple topics I am interested in learning. The first topic I am interested in learning about is the Behavior Therapies. The second topic I am interesting in learning about is the self-actualization theory. While reading these posts I also noticed a few students mention how chapter 12 was their favorite chapter. This makes me more excited to read this particular chapter.

N.N.

I really enjoyed reading the posts that had a lot of in-depth details about the topic; it lets the professor know that the student has gotten a full grasp on the concept or subject. It also shows that they put the extra time and effort into their research with more information about what is being written about. Every extra detail makes the post look and sound a little like the person put more effort into it; but just because a person puts a lot of information into a post does not necessarily mean that it is a perfect paper.

Yes there were some posts that were definitely better than others. When we put more information into a certain written piece it can make the reading more difficult to understand. So I agree with Jessica Conrad when she says that some posts are easier to read and some may be more difficult. If a post is lengthier with unneeded information I become bored when reading it and I just want to skip over half of it and just read the first and last paragraph. If a post has less information but the information is outstanding then I will love it and I will want to read the entire thing. Again like Jessica said in her post everyone has different writing styles and some may not use the best grammar and just want their post to be finished within four or five paragraphs, so it makes the post seem poor.

After reading these posts my idea has changed completely about what the history of psychology is. I too thought it was going to be just like Kim’s class where we had to read then summarize, but actually getting more information from other outside sources makes me more intrigued about the subject and I actually want to be in this class. I am sure that by coming to this class every week my ideas will change even more with learning more about the history of psychology.

After reading all of the posts I am really interested in all of the people who have influenced the field of psychology, especially the females who have made an impact on the world of psychology. I am also interested in reading chapter 12 and 13 just because people have said they liked them and disliked them. I just want to know what they might have not liked about the certain topics.

I like the posts that are clear, concise, and to the point. These posts identify certain aspects of the chapter and state exactly why or why not the material is important to the writer. Some of the better posts relate the material to other courses they have taken and the writer's personal interests. In some of the posts they were able to expand on three or four topics from the chapter by researching even more information beyond what was included by the author. I don't think these posts have really changed the way I feel about the history of psychology because I am already interested in it. Psychology may be a subject that I end up teaching in a high school. Hcving taken Intro to Psychology and Human Growth and Development, I feel that I have a basic knowledge of the material but would like to learn more about the individuals who made the field of psychology what it is today. My interests in the social sciences and history sparks my interest for how history pertains to psychology.
M.A.

J.W.

I have a hard time focusing when staring at a computer screen and reading for long periods of time. However, the post that I enjoyed the most was written about Eleanor Gibson. I think it was well written, but I also find the topic of discrimination against women to be very intriguing. Instead of letting adversity get her down, Gibson kept to her beliefs and her goals and was able to get her Ph.D. and work with some very intelligent people.

Some posts were definitely better than others. I can tell who was rushing to get the assignment over with and who was actually engaged in the blog. The longer posts were very detailed, while the shorter posts seemed to be a synopsis that someone may have read off of a Wikipedia page.

I am still a little skeptical about this class; I think a lot of people probably are. However, I know that it is important to learn about the history of psychology because, at the time, that information was ground-breaking. I think it will help me to imagine myself in the time era and think about how the contributions of different psychologists revolutionized the way we think about human behavior and the brain.

I am looking forward to this course, to see what I can take away from it. Maybe I will still dislike history at the end of the semester; or maybe, I will have a new appreciation for learning about the past.

N.M.

I would say I enjoyed the posts between the medium length and the long length ones. They both showed detail (the longer ones with the most of course). Also, they tended to be more entertaining to read...they obviously knew what they wanted to talk about and were able to relay that information in a way anyone could read. The short ones were more boring (people just trying to answer the questions and not put much more into it).

Some posts where better than others. Besides what I mentioned above about the entertaining and interesting ones, those same ones also looked as if the person writing them had more credibility (due to research).

To a degree, reading these posts has changed my views a little on the history of psychology. I like history in general, so my views on that aspect are much the same; however, by reading these articles one can find that psychology has a very rich and entertaining history to discover. Makes you want to take this class more for sure!

I did like the topic on self-actualization. I've spent some time recently divulging into the Hierarchy of Needs, so it caught my eye.

A.H.
1. I enjoyed reading the blog posts where the people described why or why not they liked a certain topic. I felt that I could gain an understanding of their beliefs even if I did not find that certain topic interesting. I feel like I also learned a little more about the topic by reading their explanations.
2. Yes some posts were better than others. Some people went more in depth into their explanations than others. I felt this would back up their argument better than the people who shared very little of their thoughts.
3. I feel as if reading a few of these blog posts has changed my idea of this class. Usually I am not into learning about history; however, I am extremely interested in psychology. I think that I will find the history of psychology interesting because it will give me a better understanding of the techniques and methods that we use today.
4. I think I will be interested in how different tragedies have helped to mold modern psychology. I am also interested in learning how the different techniques have become very well known.

S. H.

After reading a few of the blog posts I decided that I liked reading the blog posts that were medium length the most. The ones that were really short left me feeling like the individual either didn't read or that they were in a hurry to get the post done, leaving out vital information. But on the other hand some of them were so incredibly long that I felt as though some of the information shared wasn't exactly necessary. The medium length ones were detailed and didn't contain too much buffer information. Reading some of the posts gave me a better idea on the information to come, so it did change my views a little bit. I can understand why learning the history of psychology is important but I am still uneasy about this class.

I really enjoyed the posts where the writer gave examples not only in the book but also why they were interested and how it applied to their life. I love it when people apply things they learn to their life because it makes learning much more enjoyable.
Shorter posts are never as enjoyable to read. I really want to know why the reader was interested in these topics. I also thinks when they shorten them its harder to know if they really got anything from what they were reading.
These readings helped me know what ill be doing for the class, but also certain times in history were made more enjoyable to learn about. When they included peoples opinions of them they seemed easier to relate to and make you want to learn more(which i never thought i would say in a history class.)
I loved learning about Rogers in intro to psych so I'm excited to go more in depth. Also learning how psychology was used in the world wars with psychiatry is really interesting and I cant wait to read about that and see if/ why others found it interesting.
-KS

KW

I thought almost all of the posts had good points that I agreed with. Overall, I think that the ones that provided more detail and information were better written and helped me really understand the assignment. From having to write other blogs before for another class, I know that taking my time and really planning out what I want to write and how I want to respond to the question is a lot better than just signing on and rambling. I think I have always had the same idea of the history of psychology but by reading some of these posts, I have a better way of understanding how the history of psychology can better be taught, rather than just using names and dates. There was not a certain topic that jumped out at me right now for wanting to learn about but I thought that the assignment about looking outside our book and finding more information about a person seemed like an interesting assignment. I really enjoy taking what I learned in class and applying it to the real world, rather than just spitting out facts. This assignment made it seem like that happened a lot in this class and for that, I am looking forward to it.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I enjoyed reading some of the more detailed and longer posts. I enjoyed these more because they were descriptive about the chapter, and gave more information. It really showed who read the chapter and who did not. The longer, descriptive posts also showed who was understanding the chapter and the content within each chapter. Some of those posts included the topical blogs because many of the students went into detail about certain people and the studies they did which I thought some of those were very interesting.
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Yes, there were some posts that were better than others. The posts that were better than others refers back to question number one. The students who took their time to read the assigned material, wrote better posts and has more detailed information about what they had just read. The more content they wrote about, the more of an understanding they had.
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Yes and no, because these posts did not really give me an idea of the history of psychology, but they did show me how the course will work. I think after some time and after doing my own posts, I will have a better understanding of what the history of psychology. I am more of a hands on learner, so by writing my own posts about what I understood from the readings will help me to better understand the history.
4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
I think learning about mental illnesses and certain people who studied them would be interesting to learn. After reading some of the topical blogs, I think that learning more about Walter Freeman and his research on mental illness and lobotomies would be neat. I also find growth and development intriguing, and would not mind learning more about Eleanor Gibson and her work with toddlers and infants. I also think learning about different experiments people did would be interesting because it gives you a better understanding of something/someone the way things are.

J.P.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I preferred the shorter-medium length posts that answered the question and gave a solid, supportive response without going too in-depth in details. I am one of those people that could easily go through an assignment ranting and taking up more space than need. Especially in large amounts such as these, I do think short concise responses.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Some posts were too long for me to bother reading more than a few lines into each paragraph. Some information is very interesting, other details just seem like filler.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
I have always enjoyed studying history, so reading the responses hasn't really thrown any surprises at me. I figured much of this class would be based around where theories of psychology came from, who "invented" them, and what experiments they conducted to support their theories.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
I enjoy learning about the results of experiments, perhaps behavioral more specifically. No one theory seems to be exclusively 100% accurate, so it is fun to explore different theories and behavioral responses and come up with our own explanations for particular results.

HAH
1) I thought that for the most part the posts that were medium in length were the best. It always seems like the people that don’t really have a clear understanding try to dress up their writing more. Whereas someone who really has a firm grasp of the concept gets straight to the point.
2) As I said previously it is better to get straight to the point. As the reader of someone else’s work I want to know what they are talking about right from the start. I want to also be interested enough to keep reading it. There is a fine line between interesting and adding “fluff”.
3) After reading the post I have found that I now look a psychology a little differently. For example, I have always had this perception of psychology being about people who have issues such as mental health rather than a study encompassing everyone and how their mind works.
4) I love learning about the history behind anything. I think it is fascinating to see how far scientists, historians, and psychologists have come in research over the years not just in psychology but in general.

1) The posts that were of greatest interest to me, were the ones that talk about a particular topic that was easily relatable to present day situations. Part of making a subject interesting to the reader is to show how it can be relevant to their lives.
2) Yes, you could definitely tell which blog entries were just thrown together, and those who the author gave some thought to the post. Length of paper isn't necessarily important. It’s the content of the post that stands out to me. When people give thought to the content of their posts, the ideas flow and there is a good general use of terms that can be used to describe various objects within the psychology field in clear detail.
3) Looking at these articles did change the way I looked at this class. I was probably similar to most in the class just taking the course because it is required. However, after reading from the blog posts, there are many relevant topics we will be studying.
4) I've always been interested in the history that relates to the treatment of the mentally ill and how that has change dramatically, even within the past 50 years. I am also interested in studying in greater detail the effect that the discovery of classical condition had on the psychological theories and practices of the time.

1) The posts that were of greatest interest to me, were the ones that talk about a particular topic that was easily relatable to present day situations. Part of making a subject interesting to the reader is to show how it can be relevant to their lives.

2) Yes, you could definitely tell which blog entries were just thrown together, and those who the author gave some thought to the post. Length of paper isn’t necessarily important. It’s the content of the post that stands out to me. When people give thought to the content of their posts, the ideas flow and there is a good general use of terms that can be used to describe various objects within the psychology field in clear detail.

3) Looking at these articles did change the way I looked at this class. I was probably similar to most in the class just taking the course because it is required. However, after reading from the blog posts, there are many relevant topics we will be studying.

4) I’ve always been interested in the history that relates to the treatment of the mentally ill and how that has change dramatically, even within the past 50 years. I am also interested in studying in greater detail the effect that the discovery of classical condition had on the psychological theories and practices of the time.

1) I liked posts that were thoughtfully and succinctly written. Some posters did just the "bare bones" answer and I did not feel like those posts were interesting, however some posters who wrote a long amount were unable to give information in a clear and interesting way. The most interesting ones were posters were clearly interested in the topic they were posting about.
2) Yes, some posts were better than others. Again, some posters were just writing the bare minimum, or perhaps had not done enough research to speak more at length about the topic at hand. Although this is not an English class, I think the posts that had few grammar and spelling mistakes were much better because they showed that the author cared enough about the post to proofread.
3) Due to what we have already discussed in class, I feel like the class will be what I was expecting. However, the way I looked at the class has changed since the class started--the in-class discussion gave me a good idea of what to expect. Although this may not be a class I would have taken for fun, I think some of the topics will definitely be interesting and relevant.
4) I am interested in learning the histories of specific people (in several posts I read, posters were researching the lives of specific people). While I don't consider myself someone who is usually interested in history, I love reading biographies and memoirs, so I think learning the backgrounds of various psychologists or other people relevant to the history of psychology will be interesting.

