The major takeaways I took from AP Psychology was to understand why people do the things they do. Sometimes those who do such awful acts is because they have a severe mental disorder, but they never say that. No, I'm not trying to justify their actions, but that person was not fully himself/herself when they did the actions that they did. AP Psychology has allowed me to take a deeper look into people's minds, actions, and reasons on why they do the certain things that they do. It has also allowed me to learn more about the brain that I did not know of before. For example, I did not know of the Frontal lobe, Temporal lobe, Parietal lobe, or the Occipital lobe nor their actions. Without taking this course I would not have been able to understand why sometimes I act the way I do, and why people with disorders need the help and medication they do. I also took away that there are a lot of disorders out there that require a lot of help and medication to treat. Some disorders just need talk therapy, others need talk therapy and medication in order to get better.
The major takeaway I took from AP Psychology has been the prejudgments I've made on individuals regarding their actions without considering the possibility of an external factor. For example, we often become too comfortable blaming individuals for the life style they choose without taking a moment to fully process the reasoning behind their actions. Several of the reasons why a person does certain things is due to environmental factors, like their neighborhood. Another major takeaway I am grateful to have learned about has been the facial feedback hypothesis, meaning that facial expression can actually cause an emotion, which I experienced throughput my experiment of breaking a norm. As I proceeded in my experiment of appearing, or at least showing signs of depression, I began to truthfully feel "depressed". This was a powerful impact on my persona because I know comprehend the power we have over our emotion. Tying it back to my topic, imagine the impact this information can have on teenagers that are starting to show early signs of depression. If they knew that simple smile can change their entire emotion, many of these accidents could be avoided. Of course I am aware that depression is a severe disorder that cant be fixed that easy , but I am big adherent that it can be a start to a resolution.