Psych 1100

I am constantly on the search for new pieces of wisdom. For the last two years I

have been learning Spanish and my favorite thing is when I hear new sayings or as they

call them in Spanish, “dichos”. “el que es perico, donde quiera es verde”, Is one of my

favorite sayings and translates approximately to “the parrot is green no matter where it

is”. This describes someone who is recognised for what makes them special regardless

of where they are in the world. In Psychology 1100 Lifespan Human Growth and

Development I learned about the progression of life from young to old. Human

development through the lifespan is what results in the qualities that make us special

and recognizable as individuals. Psychology offers nuggets of wisdom just like dichos

that I can apply to my life.

Problematic Interactive Media Use or “PIMU” is a concept applicable to today’s

changing environment, and my discussion on this topic illustrates my learning in this

course. PIMU is a general term for several serious issues one of which is “digital

self-harm”. Two cases of adolescent suicide have defined “digital self-harm” when

authorities discovered that the individuals were engaging in self-harm by setting up

fake social media accounts, posting mean comments on their own content. Experts

theorize that digital self-harm is used by adolescents to cope with overwhelm and draw

attention to internal psychological distress (Collins, 2021).

Looking back at what I have learned from Psychology 1100, PIMU can be

related to and explain many research driven phenomena. I can see myself citing the

chapter of our text book on culture and adolescence, “The culture adolescents
experience involves not only cultural values, SES, and ethnicity, but also media and

screen time influences (Santrock, 2022).”

Psychology 1100 has piqued my interest in things that can affect development

like PIMU. Much like the dichos I have learned in Spanish, the knowledge learned in this

class I can apply to my own life and wisdom.

Work Cited

Santrock, J.W. (2022). Essentials of Life-Span Development (7th Ed,). New York:
McGraw-Hill. ­

Collins, Kristelle (2021) “Webinar: Interactive Media Use and Youth Mental Health

”. UNESCO.