NRS

T.M.
1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
-I personally like the posts that sum up what was covered in the book, but go deeper in telling the reader why they chose that specific topic. The people who take interest in the chapters always pay attention, and are able to relate it not only to other classes, but real world situations. What good is academia if it can't be translated into worldly situations, and circumstances.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
-Absolutely, these blog posts make it easy to tell who tried, and who didn't. All you have to do is find the blogs that make no specific references, and possibly even mimic what others have said.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
-No, the history of psychology, much like the history of anything else, is founded in other issues of the day. People saying that they were surprised that WWII had an impact on psychology baffle me. How can something so earth shattering not affect everything else? People were put into extremely stressful situations and observed. Internment camps were practically large unethical sociological, and psychological experiments.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
-I'm just excited to get this class underway, and start learning all of the history. A leader in any field should have a strong knowledge of the history of that particular subject.

M.K.
1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I enjoyed the post that had more to them and the students were able to go more in-depth about what they thought. I showed that they were able to put some more detailed thought into their post. However some of the post seemed to become lengthy and seemed to just drag out. I understand if you have a lot to say but sometimes people drag out their responses to seem like a better student.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
As I said in the first question I feel like a good detailed post is better than a super long one where someone may just be rambling on to get a long post, on the flip side a short post makes the student seem like they don’t care and not putting forth the effort.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
In a way yes, I love history so I have been excited for this course. Knowing that it will not be all about names and dates however has made me even more excited.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
I enjoyed reading about how WWII shaped psychology and I personally love leaning about WWII so I am excited to learn more about how different major world events paved the path to where we are today in psychology.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I enjoyed the post that had more to them and the students were able to go more in-depth about what they thought. I showed that they were able to put some more detailed thought into their post. However some of the post seemed to become lengthy and seemed to just drag out. I understand if you have a lot to say but sometimes people drag out their responses to seem like a better student.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
As I said in the first question I feel like a good detailed post is better than a super long one where someone may just be rambling on to get a long post, on the flipside a short post makes the student seem like they don’t care and not putting forth the effort.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
In a way yes, I love history so I have been excited for this course. Knowing that it will not be all about names and dates however has made me even more excited.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
I enjoyed reading about how WWII shaped psychology and I personally love leaning about WWII so I am excited to learn more about how different major world events paved the path to where we are today in psychology.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I would say that the posts that I liked the best were the more in depth ones. With the shorter ones, you are not able to see the mind thought process as you are with the more in depth ones. The longer posts are able to help gain an understanding of what the person is trying to say. There were some shorter posts that were concise and got straight the point. That is great to see also!

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
I would have to say yes. There were some that didn’t seem to make sense or where getting off topic which was making harder to understand. I also think that not all topics are going to be everyone’s favorite so they are not going to want to write as much or go into detail one week compared to a week that they really enjoyed the topic.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
I think it has helped and also confirmed other ideas for me. Looking that it is not just about remembering dates, people, events, etc. helps me look forward to this class. I am not a big fan of having to remember when this happened and who made this happen on this date. I am happy to see that we can look at the book and show what interest us or what we could have just bypassed.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
There are a couple of things that I am excited to learn! Such as the psychologists that were not as famous but did something profound for the world of psychology. I also saw a lot of things about women in the world of psychology and for me that is always exciting to see that view point. Also how the world events were shaping the developing world of psychology when was first kicking off.

----MZ

1) It is a little difficult to leave two original comments for basically the same assignment since I am in Cog Psych too. Posts that have a lot of information without the fluff are the ones I like the best. Writing teachers always told me to be clear and concise so that is what I have come to like in writing. That being said I still like thorough papers, it would not be psychology if we were not exhaustive.
2) I wish I could read one students comments for an entire semester. I would like to see how their writing changes as their interest changes. It is evident, especially in the topical blogs, how interest in the topic influences the quality of the assignment. Obviously the more interested a student is the more they educate themselves on the subject they chose. Other factors are cohesiveness and correct use of the English language. I know you are not grading on the latter, but it still makes posts annoying to read.
3) I was not sure what to expect for these assignments so my opinion did not really change. This assign is still imperative because I get to see what is expected in these assignments. It also makes doing these assignments less intimidating and overwhelming.
4) I want to learn about the founders of some of the sub-types of psychology like social, developmental, or personality. What I have learned from other classes is that some topics I was not aware of or never gave much thought to ended up being my favorite. My goal for this class is just to keep and open mind to every topic and discovering which topics interest me the most will become apparent.

The posts I liked the best were the ones that included a good deal of input that thoroughly explained why they were interested in each topic and ones that added personal stories. I enjoyed these because I could tell that these students not only did the assignment just to complete the task but took the idea further and connected the topic to another idea. Some posts were definitely better than others. You could definitely tell who just picked a section out of the book to complete the task and probably didn’t read the whole chapter. This would become obvious as some people would be able to tie their topic to other topics previously discussed in the book while others did not explain their topic in as much detail or be trying to connect different ideas together. This kind of changed my idea of what history of psychology is since I read about a lot of people I didn’t know about and were not necessarily psychologists yet still made an impact on the history of psychology. Whereas, in most of my classes, I have learned some history of psychology it has mostly included more of the well-known psychologists like Freud and Zimbardo, etc. Based on these posts, I am curious to learn more about early African Americans’ influence in psychology since the Brown vs Board of Education was brought up several times in previous student’s blogs.

B.H.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why? I like the posts that were medium length but were in a more detailed fashion. I also think that if someone can relate on a personal experience basis they have a better understanding of the material and they can evaluate the information better. If someone can provide a personal experience relating to the process I will also give them more credibility when they show their opinion relating to a topic.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
I did think some posts were better than others because they put more time and effort into it. But just because someones vague on their posts doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t know the material. I sometimes forget to state the obvious because I think everyone knows what I know but they don’t. Just by reading thru posts you can learn something new everytime.

3)Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not? Coming into taking a history class I honestly thought it was going to be a boring topic. I assumed it was going to be a bunch of boring information and knowing dates and people. But relating to the posts some info will be boring but you try to make a history class fun by creating interesting topics to discuss.

4)Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? With me being a business student, I wanted to study the behaviors of people and how their minds think. I am a marketing and sales major so in the sales field, knowing how people think and what behaviors they are familiar with will help benefit me in the sales field. With sales being so competitive, hopefully this minor in psych I am trying to get will give me an edge in the sales world.

E.M.
1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I can’t say exactly which post out of so many I liked best. But what I do like about the posts in general is the style of writing. When answering a question, from what I could tell, most posts would go directly to answering the question. Then explain why they liked something, how it related to what they read, and so on.
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
There is a pretty clear distinction between the posts, as far as which is better. Those who read the material answered all of the questions. But those who understood it better and went beyond the reading, wrote more, made better connections, and wrote in better detail.
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of how to do assignments for a hybrid class? Why or why not?
I have taken online and hybrid classes before, so I am familiar on how to handle the work. But I have not used a blog before, especially not for a class. The assignments mainly seem to be based on writing. This is also new for me but I believe it will strengthen my writing skills, while at the same time learning more about cognitive psychology. Also being able to view posts by people who have taken the class before, helps in my own writing, I know what to shoot for, how to set it up, and it also allows a person to view the subject from a different point of view. This could also help to shape a persons writing.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
Chapter 12 is mentioned in a lot of posts, although not discussed too much. It is supposed to be a chapter on behavioral therapies. I am interested in a lot of different areas and aspects of psychology, but behavior was always interesting to me so i am looking forward to learning more about that.

J.A.
1) The posts that I liked the most were the mid-ranged posts. This is because they provided enough information to show that they did the assignment and knew what they were talking about along with giving me an understanding of what they were trying to get across, but they were not too long to where it just seemed like they were doing a info dump trying to make their blog post longer.
2) Some were because they got to the point of what they were talking about with providing the information needed to understand and they would do that without making it too long.
3) No it has not changed my thoughts of a hybrid class, I have taken one before and it was the same process that the class that I took went through.
4)I am just overall interested in learning everything in this course. I am a history major, but I also enjoy learning about psychology in the previous courses I have taken, so the overall course just seems of an interest to me.

The posts I liked the best were the ones that were very to the point. Some of the posts were very long, but it didn’t seem like they really said anything new or different. There were also posts that were longer but were very well written so it was interesting to read the whole thing.

The posts I liked the least were the overly “wordy” ones. I felt that some of the posts were very repetitive and a lot longer than they needed to be. I understand that length is important but the same information being said over and over was very dull.

Reading the posts has made me realize just how much the field of psychology covers. Some many topics were discussed in the posts that I had never really thought about. It was very interesting to see what each student had thought about all the topics. I really enjoyed seeing how different the response can be when you give different people the same topic.

What I am excited for in this class is not so much a certain topic, but more so what my other classmates SAY about the topics. I feel it will be very interesting to read and discuss what other people thought about the events that happened and how they can be related to what is going on in the world now.

The posts that I liked the best were the ones that actually stated the questions that the writer still had after completing their post. It was reassuring to see that there is nothing wrong with still having questions after doing the readings. It was also interesting to see what types of questions that were asked. Overall I think the medium length posts were not necessarily better than the rest, but they were easier to read and understand. I felt like the really short posts didn’t really say anything. It seemed as if the writer was just looking for easy points and not trying to personally benefit from doing the work. Some of the really longs ones seemed overly detailed, which confused me on a few occasions. The medium length ones were just right, making the point and elaborating when needed. I don’t think that reading the posts have changed my idea of what the history of psychology is. I wasn’t so sure of what it actually was, and I’m still not exactly sure. I did however get an idea that the history of psychology could possibly be broken into different categories and events. From looking at some of the posts, I’m now interested in learning about lobotomies and why the idea came about.
CM

The posts that I liked the best were the ones that actually stated the questions that the writer still had after completing their post. It was reassuring to see that there is nothing wrong with still having questions after doing the readings. It was also interesting to see what types of questions that were asked. Overall I think the medium length posts were not necessarily better than the rest, but they were easier to read and understand. I felt like the really short posts didn’t really say anything. It seemed as if the writer was just looking for easy points and not trying to personally benefit from doing the work. Some of the really longs ones seemed overly detailed, which confused me on a few occasions. The medium length ones were just right, making the point and elaborating when needed. I don’t think that reading the posts have changed my idea of what the history of psychology is. I wasn’t so sure of what it actually was, and I’m still not exactly sure. I did however get an idea that the history of psychology could possibly be broken into different categories and events. From looking at some of the posts, I’m now interested in learning about lobotomies and why the idea came about.
CM

I personally liked the posts that were more casual and to the point because they seemed more personal to me and I was able to connect more. Unlike the posts that were lengthy and wordy because I got distracted more easily. I had a hard time reading all the way threw on the long posts because my ADD kicked in and I began to become bored. The posts were interesting, I just preferred the posts that had detail, but that were also straight to the point. I do agree that in some cases the length of the posts are important because there might be that much detail and explanation of the topic, but in other cases I think they can be shorten. From all of the posts that I read I found out that the field of psychology actually covers more than I thought. I had an idea that it was a lot from previous psychology classes but this has made me more aware. I feel like there is a lot of interesting topics that can and will be covered in this field and some topics I wouldn't have expected before reading the posts. Everyone has their own opinions and thoughts about different topics so its also interesting to see what other people have to say about the issues. Things that I'm excited about in this class is learning about all the different topics and history behind certain issues/topics. I also agree with the above commenter that it should be very interesting to get input from the other classmates when covering topics because like I said before, everyone has their own thoughts. I feel like it might get a little heated but I also think we are all old enough to respect each others thoughts even when giving our own input. I'm excited, but I know it's going to take some hard work as well.
AS


1.) What I enjoyed most were the longer posts they were more detailed and obviously had much more information and it made it seem like the longer posts showed that they were learning more in the class. I also enjoyed the topical blogs more because you got to choose a lot of what you wanted to talk about giving you the chance to be creative and talk about something that interests you.
2.) The longer posts were generally better than the shorter posts because they had more detail and they kind of showed who cares more about their grades then others based on how much they wrote.
3.) Reading through them has helped to show what is expected and different writing styles but it doesn't change for me really how I am going to do the assignments because I have already taken a hybrid class with Dr.Maclins and I know how we should be doing things and what is expected of us for each assignment but it helps to read others work so I can improve mine.

