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Psychology 1010 Signature Assignment

Tyson Ferguson

Weber State University

PSY 1010

Mr. Alan Baggaley

April 26, 2022

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Flavour Aversion

Flavour Aversion is when you avoid a particular food after a bad experience, such as

throwing up or getting sick, because your brain associates sickness or discomfort with that

specific food (Baggley, 2021). Wolves that eat a sheep carcass laced with toxins were

observed and penned with sheep will not eat the sheep because they learned that eating sheep

can get you sick and learn flavour aversion (Baggaley, 2021). Last year my older brother,

Preston Ferguson, had this happen to him. It happened when he made and ate a one-minute

omelet cup that you crack an egg in, then mix it up and microwave it. While he was eating, he

started feeling sick. Later that day, he threw up, and he claims it tasted like eggs. A couple of

months later, he tried to eat an omelet, but because of his previous experience, he was not

able to eat it, and it made him feel the same way as before. He then tried to eat scrambled

eggs, but he still struggles to eat eggs because of the texture and similar taste. He even has to

use excessive amounts of salt and pepper when he eats fried eggs. When I interviewed him

about this, it was so bad that he could barely get through the interview without feeling sick.

Sometimes I bring up eating eggs, and he starts to gag.

I had an experience of flavour aversion before, except mine are not as bad as my

brothers, and I do not remember them. One of my worst experiences was with frozen pizza. It

was less than a year ago, but I remember my mom went to work and cooked it up for my little

siblings, and I decided to eat a piece of it. While I was eating it, it tasted very off and tasted

disgusting and made me feel sick, so I stopped eating it, but maybe an hour or two later, I

almost threw up. Instead, I threw up in my mouth and swallowed it back down because I was

not in a spot where I could get to the bathroom. Looking back on it now, I wish I had thrown

it up because I cannot eat it anymore and just thinking about it irritates my stomach.
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I wanted to use my brother's experience because it is an excellent example of Flavour

aversion. Also, when it happened to him, it was a horrible experience far worse than mine. I

chose mine because it irritated my stomach, but I did not throw up as Preston did, and it

shows that any bad experience can give you flavour aversion.
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A Humanistic psychologist whose name is Abraham Maslow. He proposed that there

were particular needs that were more important than others. He created the hierarchy of

needs. The first level is the most basic and essential, and it has to do with physiological

needs. These needs are things such as food and water, and without them, you cannot survive.

The next level after that would be Safety (Baggaley, 2022a). These are things such as shelter,

and without them, you will not die, but it will not be pleasant, and it will be challenging, but

it is doable. I know this from experience. I had gone camping before and had to sleep under

the stars. This means I had no tent, no tarp, no camper, nothing but a sleeping bag and I

survived. I did not love that, but I still survived. I have had other experiences like this, but I

also forgot a pad and had to sleep on the hard rocky ground while camping, and I could not

sleep all that well. It was pretty miserable. The level after that would be love and belonging,

and things like that would be family and even your friends, those who make you feel like you

belong and you are loved. This is even less important than safety because you will not get

hurt, or something will not happen to you without these. A recent example and experience of

this would be when Covid-19 hit worldwide. Everyone was forced to quarantine, and some of

us had our families, but besides that, we could not talk to anyone or see them in public, which

even started to drive me insane. It was hard for me to go so long without seeing my friends,

but it did not affect my ability to survive; although it was uncomfortable, it was again doable.

After that, the next level is Esteem, which includes feelings of accomplishment and personal

belief. After that, it would be Self-actualization. A way this level was described to me is that

it is achieving your personal best self and doing everything to make you happy. The last and

final level is Self-transcendence, and this was explained to me as not only did you achieve
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and make yourself happy, but did you help anyone else or just help yourself (Baggaley,

2022a).
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The Sleep Cycle

The Sleep Cycle consists of 5 stages and correlates with our circadian rhythm, which

is like our body's biological clock in a 24-hour span (Baggaley, 2022b). The first stage is the

awake stage, the second stage is the REM stage, the third stage is non-REM stage 1 (NREM

1), the fourth stage is non-REM stage 2 (NREM 2), and the last is non-REM stage 3 (NREM

3). The Sleep Cycle occurs every 90 minutes, and the more sleep we get, the longer our REM

stage occurs and the less our NREM 3 stage occurs until it has gone. In REM, your eyes

move rapidly, but they do not give any input to your brain. During REM, your brain has

Beta-waves that are observed. You also have the most vivid dreams in the REM stage

(Baggaley, 2022b). I have some experience with this. I cannot remember the details, however.

I will have the most vivid dreams, and the killer part is that they are so random and chaotic. I

could be talking to my brother and then immediately switch to fighting in a boxing match and

winning. I had a dream where it was friendly and pleasant and started to turn into nightmares

slowly, and in REM, you do get nightmares. While you go through this stage, your body

becomes paralyzed, so if you wake up while having a nightmare and your body is still

paralyzed, sleep paralysis may occur, and that is when your brain wakes up, and you gain

consciousness before you can move your body again.

Research on cortical activation during sleep has explained why dreams could be

bizarre and random, and like I was saying earlier, that tends to happen to me a lot. The

findings explained that bizarre dreams are the most memorable and occur in the late

mornings. This is due to excessive levels of cortical activation, which is a necessary condition

for the production of bizarre mentation (Antrobus, 1991).

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The research was done to determine if early morning exercise can affect your

circadian rhythm. The findings are that early morning exercise does not affect your circadian

rhythm or sleep quality. It is found that for mammals, light is one of the most important

regulators of the circadian rhythm. Another finding is that physical activity influences

circadian synchronization (Maia et al., 2011). This makes me feel relieved because I work out

and exercise a lot. I do boxing, and I try to wake up every morning and jog for 2 miles. I

never felt like that changed my circadian rhythm. However, waking up early in the morning

for school does make you sleep deprived and can cause a shift in your circadian rhythm

(Maia et al., 2011). I found this very interesting because I have many changes in my circadian

rhythm, especially when I go from summer to the school year and back and forth. I can tell

more changes in my circadian rhythm with school, much more than physical activity,

especially in the morning. I can tell changes throughout the school year as well, significantly

when semesters change, and if I do not have a first-period class, I do not wake up so early

changing it.
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References

Antrobus, J. (1991). Dreaming: Cognitive processes during cortical activation and high

afferent thresholds. Psychological Review, 98(1), 96-121.

http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.1.96

Baggaley, A. (2021). Learning [PowerPoint slides].

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14qcLL7gj499oMMQJZhnafmQdJNocftGG

Baggaley, A. (2022a). Motivation [PowerPoint slides].

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KdP1glXGhYw5Ihhhjdpa9pSI4mIts4Ug

Baggaley, A. (2022b). States of Conscious [PowerPoint slides].

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vCEJrpXIRayeXu3VxDjuYwRiJr75QBgE

Maia, A. P. L., Sousa, I. C. d., & Azevedo, C. V. M. d. (2011). Effect of morning exercise in

sunlight on the sleep-wake cycle in adolescents. Psychology & Neuroscience, 4(3),

323-331. http://doi.org/10.3922/j.psns.2011.3.005