Why I chose to take this class: I am taking this class to fulfill a social sciences credit, however I also find psychology to be a fascinating science. Of all my options for social science credits, psychology seems as if it will be the most engaging.
Three topics from the syllabus that seem the most interesting to me:
1. Attachment Theory: I feel that learning about this concept in a scholarly context will give a solid explanation to the ways that I think about interpersonal relationships. I am interested in this topic, as I can think of many unique relationships (family, friend, peer, romantic, online, authority), and would love to learn the differences, and similarities between them.
2. Memory: I’m sure everyone is interested in this topic. Learning about memory will likely help me to build good habits, avoid bad habits, and spread useful knowledge to my friends and family about memory.
3. Conditioning: This is a topic I don’t know very much about. I feel that learning about this topic in the context of a psychology class will challenge the way I think about some every day actions (both mine, and others’) that I wouldn’t otherwise give a second thought to.
Three topics from the syllabus that do not seem very interesting to me:
1. Drugs, Alcohol, & the Brain: While knowing these things is useful to many, I feel like this knowledge is wasted on me as I do not take recreational drugs, nor do I consume alcohol.
2. Sleep: I have done my fair share of reading about sleep, seen videos and presentations on sleep, as well as attended a lecture by a professor whose life work involved sleep. I think at this point, I have a solid grasp on both the benefits of adequate sleep, as well as the detriments of inadequate sleep. In my opinion, I have already developed excellent sleeping habits. I feel that little if anything from this section will surprise me, or change my habits.
3. The Brain: Perhaps information in a psychological context may turn out to be absolutely fascinating to me, but after spending a large portion of my time in the past couple of years studying biological systems in the body (including the nervous system), a rehash of material I am already very familiar with does not sound too appealing at the moment.
A Question I want to be able to answer by the time the class is over: What is the full extent of, and limitations of the placebo effect (with examples from studies)?
Egents 
Unfortunately the portion of the course where we take a tour of the basic brain functions is often review with students with strong biology/neuroscience backgrounds, but hopefully when we get to split brain research it will be more interesting for you! I’ll try to remember to point out placebo effects when discussing specific studies this semester but please ask questions throughout the course on this issue. One place we’ll talk about it quite a bit is the research on psychotherapy.
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