1) I do not comprehend information well when it is long. I tend to lose it there is too much information. This is why I preferred the shorter posts; although less information than the longer posts, shorter posts like hollirenaud's provide only critical information, so I did not lose much information reading the shorter posts. Longer posts tend to be repetitive and filled with unnecessary information.

2) I prefer shorter posts, or posts with shorter paragraphs. Longer posts may contain more details than shorter posts but they tend to be repetitive, unnecessary, or irrelevant. Good posts are the ones with only relevant information and are easy for general population to understand.

3) I am amazed by how broad psychology is, and how detailed a small topic can be if enough research and thinking is done.

4) I am interested in memory formation and eyewitness testimony. I would like to some day conduct an experiment, which alters the memories of the participants.

1. While going through the blog posts, I thought that the topical blog post were best. Reading activity posts were good as well except that was mostly things from the book. The topical post were personal opinions along with facts that the student had learned about. They were very detailed as well, but many of the posts were detailed and lengthy.
2. Reading through the post, I could definitely notice some posts were better than others just by the context in the blog and the length of them. Some people were able to summarize into shorter blogs and still seem like they understood the readings, but most blogs that were longer were better post.
3. I am more looking forward to actually reading the text on my own, but going through the posts helped me understand that there are many things I am going to learn that I had no idea about. I only need to take two more psych classes after this one and it seems like the history of psych is extensive.
4. I am interested in learning about Kenneth Clark and the topic of racial inequality. I am also interested in learning more about the Standford Prison Experiment. I have had minimal learning over this topic and am looking forward to further my knowledge on that topic.

AL

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
The posts I liked the best were the honest ones. What I mean by this is those who were willing to say that the chapter they had just read was not as interesting as other chapters, or that they didn't agree with everything the scientist said. It shows that they really thought about and analyzed these concepts instead of just agreeing with the textbook. I also liked those who could relate the topics to the course in its entirtiy. It shows that they can understand the topic's part in the grander scheme.
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Most of these were pretty lengthy, but I personally felt that the posts reflecting on the topics were better than the posts just listing facts. Discussing and applying their knowledge shows that they actually understood it.
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Yes it has. I was under the impression that everything about names, events, etc. But there's a lot more to it than that. Most of it consists of content that is controversial. There's much to be reflected on in this subject.
4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
Much of these topics I have already studied, such as the doll study, self-actualization, etc. I guess I am excited to learn more in depth about certain topics I already know, but I also hope to learn about new concepts, studies, psychologists, etc.

KAB

1. I think the posts that I enjoyed the most are the finals. It was neat to get to read a bit of a summery of what we will be learning this semester, or at least the parts most students enjoyed. I also liked seeing that many other students feel like me; that history isn't their thing because they don't do good memorizing names and dates and don't expand on the information. When memorizing is the main point, a lot of other important things get forgotten. It made me feel better reading these posts and knowing this isn't going to be like a traditional history lesson, rather something I can enjoy.

2. I do feel some posts were better than others. I feel some people didn't follow the directions very well. Instead of putting their input and reasoning for choosing topics they wrote, it was more just a complete summary. The directions state to add more than just a summery, but explain hows its connected, and why that particular topic was chosen.

3. It didn't change my mind on what I thought it would entail, I mean obviously the class is about the history of psychology, so I would assume everybody knew what they were getting in to. That being said, reading the posts did change my mind about being nervous about this class. I'm terrible and dates and names and no amount of studying will help me pass a test based on those. After reading these posts its clear to me that this won't be one of those classes where I should worry about small details and I'll have a chance to really learn because I can focus on understanding the topics and not just memorizing bold terms and dates, or certain things somebody decided were more important than others.

4. Yes there are many! I had no idea clinical psychology came from WWII and am excited to read more on that. Although it does make me sad, because I have done a lot of research on how mental health is addressed and treated among vets and its terribly depressing. It is shameful to be that clinical psychology started there and has yet to be an extremely important aspect of our armed forces. Another topic I am looking forward to is lobotomies. I got the chance to briefly go over the topic in introduction to psychology but never got an in depth look into it. It fascinates me just because I like seeing the strange and different kinds of treatment that occurred in the past, but just like the WWII stuff, its depressing as well. Overall I am just basically excited I get to learn more about all these people. Like I said, earlier classes were so focused on remembering certain aspects that I feel I never got the chance to just learn more rather than cram in certain info. I think this is going to be a great semester.

J.J.

1. I liked the longer posts the best because they seemed to flow more. The shorter ones were not filled with as much detail as the longer ones were. The bigger posts also seemed like the author knew more about the topic, and took their time with the project. The shorter posts were not detailed and seemed a bit more rushed. Some of the longer posts seemed to ramble a bit. I believe it was easy to pick out the students who took their time on the posts. It really paid off in the end, because those were the posts I enjoyed reading the most.
2. Some of the posts were better than others because they were filled with more detail. The posts filled with detail were the posts that I enjoyed reading, and were interesting to me. The posts that were packed with detail were the ones I kept reading. Some of the longer posts was more rambling and less detail. Those were the posts that I lost interest in.
3. Reading all the posts changed my idea of how I thought history of psychology would be. I did not know what we would learn about. I thought that we would learn about all of the important psychologists and researchers. After reading all of the posts I am looking forward to learning about some of the topics. A lot of the different posts interested me, and I am excited to get to know more.
4. One of the posts that I read talked about asylums and how they came about. I think asylums are extremely intriguing. I also read a post about lobotomies. I do not know a whole lot on them, and a lot of people mentioned how interesting they were. I love learning about procedures and the effects a patient has after that experience. They seem pretty mind-blowing and I am interested into learning more.

The posts were lengthy, but I felt like the more someone put into their work the easier it was not only for me to understand it from another point of view, but maybe even feed off some of the information I didn't necessarily understand when reading it. I believe everyone has a different way of looking at topics and with such open ended topics it is easy to thoroughly get your point across. Almost all the students who posted asked questions regarding the topic. I enjoyed reading the questions knowing it was okay to ask questions whether it pertain to everyone or not.

Of course some posts were better than others, but I wouldn't include length as being something anyone struggled with. The information provided may have been a bit vague on the specific topic of choice, but someone can't elaborate to the full extent of a topic at all times knowing how abundant the information is out there.

The history of psychology, like stated in class, does not only revolve around the past, but the present and future. We are in class and blogging because of our ongoing questions about psychology and its topics. The psychology field is constantly evolving and with the help of such a class we can address both issues of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Relating topics back and forth through psychology allows us to better understand how relationships are formed constantly.

Finding out the different fields of psychology available would be essential. Also, dealing with individuals with behavioral, mental, and even emotional problems is beneficial through my career. Dealing with people and children is a daily occurrence and the fact I can take lessons away from this class to apply at work is key. I know each and every individual differs in some way and learning how to deal with emotional and behavior problems could help me not only with my work throughout the years, but with my children some day as well. Someone mentioned humanistic psychology in a post, which I find interesting. Learning more about this specific topic may be interesting in the future.

D.M.

I liked the topic based posts where students were able to decide for themselves what they wanted to talk about. It allowed students to have an open discussion about specific topics of their interest instead of constantly reading assigned pages and babbling about information they didn't necessary read or understand. Also, with topics of interest I feel it is easier to truly spread information and knowledge.
Of course there were posts not necessarily that great, but the length of these posts was never an issue. All posts seemed to be thoroughly explained, but true interest in the subject seemed to dwindle as the topics didn't necessarily apply to the person's life or situation.
I have always interpreted history of psychology based on the past, but realizing it isn't all about the past allows me to better understand all it has to offer. The history focuses on yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Without the history of the past; however, it may not be as easy to draw conclusions on situations in today or tomorrow's world. I appreciate history more and more each day knowing it is applied to today's world more than we all may seem to believe.
I am interested in learning where the history of psychology stemmed from and where it has brought us too today. Also, learning more about where it can bring us in the future with better advances and more education and research studying.

The posts I enjoyed the most from the previous sections of this class included those that intimated personal experiences from the lives or in-class experiences of the authors. One of these posts was the one which began by the author writing how they were able to speak with their friends and family about education and other topics more in-depth because of their participation in the course. These anecdotes made the material more relatable and authentic, as well as less dry than just reading information that was regurgitated and then summarized from the textbook. I also found posts more enjoyable to read when they contained less grammatical and spelling errors. This sounds like I’m being a pretentious wind-bag but it was honestly distracting. Continuing on that idea, some posts were obviously better than others but it was surprising to me that all of the posts I read were of a high to average quality of understanding and description. It would have been difficult to choose a post that did not meet the standards of what was asked by the assignment.
These posts have changed what I believed this course would consist of and my idea of what to take away from the class. The testimonies at the end of a few posts for the final blog entry assignment were exciting to read as people recalled how their minds had been changed about what the history of psychology had become to them. I hope I come to feel this way as well after taking the course and am excited to do so.
Some topics I am interested in learning about after reading some posts about them are the history of Clinical Psychology, the history of famous studies such as Pavlov’s dogs, and how psychology has evolved as a science.
K.L.

1. I liked the reading activities as they highlighted things that people found most interesting as well as what they did not like very much. I liked the topical blogs today as people were able to take a concept from the book and do more in depth research on it. I like how you get a lot of freedom with both of these blogs as you get to write on topics which you enjoyed and then focus on one of those for the topic blog.
2. Some blogs were not only longer but were more detailed and you could tell they truly understood the information. Others were shorter and full of just simple, basic information. I liked reading the ones where you could tell they got something out of the reading and kept me interested.
3. A lot of the posts were on certain people specifically and their work which is what I had in mind of what we would be learning. It seems to cover a lot of what we learn about in other classes but goes into detail as far as how ideas began and who was responsible for them. I can tell we’re going to learn a lot.
4. A lot of people mentioned Carl Rodgers. We hear his name a lot within social work classes so I’d like to learn more about him and his contributions. People mentioned Jean Piaget quite a bit as well. We learned about him in development psychology a bit and I found his theories interesting so I would like to learn more about him as well.

DB

ALH

1) I liked the posts that were not too lengthy but made sure to get the point across. I feel as though these blogs are not an essay and should not be treated as such. A paragraph per question is probably a long enough answer.
2) Yes there were definitely some posts that were clearly superior to others. It was obvious that there were some people who didn’t try and were just posting something to make sure that they got some points. I mean, there is nothing wrong with a few posts being short and brief, but if that is a weekly occurrence then it seems to be as though that person is not really trying.
3) I’m not sure if reading these posts has really changed my perspective on what the history of psychology is, but the first day of class certainly did. I was very reassured by the fact that we were not going to have to memorize dates and things of that nature. It is much easier for me to grasp concepts that to memorize numbers that don’t really hold much significance. As I expected, history of psychology will teach me where the important theories that we follow today came from as well as other standards of psychology.
4) I am not sure what it is, but the “side grey box” sounded interesting to me and I would like to learn more about that. I also find anything to do with lobotomies very interesting.

