Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Guess What?

I finally asked a question in my psychology class!!!  😀

The title of Vee’s post “You got a question?  I got the answer” (http://kindamixedup.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/you-got-a-question-i-got-the-answer/) are the words that came to mind afterward when I felt a feeling of pride and confidence .

I had my questions for this chapter planned in advance ready to ask two weeks before this, but it turned out that we weren’t going through the chapters in order so my notes I had prepared weren’t going to be discussed until later.  So I didn’t end up asking a question 2 weeks ago, and the week before that, which were the other two times I really tried to participate in.  We went over that chapter this night, and I was finally able to ask a question.  Slow and steady wins the race they say, and even though it took a while to build up the courage to ask a question in this class, it was definitely worth the time.  It was my major goal for this part of the project, and through fulfilling my mini goals in my smaller classes, I gradually achieved it.

So, let me tell you how it happened.

Before going to class, I picked out 3 possible questions that I thought would be good to ask.  I had the question written out clearly so I knew what I was going to say and how I was going to say it ahead of time.

Fast forward to the class, 6pm on a Wednesday night.  In the beginning she went through a couple of slides and there were no questions.  As her lecture got closer to the part where I knew I had a question written, my heart started beating really fast.  I focused on it and told myself calmly to slow it down and eventually it slowed down to a nearly normal rate.  The slide came up that included the part that I was planning to ask a question about, and I listened anxiously as she talked about the other things for a while until eventually she brought up “insight”.  After she talked about it a little bit and gave the definition, she paused for a brief moment.  I raised my hand quickly at that moment, but then she continued and I put my hand back down.  When she was done, she extended her arm out to me, signally me to ask my question.

I asked, “What’s going on in the brain during insight?” and to my delight, she said that was a very good question and talked about it for a while.  Someone else asked a question and then she continued even more.  I didn’t feel immediate euphoria afterward, just relaxed and content, like I didn’t realize what I had just done.  I then thought about it and I smiled and I said “way to go Brittany” in my mind and then got more excited about it when I got home.  It wasn’t so bad after all.

During another question the teacher asked us to raise our hand if we thought choice A was right or choice B was right.  It was a question on representative heuristics (judging the likelihood of things in terms of how they seem to represent or match particular prototypes) and she gave us a scenario in which we were supposed to say whether it was more likely that this person (who had all these altruistic interests) were more likely to (A) be a bank teller or (B) a bank teller who volunteers with Green Peace.  From reading my book I knew where she was going with this.  I raised my hand for A, with only a few others, and most raised their hand for B, and quite a few didn’t raise their hands at all. She reached her arm out in my direction and asked me to explain why I picked A.  At first I didn’t realize she was pointing to me so I paused for a second, and then figured she must mean me and then answered.  I kind of rambled because I didn’t know how to word my explanation exactly, but tried to get across that there are more chances of her being a bank teller than specifically a bank teller who volunteers with Green Peace because being a volunteer with Green Peace is too specific and reduces the odds.  Then she pointed to a person who picked B and had them explain why they picked B, and they said they did because she was very active in community service and volunteer work.  She then said A was correct and many people were surprised.

At the end of class for the first time, I got to sign the participation sheet.  Each week the teacher has a sign in sheet for you to sign if you participate in class by asking a question, answering question, or making a comment.  If you participate 80% of the time and have good attendance, she will round up borderline grades.  There was a bit of a line this time of people waiting to sign.  When it was finally my turn to sign, I picked up the pen and let the moment sink in.  I signed slowly and set the pen back down, gazing back down at my name included with the list of others.  It felt good to see my name there.  Patricia signed her name after me, and we walked out together and then parted ways.

This night was a huge success for me.  I was very proud and happy afterward and made sure to congratulate myself in my own dorky way.  (hugging myself like a freak and smiling the hugest smile I can while shutting my eyes)   🙂

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