Reflection On Experience Psychology By Laura King

There are many things in which we have learned in chapter one through seven, Experience Psychology. One thing in which we have learned about is sleep disorders which includes but not limited to insomnia sleep walking and sleep talking. Another thing in which we have learned about is psychoactive drugs and how they affect our state of mind. Some of these drugs are marijuana, alcohol and caffeine. These two concepts are two in which I have a good grasp on, but where I already know these, I was surprised in what I learned in Chapter one’s section the approach to psychology. Chapter four, State of Consciousness, talked about sleep disorders and their effect on our body and mind.

The sleep disorders that Laura King informed about includes; insomnia, sleepwalking and talking, nightmares and night terrors, narcolepsy and sleep apnea. Some of the effect of these disorders include; “the failure to sleep (insomnia), sodden urge to sleep (narcolepsy), sudden awakening from sleep do to a dream (nightmare) or extreme fear (night terror) and inability to breath during any stage of sleep (sleep apnea). ” (King, 2016) Another concept in which King talked about is psychoactive drugs, which includes; “alcohol (alcoholism), barbiturates, tranquilizers, opiates, caffeine, amphetamines, cocaine, MDMA (Ecstasy), these all are consider depressants;” (King, 2016) “psychoactive drugs that slow down mental and physical activities” (King, 2016).

You also have Hallucinogens, “psychoactive drugs that modify a person’s perceptual experiences and produces visual images that are not real” (King, 2016), these drugs consist of; marijuana and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). I came into this class with little to no knowledge of psychology. This entire class has been an “Aha” moment, the one that stands out the most to me is Chapter 1 section on “Contemporary Approaches to Psychology”. It was bewildering on how many approaches there were to study and learn about psychology. The moment when I came to a deeper meaning is when I finished reading about all the different categories. Reading these approaches made me realize that psychology is more than how a person feels, or why they think the way they do.

There is always a deeper meaning to everything in the world of psychology; how we sleep, think talk or even see and feel. In the last seven weeks we have learned a lot about psychology. We have only made it through half of Laura King’s Experience Psychology text book, we have learned about; The Science of Psychology, The Brain and Behavior, Sensations and Perceptions, States of Consciousness, Learning, Memory and Thinking, Intelligence, and Language. There have been moments I have had better grasp on the chapters or certain concepts, like in Chapter four’s concepts on Sleep disorders and Psychoactive drugs. There also have been an “aha” moment for me, this was in Chapter 1. In Chapter 1 we learned about the approach to psychology, everything we do is categorized in one of eight approach.