1. I enjoyed reading posts that were more in depth about the topic yet not too lengthy. Posts that were straight to the point were easy to follow and not get distracted and loose interest. The topical blogs were my favorite posts to read because I could sense the passion in the topics that they got to choose. Having the option to choose your topic allows you to dig deeper in something you are more interested in.
2. Yes, some posts were better than others. I feel as though the more mid-range posts were straight to the point and did not drag nor did they leave out information. I could tell when blogs could summarize the information better than others.
3. Reading these posts have changed my idea of what history in psychology is all about. Knowing that this class is a history class I assumed that we would have to memorize dates, events, and people. Reading these posts have shown me that there are many topics psychology covers whether it be past, present and future.
4. There are no specific topics that I am interested in learning. I do find it interesting that we keep discovering different things about the brain and how we function. I am looking forward to this class and expanding my knowledge over all sorts of topics whether it be past, present and future.
B.C.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
The posts I enjoyed reading most were the ones that went into more detail in the topical blog section. Last year being in the hybrid class I also enjoyed writing the topical blog posts the best as well because we have the choice to choose what we want to learn more about, thus making the posts better written and more in depth.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Of course of some posts are always going to be better than others. Some posts are very well written and easy to follow, others are subjects are ones that I find personally interesting, and others are short, sweet, and to the point. I personally think the ones that are written under the numbered questions are easier to follow and read than ones that are written in full paragraph form.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Reading these posts really makes me think how relevant the history of psychology still is in the findings and research that are still happening today. Looking through these posts, I also found that I am familiar with much more history than I anticipated to be. I also like the fact that throughout reading the posts you get a sense that the students really enjoy what they are talking about and more so are learning in depth about topics that interest their specific fields of study.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
There is one post I came across dealing with George Miller and his work with ‘magical numbers.’ Surprisingly enough I have never heard of this so I am very intrigued to know more about this topic and what his work and findings entail. I am overall very excited for this course and to continue to learn more, especially when having the ability to focus on areas that interest us most!

I really liked the more detailed posts, as I felt like they know more about what they were talking about, and that they had put more effort into the blog post. I liked the reading posts a little bit better than the topical posts, but that's because I like relating my writing with what I have read, but I think they were both fairly interesting, and think that they are both good ways to connect with the reading.

I think that it was pretty obvious to tell those posts that people put effort into versus those that they did not. I also like posts that tend to be more well-written, but I guess that's the writer in me (not that I don't make mistakes myself!), because I feel that they are easier to read. Posts that are broken up are always easier to read than a wall of text, and that appeals to me as well.

I think that these posts made me realize that this class is a bit more important than I thought it would be, and that it is a good idea to really know and learn about what has happened in an area of study previously, so that one can move forward and learn from past mistakes and successes. I felt that previously that this class would just be a long version of the first couple of chapters in Intro to Psychology, but now I see that this is not the case, since it is a lot more in depth.

Not really based on these posts, necessarily, but I am interested in learning more about how animals have helped us further psychological studies. None of my previous psychology classes have really focused on that, it was always very brief. I'm hoping that this class will shed some more light on the animal testing that psychologists used to do and continue to do now. I'm also interested in seeing what my other classmates are interested in, and if this class will help me sort of cement what I want to do once I graduate.

LJ


I enjoyed reading the posts that were detailed, but they were still straight to the point. I cannot handle when people drag on and on simply so they can seem as though they know more. In general, all the posts were good. Some were more throughout and detailed, and a few were rather short as if they person did not take any time or effort to do the assignment.After reading through some of these posts, I am a little more excited to read the text book and listen to the lectures. I have not really given too much thought to the history behind psychology before, but I feel it is a good idea to be familiar with it. History has always been one of my favorite classes. I do not think there is really only one specific topic I am interested in. I am generally interested in past treatments for mental illness though.

I enjoyed the posts that people actually put their own thoughts into answering and didn't just retype the textbook. Its interesting to read everyone elses point of view on things and to see what they found interesting and what they didn't find interesting.
Some posts were a little easier to follow because I felt like they new what they were talking about while some posts were kind of hard to follow, maybe because they weren't exactly sure what they are talking about or maybe they just didn't structure it very well.
I figured this class would just be over dates and people, which are mentioned, but it talks about different types of psychology. Reading people's posts gave me a good idea on what a lot of topics are about and what we will be learning about so it opened my eyes a little.
I think learning about different types of psychology, such as clinical psychology will be interesting. I will like reading the text on my own and thinking about what im reading because then i will understand it all a lot better than just reading from the previous blog posts. I think there is a lot of interesting information in this text and in this class that i am currently unaware of.
LK

(JF) 1. Personally I enjoyed the topics the delved deeper into specific topics. I feel a lot of times in college we skim the surface of a lot of different topics so to take the time to really sink your teeth into one thing really creates the opportunity for a greater understanding of a specific subject matter.
2. Some posts were better than others, but then again it is all subjective I think. A lot of people seemed to follow the same formula for writing their posts but each person had their own unique style or spin on writing. Even two people chose to do a topical blog on the same topic it was still different in the way that they chose to look at the topic from a different angle, which from my previous experience in a class like this, makes for better in class discussions because people can go deeper into detail with the class in their explanations.
3. It hasn't really changed my perception on the history of psychology so much as it just elaborated on things I knew only a little about. I think this will be a great way to expand on the things psych majors only get a taste of in other classes.
4.I am interested in learning about Piaget and his theories on development. I work with kids and I am also taking Developmental Psych so I think learning more will go hand in hand with my other class.
JF John Fidler.

MDS

When going through the old posts what I liked and found to be interesting was how detailed the post were. I think it shows when the posts are very detailed that the student is engaged in what they are reading and learning about and also that they are interested in what they are learning. I like the topic blogs because it gives students a chance to get more in-depth in what they are actually interested in learning about. I do think that the Reading Activity blogs are a helpful tool when going through the different chapters. It gives structure and meaning to what is being read. I think some were better than others. I think more detailed ones were better and some people didn’t have as much detail because they rushed through it faster than others. I think going through some of these post has helped me get a better understanding of what this class is about and what I will be learning. I found it to be very helpful because it has given me an idea of what I will be learning about and what to expect. One of the topics that I found to be fascinating was the Lobotomy process and Walter Freeman. This is a topic I look forward to knowing more about.

1. The posts I liked the best were the post under the reading activity. I liked the posts under this section for many reasons. The most important reason being that in my opinion Maslow is one of the most interesting figures in psychology and it seemed to me that the previous students thought so as well as well as really went into depth with his views and impacts in psychology.
2. Some posts were definitely better than the others, the reason being that some posts seemed as though they were very rushed and not as thorough or intricate. But in retrospect there were some that seemed too long and too detailed/repetitive.
3. No these posts did not change my perspective of what the history of psychology is because the information I read form the other students as well as what I read from what was asked from the professor all seemed very relevant to the foundation of psychology and what I expected to learn about in this class.
4. I would like to learn more in depth about the Humanistic approach to psychology, because as I previously stated, Maslow is one of the most interesting figures to me in psychology and I believe that humans are unstoppable if they learn to control themselves, their emotions, their surroundings, etc. Also while reading the topical blog posts, I saw a lot of very unfamiliar names that had, what seems like, major impacts in where psychology is today. So I am very interested in learning about the “little people” within psychology opposed to just the major figures that everyone knows and learns about.

C.J.S.
1) The posts that I liked the best were the genuine posts. Length was not an issue, as the lengthier does not always show better content, however, the posts that were well thought out and seemed that the person was truly interested in the subject. These posts stood out in the first sentence and were able to intrigue me as I was browsing the through.

2) These posts were among the better ones that were written and these were the posts that could be followed as an example of how to write for this class. Again the lengthier posts were not always the better or best posts, but instead the best were the ones where the student was clearly passionate about what they wrote and their writings were able to inspire interest among a browsing reader.

3) Reading through the posts has, and also has not changed my opinion on the idea of the history of psychology. Coming into the class I have an open mind on what will be taught, so with this mindset every post will change my idea on the class and what it teaches, but with that same mindset and with having no idea what to expect I wasn’t going to think that X was what was definitively the history of psychology.

4) While reading through the posts I was interested when I saw the idea of clinical psychology, and some of the more prominent areas within clinical work.

1. Which posts did you like the best? why?

I enjoyed the posts that went more into detail because if some detail that is left out can be potentially useful or able to catch the reader's attention. I like the ones that were more clear, so it is easier to understand what they are trying to say about the person. I love how the posts are all in a format like a book and not so much as a research paper where you have to cite all the information on the body of the paragraph, it makes a better feel of the writer expressing their thoughts about the subject.

2). Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?

I could tell some posts were more vague than others, some had more opinions in their posts and that shows that they have some understanding in the topic or enough understanding to try to interpret the information and process of the type of research or field the psychologist they had to write about.

3). Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?

I don't think reading these posts changed my ideas too much about this class or the topics, I was actually looking forward to this class so I can learn all the systems or ideas psycholgists have made or pointed out in the past to see if there is any similarity within the systems or see which topic both systems could work together. I also wanted to learn what has been done in the past to see how effective they were or noneffective so I can think of ideas to change it or modify it to make it more effective.

4).Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?

I am interested in cognitive psychology because I am in philosophy classes for a minor and i think studying epistemology and other theories of true knowledge. I am also interested in it because I want to see how the effects of some social institutions such as private schools or religion or the biggest one that tends to ruin the unity of people and separate them into groups politics has an effect on the mindset of the individual. I also want to find the cognition of an artistical mind is different than one of pure logic and if so how big is the differentiation. I would also like to get into the neurology of cognition.

N. C.

The posts that I liked the best were the ones that people clearly put the time and had the passion about what they were speaking about. I like the relaxed format of the blogs and I feel that itself will make retaining information easier. It is clear that the students are writing about things that they are interested in and care about the information that they have learned.

I do think you could tell that some of the posts were done quickly, but the content is what matters, not the length. You could tell the difference between the blogs that were trying to "BS" and the ones that actually knew what they were talking about.

I think my idea of what the history of psychology is has stayed the same, what has changed is my excitement for it. I am retaking this class after a not so satisfactory grade. To be completely honest I was dreading it, history is not my strength. But after the introduction and learning more about the layout of the class- I am excited about getting to focus on what interests me instead of trying to memorize dates just to forget them.

I have always been interested in the ways that disorders were treated in the past and the ways that psychologists came to discover that treatment, I would also like to learn more about specific psychologists themselves. I enjoy reading about their theories and the ways that they came to them, but I also like reading about the interactions between psychologists and their different backgrounds.

ELC

JAL

I enjoyed reading the topical blogs the most. They were informative, and it seemed that the students were able to articulate ideas with more direction. The reading and final projects felt more forced. They were filled with opinion. The information was general at best. I understand that the latter two blogs are more to assist in the student’s synthesis of information and allows them to talk about things they are interested in. They just weren’t thrilling to read.

I am sure the longer posts are graded better, and for the most part, they demonstrated their knowledge of the assignment better. Yet, I consider a select few shorter posts to be the best. They were short but concise. They covered facts and used examples from their life. The longer posts were drenched in opinion. Fluff and filler sentences are no fun to read and a waste of time for everyone. Sometimes, more is too much.

I recognized most of the names of historical psychologists mentioned. Almost every other psychology class I have taken has covered the father/mother/founder/figure/etc. of whatever branch of psychology it was. I feel this class will cover a lot of things that I have touched on before. However, none of the posts seemed bored. If so many have found interest in the history, historically a boring aspect to any subject, than I am sure I will too.

I have always been wowed by past psychologists’ ability to formulate experiments to get around their lack of technology. Some of the most brilliant discovers in the field were the product of cleverness, some of which I do not believe we would be able to all of the technology we have today. I would love to learn about these clever people and perhaps I may borrow some in my future exploits.

