Reply to psych questions!

So a fellow blogger asked me for some help with her writer's block! She asked what kind of factors should be considered when seeing a patient. And to answer I think it is important to think about all of the factors of a patients life. Many different diagnosis can be made complicated by differences in age, gender, and even culture. For example Antisocial personality disorder can not be diagnosed if the person is under the age of 18. Many patients are also difficult to treat because of culture differences. When doctors try to communicate with patients of different religions, countries, and ethnicities it can be difficult to communicate in a way that respects their beliefs and their practices. So in my opinion it is important to know all aspects of a patients life in order to effectively treat the problem. Hope that helps. Message me if you have any questions or comments!

Woah

So long time no post! Sorry guys the semester finally decided to hit me, and it's hitting me hard. In the next two weeks I'm going to have five exams and three papers and a conference. :( So the posts might become even less frequent. But since I missed Musical Mondays this week I thought I might do a phonetic friday? Haha so these last few weeks I have been hanging ou with my room mate who is obsessed with Dave Matthew's Band so naturally, I was listening to them a lot. Well turns out that they are still pretty good. I used to listen to them in middle school but I haven't heard anything from them in a few years. They have this one really good song called "You & Me". It's cute and catchy. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD9CrZODlNA

Project: Assistance Required

Hey so my research and methodologies psych class is requiring that we do a project where we create our own ((fake)) research study! Yaahhh ::insert sarcasm:: So my idea was based on all those infomercials and ads that say, "Play Mozart while you're pregnant and your baby will be a genius!" You know the ones I'm talkin about. So here's the official title of my project: The effects of external stimuli during prenatal development on the child's IQ. It sounds wordy but I had to make sure I got everything in there. And when I say "external stimuli" I mean things like music, reading, and television. so..yeah. Today I woke up at 8:00 to go meet with a psychology research assistant to help with find some sources. We spent 4 hours in that dang library and all we could find, that was academic, was the effects of drug abuse and the mothers psychological disorders on the babies IQ. Grrrrr. I'm really attached to this topic but if I can't find any resources, it may be going down the drain. Post your comments, questions, concerns and suggestions. I could use some help on this one.

Musical Mondays

So I decided to borrow an idea from a friend and share some of my favorite music with you, one day a week. This last week I have been listening to a lot of music from this one album called "Dark Was the Night". It is a compilation album done for the benefit of the Red Hot Organization which works to raise awareness for HIV and AIDS. In all honesty thats not why I started to listen to it. One of the artists on the album, Bon Iver, is one of my all time favorite artist but he's only put about 15 songs out ever. When I found out that he had contributed two new songs to this album I got interested. When I looked into I also found that Iron and Wine, Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), Grizzly Bear, Feist and Jose Gonzalez had all contributed tracks to the album. I was sold. If you've never heard of these artists and you like mellow/indie/music you could hear in a coffee house you should definitely check them out. I recommend "Die", "Big Red Machine", and "Train Song".

http://www.darkwasthenight.com/

Day two?

Hey so I'm gonna try and make a new post everyday but we'll see how that goes... <.< I thought that once a week I might present a new psychological disorder or theory and give some basic info and fun facts about it. I would love it if people would comment and ask for disorders that they would like to hear about. So leave me a comment. If there's anything in particular you would like to know I can try and answer it to the best of my ability, but unfortunately I can't try and give any diagnosis. Sorry guys. So yeah, leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do! Look for these posts on Sundays!

This is a photo of me and all my siblings and it was taken by the wonderful Steph over at Pinkapplecore.

Beginnings...

Hello, so obviously this is my first blog post. I'm not really too sure what to say so I think I will tell everyone a little bit about myself. I am in my second year of college but I will be graduating with a bachelor of arts in psychology next semester. I am an assistant researcher in a psychology clinic and I love it (even if it does become a bit depressing from time to time). I'm going to be applying to grad schools in the near future which should be a fun little adventure. I am mostly interested in child and abnormal psychology. I really find dissociative disorders interesting, but we will get into that later.

Life is crazy but I get by. My two best friends, Dana and Steph help me survive. My mother is my rock even if she is always on the verge of driving me insane. My mom actually had a baby about a year ago and that little devil is the cutest thing on the face of this earth. She has just discovered running and I hear that she chases everyone around. I don't get to see her very often because I started college about four months before she was born, but when I get the chance it is the greatest thing ever. I have four sisters and one brother and I am in the middle. :( I have a wonderful boyfriend named Shane and we've been together for nearly three years.

So with all of that, let the blogging begin...