Introduction to psychology - part one.
by zoid1970@yahoo.com.
Two students meet in a psychology class.


comments welcome.

John was a junior at UCLA. He was European-American and was 20 years old. He
was 5' 2" tall, and weighed 110 pounds. He was a physics major and brilliant.
He was starting his third year now, and he needed to get one of his general
education requirements out of the way. He had always looked down at any
subject that was outside the realm of the hard sciences. He quickly glanced
through the courses that were accepted as GEs, and he found one that fit his
schedule - Introduction to psychology - Section 1 with professor Smathers. It
met every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2 PM. He figured to himself that
this course would be a breeze, and he signed up for it.

The following week, he found himself in the lecture hall, and professor
Smathers walked in and started to lecture. The class had about 300 students,
and he also found out that the class also had 10 different discussion
sections, with 30 students in each discussion group. His discussion group met
every Thursday at 3 PM. John didn't like the idea of having to meet an extra
day each week for a class he considered a nuisance, but he didn't allow
himself to get too annoyed, as his schedule was very light that quarter.

His first day in that class went by quickly, and John felt somewhat nameless
in a class that large. On Thursday, he went to the discussion section at 3 PM,
and sat in the front row. The teaching assistant walked in and said that the
class would be divided into groups of two students, to work on projects that
would be assigned throughout the quarter. The TA briefly reviewed the material
that had been covered during the week, and said that hey would find out who
they would be paired with next week, and that a project would also be
assigned.

During the course of the next week, professor Smathers covered a topic called
'conditioned stimulus' and 'conditioned response', involving a scientist named
Pavlov who had experimented on dogs to get his results. On Thursday, the TA
walked in and announced that on a bulletin board in the psychology building,
they would find the name of the person they had been paired off with , how to
contact them, and also the specific project that had been assigned to them.
The hour went by quickly, and John decided to wait until next week to go to
the bulletin board.

The next several days went by quickly, and on Saturday evening, John got a
call on his cell phone from a number that he did not recognize. He answered
and said hello. A girl's voice answered back: "Hello John. You don't know me.
My name is Jill, and I have been assigned as your project partner in our
psychology class. " John replied : "Hello Jill. How are you doing ?" The girl
answered : "I am fine. I just wanted to let you know that our project is due
in 12 days in our discussion section. I also wanted to let you know that for
our project, we have to give a report on the life of Pavlov." John felt
somewhat annoyed being called on a Saturday for a project that was due in 12
days, especially for a class that he really didn't care about. Trying to hide
his annoyance, he said : "Ok Jill. Thank you for informing me. I will see you
on Thursday." He was about to say goodbye when Jill interrupted : "No ! Wait !
This class is very important to my future, and I need to do excellent in it !
I was thinking about meeting up tomorrow so that we could go to the library
and at least find the sources that we need for our project !"

John wasn't sure what to do. He didn't like the idea of starting so early, but
on the other hand, he thought that the sooner he got it over with, the better.
He replied : "Fine ! where would you like to meet up ?" Jill said that she
would see him at the entrance to the main campus library at 10 am the
following morning. John agreed, and hung up his phone. John tended to be a
loner, and didn't like to socialize too much on weekends, but he told himself
that this was for a class and was an assignment. So on Sunday he arrived at
the library, getting there a few minutes early. He sat down on a bench, and
started to go through the messages on his cell phone. A moment later, he felt
the sun blocked out, and he looked upwards in response. He had to continue to
look upwards, until he made eye contact with the source of the interruption of
the sun's rays.

The image that greeted him was that of an Asian girl. She was by the the
biggest Asian girl he had ever seen. And Jill was indeed big. She was a
Chinese-American girl, who was 6' 7" tall, and weighed 240 pounds. She wasn't
very fat, she was just somewhat big-boned and voluptuous. Overall she was
attractive and feminine in appearance. She had classic Asian features, with
long hair. After John's initial shock had worn off, he tried to regain his
composure and stood up to greet her. When Jill saw how small John was compared
to her, she become very self-conscious of her size and stepped backwards to
give John some space. John also found the situation very awkward. He tried to
lesson the tension as best as he could : he extended out his right hand, and
said : "Hello ! you must be Jill. I am John." In response, Jill also extended
out her right hand, smiling as warmly as she could and said : "Hi John ! I am
Jill ! It is a pleasure to meet you. " John's hand disappeared into Jill's
much larger and hand, as she gently and softly shook hands with him.

Looking down into John's eyes, Jill saw a white American guy who was very
small and slim. Overall, he was handsome, but just very small for a
Caucasian-American. After their introductions, there was an awkward silence
once more. As Jill was the more extroverted of the two, she decided to break
the silence : "Ok John, let's go inside the library and get started on our
project." And with that they entered the library with the goal of finding a
quiet place. The first floor was mostly administrative, so they decided to
take the elevator to one of the upper floors. Once inside the elevators Jill
looked downwards into John's eyes and said : "The fifth floor always has these
study rooms, and we will also have a great view of the surrounding hills !"
Once on the fifth floor, Jill guided John to the room with the best view. They
were inside the room in no time, and Jill closed the door behind them, as she
always liked to study with the minimum amount of noise possible. Once again,
John felt intimidated, as he found himself inside an enclosed space with a
girl who was more than twice his size, whom he had just met.

Jill sensed John's sense of unease, and thought that it would be best if they
learned a little more about each other. She started by saying : "Ok John,
given we will be working closely together on multiple projects for the rest of
the quarter, maybe it would be nice to know more about each other." John
founds Jill's logic convincing and replied : "Well, I am a 20 year old third
year physics major, and I am taking this class as a general education
requirement. At this point, I am not sure what I will be doing after
graduation, but I still have a year left to decide." Jill said : "Well John, I
am also 20 years old. I am also starting my third year. I am undeclared with
regards to my major, but I am thinking about psychology. That is why I want to
do so well in this class ! As of now, I have no specific plans for after my
graduation, but I am thinking about maybe going to graduate school or medical
school."