J.R.W.
After reading through some of the posts, the ones that stand out in my mind were written by students that chose differing topics from the rest of the group. In the topical blog section, many of the posts were about the same people. After reading through one very well written post about Mamie Phipps Clark, I didn’t feel the need to read through another.
It is pretty easy to tell when someone is really into what they’re writing about and when they are not. I understand that sometimes it is hard to write a really descriptive and thoughtful blog about something that may not be interesting to you, but that is what can make or break the post. For this reason, I believe that some posts are better than others.
Reading through the work of previous students has made me even more excited for the class. I am a social science education major, so psychology and history are super cool to me. Having the opportunity to take a class that incorporates both is awesome.
My memory is crap, so I am always looking for ways to try to improve/justify it. Because of this, I have developed an interest in the study of memory. I read a post about autobiographical memory, and that is something that I would like to learn more about.

Q.N.

After skimming through a few posts, it is evident that the initial comments are subpar to the final comments. The initial comments are cluttered and have an emphasis on summarization, rather than the writer's own analysis. As you progress through the comments you begin to see the writer grow and learn how to better convey their ideas, allowing their comments to "stick" in the readers mind.

A particular topic that interests me throughout these posts are anything ethically-challenging, such as the Stanford Prison experiment.

The content of the writing explores different topics that have allowed me to grab a deeper understanding of what the history of psychology is supposed to be, and more importantly, the significance of the material. It is only through learning about our past and using it as proper foundation to build upon as we move forward into the future and progress through innovation.

Z.P.C.
Which posts did you like best? Why?

I enjoyed the posts that gave a lot of information. I myself enjoy reading things that are saturated with information. The longer posts tended to make a clearer picture of what the writer was trying to describe and explain. I did like the fact that the posts were kind of up to each individual person on what they wanted to write and that ended up making
each person’s blog entry unique and different.

Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?

There were a lot of posts that I simply either skipped or stop reading due to the continuous use of grammatical errors. I mean we are in college and should know the proper use of there, their, and they’re. The spelling on a lot of these posts was atrocious and even if they couldn’t spell there is a little program called spell check that will fix a lot of those mistakes. It just irritates me that some students have become so lazy on writing, due to the lack of emphasis on writing in general ever since middle school. Spelling and grammar were essential during elementary school but once middle school hit no teacher bothered to care or enforce grammar. This is just another reminder of what needs to be done to change our country’s standard of education.

Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?

I didn’t really know what to expect with the title of history and systems of psychology but I figured it would mainly focus on the creators and leaders in psychology and how it has changed throughout the years. I was happy to find out that it seems like each student has the choice on whether or not they wish to expand their knowledge on the topics that interest them. I now have things to look forward to in this class and can’t wait to see what the rest of the semester is like.

Based on these posts are there any specific topics that you are interested in learning?

I definitely want to learn more about lobotomies because they are so controversial and interesting. I enjoy learning a lot about mental illnesses and would like to learn a lot more about what treatments were given early on compared to what conventional medicine has taught us.

After reading the posts please answer the following four questions:
1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?

1) I really enjoyed the first post for the reading assignment on Chapter 13. I enjoyed the idea that students are basically forced to give their input and thoughts on a chapter. It makes it so no one can say they have nothing to discuss!

2) Some posts were definitely better than others. You can tell by the amount some put into it. Some had large amounts of details and facts while others look skimpy and rushed through.

3)For me, it has not changed my idea of what history in psychology is. History is the backbone of modern day things. If it wasn't for history, the present wouldn't look as good or give anyone deeper insights. It allows you to respect and love the present when you know the past.

4)Since the Chapter 13 posts caught my eye right away. I'm really interested in the happenings in psychology during the WWII era.

K.S

First off, I would like to say that I am very excited for this course and that fact that it is a hybrid class! I have been enrolled in several hybrid classes prior to History and Systems, but I took them with the other Professor MacLin.

Now to get to the root of this blog post, I was instructed to browse through the various blog posts that previous students had written through out the course. From what I looked at I really got a taste of how this course was going to be like; lots of blogs, long and in-depth. I really enjoyed to the chapter 13 blogs because I would like to extend my knowledge of psychology during the 1930's (WWII) era.

As I continued my blog browsing I noticed that most people had very long detailed posts. You could defiantly tell which people were more interested in their topic, and others were still long but not as thorough on their topics. I really enjoyed the posts that had a good transition between paragraphs, and were not simply just answering the questions in the instructions. I also really enjoyed the posts were people included their own general knowledge on the topics rather than just being dry and mundane.

However, after reading over various blogs I have realized there is a lot of history within the development of psychology as a science and practice. I realize that I need to expand my general knowledge of psychology by going back and focusing on the historical figures that have contributed to the science of psychology and making it what it is today.

After reading the posts please answer the following four questions:
1) I liked the final posts the best because they showed how much people actually learned throughout the semester. The fact that so many people learned not only just the basic founders of psychology because they had heard of them time and time again but it was also that they learned about people who were looked over in the beginning.
2) The posts where you could actually tell that they put time and effort into the posts were better than those where people just commented a sentence or two about the topic and then moved on. This was especially noticeable in the reading blogs, the reading ones are the ones that do take just a little bit more work and hey some people don’t really like to read but the ones that do actually find interesting things in the chapter. The fact that psychology went through so much in order to get to where it is today is amazing to me. Just the struggles that people went through because they had different ideas than what they were told they “should have” and were punished for being different is interesting to me and learning all the struggles is what makes you appreciate what psychology has become.
3) Reading these posts goes with parts of psychology that I knew would be included but what is different is the fact that so many people thought of different things. The stuff that people come up with about what went through their mind while reading the posts is interesting to me because some people just think about things that are in the chapter while others strike up ideas that are outside the reading. I think that this is something that really helps people to remember what they learned while they were doing their assignments, having something that really grabs your attention and interest you is something that makes this class different.
4) I am interested in learning more about the struggles of the actual people who were deemed insane. What happened in the early times of people being deemed insane and throughout history what happened to them once they were put in asylums and how the different treatments came about. It is the people that were directly affected in the psychological field that interest me and their story of how people today are able to now function and not be punished, killed or hidden from society because they are suffering from something that is beyond their control.

After reading the posts please answer the following four questions:
1) I liked the final posts the best because they showed how much people actually learned throughout the semester. The fact that so many people learned not only just the basic founders of psychology because they had heard of them time and time again but it was also that they learned about people who were looked over in the beginning.
2) The posts where you could actually tell that they put time and effort into the posts were better than those where people just commented a sentence or two about the topic and then moved on. This was especially noticeable in the reading blogs, the reading ones are the ones that do take just a little bit more work and hey some people don’t really like to read but the ones that do actually find interesting things in the chapter. The fact that psychology went through so much in order to get to where it is today is amazing to me. Just the struggles that people went through because they had different ideas than what they were told they “should have” and were punished for being different is interesting to me and learning all the struggles is what makes you appreciate what psychology has become.
3) Reading these posts goes with parts of psychology that I knew would be included but what is different is the fact that so many people thought of different things. The stuff that people come up with about what went through their mind while reading the posts is interesting to me because some people just think about things that are in the chapter while others strike up ideas that are outside the reading. I think that this is something that really helps people to remember what they learned while they were doing their assignments, having something that really grabs your attention and interest you is something that makes this class different.
4) I am interested in learning more about the struggles of the actual people who were deemed insane. What happened in the early times of people being deemed insane and throughout history what happened to them once they were put in asylums and how the different treatments came about. It is the people that were directly affected in the psychological field that interest me and their story of how people today are able to now function and not be punished, killed or hidden from society because they are suffering from something that is beyond their control.

1. I like to read the post with the most detail the best. to me it shows that a person is putting effort into the class and that they have actually read the chapters or assigned readings for the week.
2. I also believe that the more detailed post were more enjoyable or better than the others. I say this because the detail shows what the person is actually talking about and makes it so that the reader doesn't have to guess what the writer is actually talking about.
3.reading this has changed my mind about what this class would be about. I thought that it would be more about how things or styles were developed in general not when they originated and what caused that and who.
4.after reading these I specifically want to know more about the origins of each type or style of psychology. it seems very interesting to me.

1) In my opinion, the best post were the ones that had enough detail to cover the topic but did not ramble on. It made it more interesting when the author of the post related the topic to different areas and their own thoughts/opinions on the matter. It was also easy to notice which authors used enough detail to make everything clear and easy to understand and which authors got lost in the abundance of detail they included in their post.
2) Some posts are definitely better than others based on their content and the overall flow of the writing.
3) Reading these posts was encouraging because it showed that the class encourages the students to interpret the information and write about what they got from the context. That’s exciting that this class wont be like other more generic history classes that require strict memorization, but is rather about understanding the development of the field of psychology.
4) I would love to learn more about the origins of the different branches of psychology and what led the people of the time to begin to theorizes that people respond to things a certain way due to psychology.

1)Chantelle L. wrote a reading activity post about chapter 13 that I especially liked. It was very organized and well written. Not to mention, she writes in a style that is very similar to my own. I was able to follow her. However, I liked to read the final blog posts best because it helped ease my mind about this class. I hope I have similar reactions at the end of the semester as these students did. Like most people in the class, I am not fond of history, so at first I was nervous about this class. After reading these posts, I am a bit more relaxed.
2)Yes, to me some posts were better than others because they had more flow and more organization. They had more of an outline and I could tell what questions they were responding to. I think others were not as good because they were not as organized. They were all one big long post and didn’t help guide you into the question being asked. They stated their answers without introducing the question they were asking.
3)Reading these posts didn’t change my idea about the history of psychology that much because each psychology class I have taken has had its own little introduction of the class. Within the introduction, there was a brief bit of history about the specific class. I have a tiny bit of information about each section of psychology. It seems that this class will go a lot more in depth, but I do have an idea about certain aspects of psychology’s history.
4)I am interested in clinical psychology because it’s one of the areas I am thinking about for grad school. Therefore, I would like to learn more about it. The progression of treatment is very interesting to me, as well. All of the different ideas about why mental illness happens in people and how people treated it is so fascinating. It seems that each era had its own view. Things that seem so cruel to me was the new treatment to people 100 years ago.

1) In my opinion, the best post were the ones that had enough detail to cover the topic but did not ramble on. It made it more interesting when the author of the post related the topic to different areas and their own thoughts/opinions on the matter. It was also easy to notice which authors used enough detail to make everything clear and easy to understand and which authors got lost in the abundance of detail they included in their post.
2) Some posts are definitely better than others based on their content and the overall flow of the writing.
3) Reading these posts was encouraging because it showed that the class encourages the students to interpret the information and write about what they got from the context. That’s exciting that this class wont be like other more generic history classes that require strict memorization, but is rather about understanding the development of the field of psychology.
4) I would love to learn more about the origins of the different branches of psychology and what led the people of the time to begin to theorizes that people respond to things a certain way due to psychology.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I really enjoyed reading over other people’s blog week activity and also the reading activity. In the reading activity it asks you what you liked and didn’t like. It was refreshing seeing students able to pick out key information that stuck out to them and then be able to explain why they did like it. As for what they did not like they did not get 'punished' for saying that they don’t like some of the material. Then the blog post kind feeds off of the reading one. You get to conduct your own research on what is interesting and relevant to you and your own interests. In the reading activity it makes students think differently about the chapters.
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Yes, some posts were short and to the point. I really enjoyed reading the long and very opinion defined ones. Some of them felt almost to like a textbook, which they found information that they liked and just typed it up. Some of them were almost too long, I would lose track or interest.
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Reading these posts have changed how I view this class, I am excited to see that it’s more 'hands on' not so much lecturing and throwing tests. That I get to explore the history of my own major. That I can see what other people find interesting and how maybe I might have missed something or did not understand something. Yet someone else can explain it.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
I would like to know more about how people like Freud and Piaget came up with their ideas, what exactly was their thought process. Did they just see what was 'in at the time and try to apply it? I feel like in today’s world the idea of coming up with ideas and theories is harder t than back then. In today’s world a lot of it is research based with is really good. I find it very interesting to think about how the first asylums were, or how originally if you were sick it was because of demons not a mental illness.

The posts that I liked best were the ones that went into detail and stayed on the subject, which isn't always easy. Also the ones where students found ways to relate ideas back to themselves and actually expressed their opinion, rather than just saying something generic.

