Avante Kendrick
April 13, 2015
PSYC 101
Dr. Rodriguez
Writing Assignment 2 In Psychology 101 we discuss many important concepts related to brain function, social interaction and mental disorders. Three very important topics that we have discussed thus far are substance dependence, chunking and parenting styles. These three concepts are all very different and discuss ideas ranging from uncontrollable fixations on drugs to how individuals subconsciously choose to parent their children. While very different, each topic is crucial in understanding basic principles that define the science. Substance dependence occurs when the abuser's body feels like it needs the drug or the abuser's mind is telling that they need the drug. A person who is dependent on a substance feels that without the drug, they would not be able to function properly and in most cases, this is true. Substance abuse relates to tolerance which is a person's capacity for a drug. The higher a person's tolerance, the more susceptible that person will be to becoming dependent on the substance. When an individual that smokes marijuana uses the drug so much that he or she feels that without the drug he or she does not have an appetite he or she is dependent on that drug. The dependence is making that individual lose the interest in eating food because without the drug, eating food is not as good. Without that drug in their systems, individuals that are substance dependent cannot or feel that they cannot function properly. In my family, my uncle was once an alcoholic because he felt that when he was not drunk, he was not fully himself. He felt that if he was not drunk, he would remember things from his past that he was trying to forget. Chunking is used in the short-term memory as a way of breaking larger pieces of information into smaller bits of information. In the short term memory, statistics say that a person can remember about seven items, give or take two. The units that are broken down in chunking must be strategically placed, in a sequence for example. In chunking, the more units we break down, the less information we are able to contain in our short term memory. This means that a person breaking down a number with only nine units into three separate units of three would be more likely to remember the whole number as opposed to a person chunking a number with fifteen units into five separate units of three. When we want to remember a telephone number, instead of trying to remember all ten numbers individually, generally we break the number down into a three, three, four sequence. For example, if the number is 4102335555, we would break that down to 410-233-5555 in order to remember it for a long time or just long enough to dial it. When the president has to remember a launch code by memory, he may use chunking in order to help him remember it. Another topic that has been discussed is parenting styles. There are three different types of parenting styles which are, authoritarian, authoritative and permissive. A parenting style is a caregiver's response to or communication with his or her child, it is how he or she raises his or her child. Authoritarian parents are the most firm and aggressive. These parents operate on a "zero-tolerance" policy and do not listen to the children. When