I think all posts are good in their own way. Yes, some are short and to the point, while others have much more detail. In my opinion, as long as what's written meets all of the criteria and fits the subject, it's well written.

Reading these posts didn't really change my view of what the history of psychology. It honestly reminds me of my high school psychology class in ways, like talking about the different, well known psychologists. I think it may actually help me with revisiting some of the works that I learned about and forgot, or never completely understood the first time I learned about them.

There weren't any specific ideas that jumped out more than any others. Everything psychology interests me, and I am just really excited to learn more.

The posts that I liked the best were those that clearly answered each question and explained the reasons for their answers. I feel that this provided insight into the very different reactions each individual student has to the same reading. Reading over the final assignments helped me understand the broad amount of information that is to be covered in this class and has gotten me more excited to be taking this class.

Some posts were definitely better written then others. You could tell which students read the chapter, understood it, and put time into writing out their thoughts on the matter. The well written posts had good grammar and punctuation, had better flow, and included just enough detail to support their opinion without distracting the reader from the main answer.

After reading these posts, I feel much more comfortable with this class. I now realize that the goal is to learn not just memorize which is comforting as many history classes I have taken placed more emphasis on names and dates then comprehending the actual information. I feel like there is a lot more to psychology and its history than I imagined. Based on these posts, I have a feeling that I am going to truly take away knowledge from this class which I will use in the future.

I have a strong interest in psychology, so I honestly can’t wait to learn more about its history and hopefully formulate some thoughts about the future of the field as well. I am looking forward to learning about how the field of psychology has and continues to fit into our everyday lives. How has the role of psychology in society changed over the years? Where can we look for psychology at work in our everyday lives? Everything has to start somewhere and the field of psychology is no exception, so I am ready to find out the story behind this intriguing field of study.

1) I liked the medium length posts the best. The shorter posts seemed to me like the author was just trying to do the bare minimum to get a decent grade. While reading the longer posts, it seemed like the student was going into way too much detail and rambling. I feel that a post should be long enough to get your point across and have good reasoning behind it, but not so long that the reader gets bored.

2) Yes, some posts were definitely better than others. Like I said above, some of them were just had the minimum amount of work put into them while others rambled. Some of them also had better organization than others. I feel that organization is very important when it comes to writing, or the reader will lose interest.

3) Yes, I would say that reading some of these posts has changed my idea of the class. Before today, I really thought that it was just going to be memorizing a bunch of names and dates. Reading the posts has changed my view on this. The people writing these posts seem to enjoy the class and most of what they are learning about. Many of the posts I read didn't mention dates at all, just people and what they accomplished. That is something I would definitely be interested in learning about.

4) I read a couple of posts about different ways that they used to treat psychological disorders. I thought that the posts about the asylums and lobotomys were especially interesting. I'm also interested in learning about all the different branches of psychology and how they came about.

1) The post which I liked reading the most were the ones that were direct and to the point. That is the style of writing that I like and tend to use myself. I noticed some articles tended to get repetitive and looked like they tried to make their article long. I then read others that were half the length but covered all the topics and answered the questions completely.
2) Yes, some posts were better that others. Like I stated above, some of the posts were very repetitive and appeared that the goal was to create a long article rather than get right to the point. There were also some that I felt could have been written better. What I mean by this is that they did not seem to answer the questions in enough detail and were just blunt with answers. From what I read they all seemed to be very similar answers and I did not seem to read anything outside of a certain format or topic in regards to the chapter responses. This has been something that I have noticed in all my other online classes and I do not think that individuals purposefully write similar to other students, but rather they do not know how to write about something, read another students post, and then their ideas get into the students head and they model their posts after other students.
3)After reading the posts, my ideas of this class and the history of psychology have not changed at all. Everything being posted is right along with the idea that I had of what this class would be and topics covered. Plus I had a friend take this class last semester and he told me what it is all about.
4) There is nothing really specific that I want to learn about in this class. My attitude towards this class is to come in with an open mind and see what exactly interests me the most out of the topics we are going to cover.

1). The topical blog post will be the most interesting blog to complete during the week. I enjoy applying what I learn to actual things instead of just memorizing them and forgetting about it. I think it is interesting and a more enjoyable way to learn when you get to learn about a topic you pick. I think the posts that are in the middle length are the best because they showed more detail but weren't to in depth that they got boring they expressed the main points and a few details.

2). Yes, some posts are better than others because they are written better than some. They have more detail than others. Some posts are just boring because it wasn't an area that I am interested in. Just because the post is the longest one doesn't mean its the best, some of the longer ones just got to be to much but some of the shorter posts weren't enough because it didn't seem like the effort was there and when that happens most of the time important information gets left out.

3). My ideas about this class didn't change as much as it did from the blog posts as it did from class. Before the in-class conversation i was completely loathing this class. History isn't the most enjoyable course to take but I think it will be interesting to learn about it in a new way instead of getting the information, memorizing it, testing over it, then forgetting about it. I think this class will actually be interesting in some aspects to learn more about psychology and its history.

4). I do not have anything specific that I am interested in learning about. But I think it will be more interesting than I initially thought it was going to be. I am hoping that this course will open my eyes up to more interesting ways to learn about history and that i will just learn more history about psychology other than just the basics that we learned in intro to psychology.

Class Assignment week #1
The posts that I liked reading the best were the ones that the previous people had written as their finals. The reason that I liked these ones the most is because while everyone was writing different things, they were all practically in unison about one thing, and that was that this course opened their mind a little bit to history. I felt like a bunch of them touched on that this course isn't about the dates and people of history, but about seeing what happened in history and figuring out how it shaped and is shaping the future. That's very positive to me, because I like to see things in a different perspective, and that is what it sounded like goes on in this course.
Some posts were definitely better than others. The blog posts that said read this and then write about it were hard to read. That is clearly because I didn't know what the people were talking about in their posts, so it's kind of hard to understand and get into something that you don't really know where they are coming from. I'm sure they were good, and could've even been interesting posts, but because I didn't know the background of the questions, I didn't really think they were interesting. With that being said, and like I stated in the first paragraph, the final essay posts seemed a lot more interesting, and that is because we kind of talked about a different perspective of history today in class, so I had a background of what some of these people were writing about. I was able to relate with them, so that made it more interesting to read.
Reading some of the final essay posts and listening in class today has definitely changed the way I think about this history course. Coming into it, I definitely thought that it would just be another history course listing off dates and memorizing important psychologists. But what I've come to find out is that it seems like we are going to skip over the memorization stuff, and really learn what the history of psychology is and how we got to where we are today, based off the things we have done in the past. This is a good thing because if this were a memorization class I would learn the material for the test, and then I would probably forget it all. This sounds like I am actually going to learn the material for good.
There wasn't really anything that jumped out at me as I read these posts that I really want to learn. However, pretty much everything in psychology interests me, so I'm ready for whatever is thrown my way, and I'm sure I'll find it interesting, or find it necessary information to learn as a psychology student.

I liked the reading activity the best. I felt like these showed the most of what we would be doing on a weekly basis. It allows us to break the readings down and understand it more. I also thought it was nice that these asked for multiple interesting things so that we could talk about more than one topic.
I think that some posts were definitely better than others. Depending on the question, I found that when answering the question why, most posts seemed to go much more in depth. The reading ones were all fairly similar in the way they were answered because of the specific questions that were asked. I found it interesting that the blog post you got your own freedom in a sense. Sure, there were specific guidelines, but you got the freedom to do more so something that interests you and run with it.
I tried to just skim for the most part when it came to specific answers. I didn’t want these posts to affect the way I interrupt things throughout the semester. Because of the way I read the posts, my idea of psychology has not changed. I think that by doing these posts in this way it’ll definitely broaden my ideas of how the history of psychology happened. I think it’ll force me to learn more than I know and be able to hopefully understand psychology a little better.
I did try to look at the topics while I was looking through the post. I used mostly the final project post for this. I wanted to see a broad option for this. I think that reading these I am interested in phrenology just because it’s something I have never heard of before and seems like it is something that is still applicable today. I also think I will find learning about the brain in general. Being a history class, I’m assuming that we will cover many different years and theories of learning of the brain. I think it will be cool to see how they’ve adapted and changed ideas throughout the years. The brain is something that we can continue to learn about time after time.

The posts I liked reading the best were the ones about the class final. Granted they were all super long but they were full of detailed information about what I will be learning in this class. It made me want to learn about certain topics during this course like the different experiments that paved the way to how we think and perceive psychology now. While reading those posts I also liked how it did not have to be all about the same subject but had more options to choose from than just one.

The longer posts that I read had a lot of detail and seemed to know what they wanted to talk about compared to shorter posts. The shorter posts seemed a little dull and vague.

Reading these posts have changed my perspective of what the history of psychology is and what we are going to learn because it does not seem like an actual history class. Yes you get to know the background and what has happened in the past, but it does not seem like you have to learn a lot of specific dates and names that do not matter. It does seem like most people who were not looking forward to this class enjoyed it when it was over.

I am really looking forward to knowing more about different studies like Watson, Pavlov, etc. I am also excited to learn different names and ideas I have never heard of before and how they have contributed to modern psychology.

1)The posts that I enjoyed reading the most were the ones from the topical blog response. You could tell that those students were able to choose a topic they were interested in and so they got more into their writing. It was nice to see all the different topics. I also like the posts that were easily organized and to the point, so there wasn't a lot of repetition or rambling.

2)Since everyone is at a different writing level, and we all think differently, of course there were some posts that were better than others. You can tell those who thought out their posts, and who wrote something quickly just to get the assignment done. Then there are always those outstanding students who blow everyone away with their wording or incredible thinking skills. Overall, the posts seemed to be pretty good though.

3)Because of the way this course is set up, and the way Maclin will be teaching it, has definitely made me more interested in this class. I absolutely find history boring, and have had trouble with history classes in the past. But seeing how this class is more discussion based, and that Maclin said there won't be memorizing dates and names as much, made me happy. I think that this class will be interesting. To see how psychology has developed over the years, and how historical events have changed the way we think.

4)I think that I am most excited to learn about all the different experiments, whether ethically questionable or not, that have been performed over the years by psychologists. I have learned about Pavlov, Skinner, Zimbardo, just to name a few, and their experiments, but honestly, I would love to learn about more, and what the findings are. How they have changed our thinking, and how people reacted to them. That is the part I am most looking forward to in this class because I find that the most interesting!

1. I really enjoyed comparing the final project with the Reading Activities and the Topical Blogs because I got to see the growth of the students. I got to see how the activities in the class and the reading were able to help them understand and apply the history to their own lives. I also like the blogs that gave lots of details because they were able to give me an idea of what this class will be like and what sort of thing s we'll be learning about. I especially enjoyed reading the final projects because they showed growth and they gave me an idea of how I will feel at the end of this class.

2. For the most part the post were good. But I especially enjoyed reading the post with lots of details. They seemed to understand more of what they were writing about and it was easier for me to understand the topic being discussed.

3. Reading these posts have changed my idea of what the history of psychology is. Like many of my classmates when i think about a history class I tend to think that we will have to memorize names, dates and events. But after reading some of these posts i noticed that they aren't full of dates and names and they aren't boring because they are being applied to real life and that's helping me stay calm.

4. I'm interested in learning about the humanistic approach, how much of a change there is in the treatment of women and minorities now as apposed to in the past, mental hospitals them verses now and just how much psychology has grown in the society as a science.

The posts that I liked the most were the ones that were the posts from the final assignment. Although these posts were longer, I felt like this was a combination of book/class material as well as opinion which made it more interesting. This assignment had people pick the topics they thought were most interesting so it let me see some of the topics we would be covering in class as well as which ones I should look forward to the most. I also liked this section because I noticed a few people mentioned how this class is not like what you expect most history classes to be like and that they really did find a lot of interesting material in the class.

I did think that some posts were better than others because not all of them took the time to add in details that may help elaborate on their topics or help explain something. Even so, I did feel like for this assignment particularly most of the posts were very detail oriented (possibly because it was the final assignment) and that the ideas seemed to be well said and explained rather than some of the other assignment posts which seemed to be quite a bit shorter and not have as much detail or information.

Reading these posts did somewhat change my view of what the history of psychology is. It seems that in most classes when it comes to the history portion it is all about the dates and names, as everyone said in class. However, when reading these posts the students have written it shows that they really did learn more than just a date or a name in this class and were able to take the information they learned and analyze it more. It seemed to me reading these posts that not only were students able to remember information from the book and in class, they were able to take the information and apply it to themselves or explain why it is important. I think this changes my view of the history of psychology because often times we think history is just in the past but I feel like with psychology the history is something we are able to apply all the time and adapt to fit different things that may be occurring in modern day, rather than perhaps a normal history class were it cannot be adapted as much to fit society now.

I believe now after reading these posts I am most excited about watching the documentaries. Most of the posts I read centered around the documentaries they watched being their favorite things and a lot of them sound really interesting. I like to be able to watch documentaries about certain topics because a lot of the time it is more interesting than simply reading about a person or subject in a book and you are able to actually watch it happen. I also read one thing in particular about brain advances and a film their class had watched about a monkey being able to control a game with it's mind. I thought this sounded very interesting and is a video I hope we get to watch in the future so I know what it is all about!

The posts that I enjoyed reading most were the ones about minorities and women. Specifically the ones written about Eleanor Gibson and Mamie Phipps. The authors of these posts did a great job with detail and also including parts of these women's backgrounds, such as where they came from and how they came to contribute to psychology. There were a lot of things I learned.
I think that some posts were better than others. In my opinion it is important to have at least some biography of the person you are researching so the reader better understands why this person is important today. A few posts that were written about Mamie Phipps did a great job of including detail and a biography, and I thought it was a great read with a lot of useful information.
After reading some of these posts my idea of the history of psychology has changed tremendously. I thought this class would be a lot more boring since it is history. When I think of history, I think of a lot of reading, and memorizing dates and names. With the information given in these posts I can tell that the history of psychology has a lot to it, and it is important to know how these people have contributed to psychology so we have a better understanding of it today.
I am really interested in learning about past psychologists who were minorities or women. I think it would be nice to learn what they went through, and how they achieved what they have when the world was against them back in that time.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
If you are wondering if I like the Reading Blogs versus the Topical Blogs, I think I’ll prefer the Topical Blogs. From the looks of it, it gives us a chance to take what we read in the previous chapters and apply it to specific topics that catch our own attention. If you are wondering which posts I liked depending on the writer, I would have to say the posts I most enjoyed were ones which were clear and to the point. I find this easier to read and I also learn more than someone who writes about a topic in circles. A personal preference of mine is to always post the question that was posed to the student. This way it’s more organized and I can more directly understand if the question was in fact answered.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Better? Maybe. Different? Definitely. You can tell each student has his or her specific writing style. You are also able to tell who is more interested/took the time to whole-heartedly complete the assignment versus someone who rushed to through it. The more in-depth posts were definitely more interesting to read.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
After reading these posts my views on the history of psychology has not necessarily changed. I am entering my senior year and I have learned a lot about the history of psychology in previous classes. Although, I am still excited to be taking a class which focuses on the history aspect so I can gain a deeper understanding how it has evolved into the psychological science we use today. Also, from what I was able to read about on previous posts, it looks like this class will be different than any other history class I have taken before.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
For me, I love learning about the actual research of well-known (and even not that well-known) psychologists. I think it’s interesting to see how we can take all these abstract concepts and turn it into empirical, supported data that we can apply to our lives.

1)The posts that I liked the best were the ones that answered the questions being asked. The ones that were able to do that well were good in length and you could tell that the student knew what they were talking about.

2)I do think that some posts were better than others because some people took the time to do the assignments and put the time into coming up with how they wanted to say things.

3)These post have changed my idea on how this class will talk about the history of psychology. I think the way this class covers the history and talks about it will make it more fun to learn about. I don't think reading the posts has changed my idea of what the history of psychology is.

4)I want to learn about different theories and different experiments that psychologist have tried. I want to learn how different theories have evolved and changed over time. I also want to learn why this is. I also like reading about different experiments that psychologist do and the outcomes of these experiments.

After reading the posts please answer the following four questions:
1) The posts I like the best are the very informative ones. The ones that offered a lot of insight to a person's feelings an opinions. It was really interesting to see how people were influenced by this class at the end of the year. I also liked that they each enjoyed something different about the class and it wasn't just the same thing over and over.
2) Some posts were better than others. Some did not elaborate enough or give enough detail. For some of the posts they didn't seem to try hard enough or take the time to really go in depth about the assignment.
3) The posts sort of changed my opinion. Before reading everything I thought this would be like any history class where I wouldn't be interested in anything. After the posts, however, it seems like people really enjoyed this class and their perspective changed throughout the course of the year. It wasn't like the other history classes they had taken in the past.
4) There really isn't anything specific I want to learn in the this class. Like I said, after reading the posts it seems like this class is very intriguing and a lot can be learned. This makes me excited to learn about most of the material this class has to offer.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
The posts that were most enjoyable to me were those that expressed one’s opinion intellectually, as well as poetically. They flowed and the illustration of one’s intended point was thoughtful. They were interesting and informational to the reader.
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Some posts were better than others, of course. It was evident to the reader what posts were prepared with more thoughtfulness and effort, in contrast to pure assignment completion.
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
My opinion of the history of psychology has changed significantly since reading the posts, in addition to attending the first day of class. Originally I was not thrilled when thinking about the history of psychology, however I now find myself interested in the prospect of exploring the history of psychology and learning about ideas like self-actualization.
4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
The idea of self-actualization sparked my interest as I was reading these posts. The description given by one student made me think the idea maybe similar to flow. The study of the state of flow and creativity has been of interest to me. I am interested to learn more myself over the course of the semester.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I didn't like one particularly the best, though some were better than others. Everyone had their own writing style and some people may find it impressive if one person uses "big words" to get their point across, however another might like those that are straight to the point. I personally find a happy median of both to be most appealing. Though it was a bit of a relief to see that most people seemed to not mind the blogging and at some points found something enjoyable in it.
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
In some ways yes, but that is personal opinion. Who am i to say that person X's Blog post was better than person Y's, because of Z. We all have our own writing styles, and those styles and passions will become more and more evident the more we blog, as it did in a previous class I took with Prof MacLin.
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
a little bit, i definitely learned a bit from them that i never knew before, or perhaps never retained due to me despising anything history related.
4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
At the moment no, though the one thing that did stick with me from class was our final assignment "Why study history", and i'd have to say i couldn't get that thought out of my head all day, so i started outlining my paper for it, and it has been a somewhat enlightening experience, as i hope it is for all of you as well.

I liked the posts that were medium length. They had enough detail to make them interesting, but didn't go on to o long causing me to lose interest. These posts were very interesting to read and I am very excited for all of what we are going to learn throughout this class.

Yes some posts were better than others. It mainly depended on the persons writing style and how much detail they put in their post. Those who had more organized posts were easier to read. The same goes for those who knew the appropriate amount of detail. Posts with too much detail became to lengthy and boring while those with not enough just seemed bland and uninteresting.

Reading these posts has not really changed my idea of the history of psychology. In all of my previous classes we have always had a brief section on the history of psychology that pertained to whatever class I was in. I found it both interesting and boring to learn about these things. The only thing that has changed is knowing that there is even more to learn beyond what I already know.

I have always been really interested in memory. I think it would be really interesting to learn more about the people who were heavily involved with memory and how it evolved into what it is today. I am also very interested in eyewitness testimony and the psychology behind it.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I like the reading activity posts compared to the topical blogs, because I like the questions it asks better. It is more about what did we learn from the reading, what was most interesting to us, and what we liked least from the chapter. I think it is more of an interesting read when people state what they liked least, instead of always putting what they liked best that fascinated them.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Yes of course there will always be better posts, not all will ever rate the exact same. I think the ones that use the most terminology, as long as it is not too much of an over kill to try and sound impressive and just to try and get more points for each term they use. As long as it is used with the right type of quality and quantity, then that is what is best. I think the ones with large blocks of paragraphs at first glance already seem like torture to read through, so medium length is best, compared to too much detail and not enough detail. If there is not enough information, then it will appear that the person did not really grasp the reading, and just wanted to get it done and over with. I do like the posts that you could tell the people really were interested in what they were writing, and had a good flow, and kept their posts very well organized.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Not really. Being a senior psychology major has taught me a lot of individuals in history that have made their name in psychology with their contributions. Almost every course teaches you about ten or more historical figures that shaped psychology throughout history. This class seems exactly what I expected which is a good thing. I do like that we get more of a say of what we have learned about each historical figure, and each person's posts are different in at least some aspect. I also like history, so reading other posts about the historical figures will help with remembering who each person is, and their contributions, and why this is important to today's psychology. I am looking forward to learning more in depth of people I have studied in other classes, and even some that I have never heard of that hopefully will be of interest to me.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
I want to learn more about defense mechanisms and the ego that Anna Freud and her father Sigmund Freud covered. I also want to learn more about lobotomy, since it is fascinating, and want to know why and how the person came up with it for mentally ill patients. I also want to know why there were more influential psychologists in Germany and Britain, compared to other countries, for example America. I am looking forward to chapter 13 the most, even though I am studying business psychology, and not clinical, it still seems the most interesting. I also think that chapter 15 will be of interest as well since it is about 21st century psychology, so obviously I am interested in psychology today and how we have advanced throughout history.

1)Which posts did you like the best? Why?
The posts I liked best were those of medium-length but very detailed. Some others were too short and lacking of information and in contrast some seemed to drag on causing me to have to go back and re-read parts due to losing focus.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Yes some posts were better than others. The ones that stood out as best to me were those were people were writing with their actual voice and not trying to sound smart or make up information.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Not really, in most of my other psychology classes we've had a brief history of the theorist, how they developed their theories and the thinking behind it. I feel as this class will be similar to those portions of my other classes.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
I'm most interested in getting a solid background in the history of the theories I've learned so I can understand the theories more in-depth. It will also make me feel more confident when speaking about said information because I will understand the thinking behind it and have a concrete understanding.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?

I enjoyed the reading activity posts better than the topical posts because they showed more reflection than recitation. I think the topical posts were more stereotypical, boring recitation of facts. Whereas the reading activity posts were more thought-filled and thought-provoking. These posts were reflections, thoughts, and questions about the readings, not simply a restatement of facts.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?

I don't believe I read a single post and thought, "That was awful." I don't even think I feel some people's posts were better than others. This is because most of the posts were reflections and supported opinions, making all them good posts. In the reading activity blogs, I enjoyed reading different views on the same chapter. Different people found various topics to focus on that were interesting to him or her, which makes each of those topics more interesting to the reader.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?

Yes. I absolutely hate history classes, of any kind. I am a double major in psychology and music education, so I am also required to take three music history classes. I thought because they were in a area of my liking, I would enjoy music history more than I enjoyed history during grade school and high school. I was very wrong. Considering this, I also believed that I would hate history of psychology too. After our first class on Thursday and after reading some of these blog posts, I think I may need to open my mind to the possibility that I could enjoy history of psychology. I assumed that it would focus on people and dates and facts. Although I did read some of this in the posts, I also read a lot of ideas and concepts. I think making history of psychology relatable is the key to making it an enjoyable learning experience.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?

Based on these posts there is not anything in particular that stood out to me that desperately interested me. I am fairly new to my psychology major, so there is a lot I need to learn about psychology in general. I am hoping to learn as much as in this class that I can relate to my personal life and my past, present, and future course at UNI.

After reading some of the posts, I found that I liked the topical blog posts the best. Being able to use outside sources to gather additional information made the posts more interesting. Even posts that had similar topics were very different because of the use of other resources. While none of the posts really ever sounded the same, the topical posts had more variety.

I surprised to find that even with so many posts, there were no posts that stood out to me as really bad or really good. I think since the posts are more reflection-based it allows there to be a more level playing field. When questions ask for one specific answer, there's always the right and wrong answer. Where reflection-based questions give people the opportunity to just express their opinion on the given topic.

I think reading these posts has definitely changed my idea of what the history of psychology is. In other history classes I've taken, there is a big emphasis on remembering specific people and times when things happened. It's pretty clear from the posts that I've read, that there is a bigger emphasis on remembering the theories and practices that have shaped psychology into what it is today.

Based on these posts there isn't one topic that specifically stands out to me. I actually found it kind of overwhelming seeing all the different topics that are going to be discussed. Since I've taken a few psychology classes already, I'm sure some of the topics we are going to discuss will already be familiar to me. However, I hope to increase my understanding of topics I've already been introduced to and learn more about psychology in general!

1)Which posts did you like the best? Why?

The posts that I liked best were the ones that had more detail but not so much detail that I got bored while reading them. The ones that were long usually had a lot of description in them to the point were you can tell that the person learned and understood what they were reading and used the terms in the correct spots and gave the definitions for the terms.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?

I do think some of the posts were better than others. Some of the posts were too long and some of the others were too short. The short ones had terms thrown into the mix without any definitions or explanations for why they were interested in that term. The ones that were too long had too much explanation for some terms and I became disinterested by the end of them.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?

I think some of these posts have changed my idea about the history of psychology. To be honest, I didn’t think the history of psychology would be interesting but learning about how and when clinical psychology, asylums, and psychology came about was pretty interesting.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?

I am interested in intelligence tests and how they came about. I find this interesting because I feel that the standard tests that we have to take in high school and college are not an accurate representation of what we actually know. I am also interested in the parts of psychology history that are darker because I think all of the unethical things and all of the ethics laws are interesting.

I like the posts that go into detail and explain what the author is thinking. When the author goes into detail you can follow their thoughts and learn how they interpret the information they had learned in the past week. You can also learn more about the chapters you had read in the week before. Sometimes when are reading a chapter you may skip a part or not understand a part of the chapter. When another student writes in detail about the chapter, they can help you understand the rest of the chapter.

The blogs that were better written had more text references. It is more obvious when people read the chapter of the week, because they are able to reference different parts of the chapter within the same topic. The better blogs are also the ones who enjoyed what they were reading and talking about. When the author knows about and likes what they are writing about, they are more likely to write in detail and with greater enthusiasm than if they don’t like what they are writing about. I have also found that if the author doesn’t know about what they are writing about they may try to blend different facts from the chapter that don’t necessarily work together.

I think that reading these posts has changed my idea of the history of psychology a little. In all of my classes I have learned a bit about different parts of history, however, it is different to see how they all line up and intertwine with each other.

I’m looking forward to learning about how different theories have evolved and how different theories influence each other. I am also interested in learning how different approaches changed over time and how they influenced different theories.

After reading the posts please answer the following four questions:

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I liked the posts in which the students gave what seemed to be an honest opinion of the subject material. By this I mean that some admitted that they did not like it or find it interesting. I liked this type of post because I don’t always like every topic that is covered in a class, so I would be more likely to feel comfortable giving my opinion, positive or negative. I also liked the posts where the students seemed like they were really interested, and even excited, to discuss a topic. I liked these posts because it makes me feel as though I will find a topic in this class that will excite me too.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
I think the posts that didn’t just summarize the chapters, but also applied the concepts, were better. If someone was able to relate the chapter content to their own life or experience I think it made the post more interesting to read and showed that they had a good understanding of the material.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Overall, I don’t think reading these posts changed my idea of the history of psychology. I had already been thinking that this class would cover influential figures, schools of thought, and theories in psychology, although I am now thinking that it may be more in depth than what I previously thought.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
I don’t think that there are any specific topics that I am interested in, although in a broad sense I would be interested in the history of the behavioral school of thought. I like behaviorism because I tend to understand things that I can see better than abstract concepts, such as Maslow’s self-actualization which was discussed in some posts. I am also interested in the topical blogs because they seem like they allow you freedom to explore topics that are of personal interest to you.

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?
I like the posts where I could easily read the post from top to bottom because the opinion of the author was clear. Some of the authors did not seem certain about the topics they were discussing. I also appreciated the authors who reviewed their posts for grammatical errors—it is a pet peeve of mine and seems unprofessional (wouldn’t it be ironic if I have a grammatical error in this post or future posts?). I appreciate authors who balance a conversational style with facts or supporting evidence. Sometimes posts/papers with strict parameters can become boring and repetitive and are difficult to finish. Most of the posts were interesting, so that aspect made it easier to find posts I enjoyed.

2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?
Some posts were definitely better than others. It is easy to spot a procrastinator when their grammar is horrendous and their posts seemed jumbled and unorganized. As I mentioned earlier grammatical errors annoy me, but I also understand a couple pop up after they post has already been submitted (it is the worst when this happens because there is no ‘go back’ or ‘delete’ button). Many individuals stated their honest opinions about the material. In the posts I looked at some people did not like the newest chapter as much as the older topics, but still tried to find something that interested them.

3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
I feel that it made the history of psychology seem more interesting. I understand the concept of ‘history’ (learning about the past) and ‘psychology’ (the study of mental and behavioral processes) separately, but know very little about the combination of the two. I have learned of landmark studies in other courses, but I feel that this course may contain even more studies that have not been addressed in past classes. I am interested in the type of material I will learn about in this course. I only have a general sense of the history of psychology at the moment and I feel that the blogs helped slightly. I feel when we discuss the material in class and as I read the textbook on my own the concept of history and psychology will become much clearer.

4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
I want to learn more about industrial psychology and business applications. I have not taken a required course in the industrial/organizational/applied section of the psychology major yet, so I am open to learning about topics in psychology related to business. The only fact I can think of linking the two is the position of an HR manager who hires individuals. I would also like to learn more about laboratories/environments of research psychologists. I have little interest in researching much in the future, but I would like to get a better idea of how labs function for psychologists. I would like to learn how the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society differ. How are they funded? Do they receive the same funding? Are they overseen by the same individual/group?

I'll be honest most of the posts I stopped reading halfway through, either because they were repeating older comments, or because they did not hold my attention very long. I found my self reading the posts that answered questions in a critical evaluation style, all the way through. Why? Because they were unique. I could feel a real genuine response from these writers. It did not feel like they were writing to get a grade in the class, it felt like they were writing to express a thought.

Regarding the subjective matter of posts, of course some were better than others. I found that the better posts were the ones that were well thought out. It was easy to see a pattern of posts that were 'on the fly' responses. At times I felt like I was reading a Wikipedia page, which can both be a good or bad thing, depending on the dynamic of the questions asked. Some situations called for direct information (like Chapter responses), others called for an emotional connections along with the direct information (typically the topic responses). Either way it was the style the writer that I think took the well thought out posts above the others. Why do I feel like this? I respected the well thought out and prepared posts than the ones that left me scrolling back to the top of the page to check what question was next. These posts were not only easy to read and follow, it was also easy to remember. I felt like I was learning the information from theses responses.

These posts have not changed my idea of the history of psychology. Not because the posts were poorly written, but because I have not yet formed a complete idea to change. They certainly aided in how I form my opinion. This is because of the plethora of perspectives to look at.

Motivation, I was always the kid asking the question "why" for every little thing that happened. While my parents and teachers would constantly give me answers that I was satisfied with, I would dive deeper and deeper until one day they did not have an answer for my "why" question that I was satisfied with. That question was why do people do the things they do. What's the motivation behind all the different decisions that we make on a day to day setting? Is it the social uprising, or is it based on a formulated idea? These questions do not have a clear answer that I am satisfied with and that's what keeps me connected.

The posts that I liked the best were the blog posts. I liked these because it allows the students to have more freedom in what topics they want to post about. I noticed that almost all of the students who posted, posted about different topics which shows that this course allows you to focus on what you are most interested in through our readings. My favorite blog post was by a student who choose to talk about George Miller and memory of sequences of numbers. This was so exciting for me to read because I loved studying this originally in Intro to psychology and then Biopsychology. To understand more of Millers theory and what we know about it today. Naturally I am looking forward to learning about George Millers theory and to dive into what made psychology popular and why it is the way it is today. After reading these posts I was pleasantly surprised with the topics that people posted about. In general I thought this course would be mostly facts, names, and dates but from reading the posts I have found that it really is the core foundation of psychology. I appears that this class really pulls together a lot of what I have learned and focused on since becoming a psychology student which is really exciting.
After reading many posts I found there are several types of writers and that some posts were better than others. What made posts stand out from others were students who's posts went into detail. Most of the time these were longer posts than others but some students were able to get their message across with out rambling. I am looking forward to taking this class.

C.D.
1 & 2) The posts I liked best were the ones where students could keep it short and to the point while accurately expressing knowledge and interest in the subjects they chose. This is not because I didn't like taking the time to read the long ones, but because reading the longer ones was less enjoyable due to the clear need to extend posts to keep up with other students who had to do the same. You can find what truly mattered to the student, as well as their opinions and insights when they aren't adding unnecessary information to reach a target number of words or trying to keep up with others who had reached or exceeded the target. Not all of the short posts were good this way, some people were just lazy, but that can easily be distinguished.
3) The way I see history in psych now is different than I see other forms of history. Psychology appears to be largely based on theories, and to understand the theories we must understand those who came up with them and the techniques they used. I think time periods matter less than normal history to an extent, unless they are used to understand the limitations or social mindsets that sculpted these scientists.
4). I am interested in understanding the backgrounds of the most important scientists in psychology that I have been learning about for years. From what I read it looks like I will learn their backgrounds and most well known theories as well as some of their lesser known works. I am also excited to learn about other important psychology figures that I have yet too. I am specifically interested in learning more about Carl Rogers, who I haven't learned much about as of yet, and his client centered therapy because I would like to be a therapist in the future but I am unaware of the proceedings behind the closed door. Whether Client lead therapy is a common use in today's therapy or not, knowing the proceedings could possibly allow me to help certain clients with special needs in the future. I am also interested in the Pavlov and Skinner experiments that helped me understand the conditioning techniques used in the bmod class I took last year. I've tried training animals and although I understand a lot more about how they think in terms or reward for behavior, I could use a bit more knowledge to become more efficient with it.

The posts I liked the best were the reading activity posts because it gave me an idea of what will be expected of us. I also like the topical blogs because it will give us a chance to do some of our own research on something we have particular interest in. In my opinion this will make the class more interesting. I think that the posts that showed the writers opinions were better than those that did not. Also the medium length posts seemed best. They writers said what they needed to say with enough explanation and weren't too wordy. I wouldn't want to have to read or grade 20+ long wordy posts. After reading the posts my idea of what the history of psychology is has not really changed because I took a course similar to this at my previous school. But this is a different way of teaching it which I think I will enjoy more than I did before. Being that I have taken a similar course I am interested in the over all history at this point and would like to know more about how psychology affects different fields. -KT

1) Which posts did you like the best? Why?

I enjoyed reading the posts where the students were able to choose their own subject because I feel that it made them more interested in the content and their post was more interesting because of that. One student wrote about Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark, which I enjoyed reading about, and I think its because they were interested in the post, therefore they spent more time on it.
2) Were some posts better than others? Why or why not?

Yes, some were a lot more detailed and considerably longer without generic answers. They were able to make me think more about the subject even though I hadn’t thought of it at all or much at all before.
3) Has reading these posts changed your idea of what the history of psychology is? Why or why not?
Somewhat. I enjoy history, but more in the form of documentaries with interesting visuals and narrators, not reading it from a book. It was not as boring as I thought it was going to be, but that may be because of my overall interest in psychology.
4) Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning? Why?
There are a lot of subjects in psychology that interest me, but reading the posts on memory are interesting and I’m excited to learn more.

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