Social Psychology 1102

Sasi Ounpiyodom 5961052

Q4 SELF-DIRECTED PROJECT: LEARNING RECORDS

 Date: 02/04/18
 Questions: What will be the traumatic event that both twins experience? What type of
accident would be most realistic and accurate to our story?
 Summary: Plot B:
Traumatic experience - Twin 1 and Twin 2 and their family are going on a camping trip. They
didn’t know that their brake system accidentally broke while they’re on an uphill. So they slide
down the hill backwards and stopped at a cliff. The car then set on fire. Luckily that everyone
is able to escape right at that time, except for twin 2. Her parents became unconscious after
they barely escaped. Twin 1 goes back to pull twin 2 out of the passenger seat but failed
because twin 2 misstepped. Twin 2 fell off the cliff along with the car. Twin 1 cried hysterically
for not being able to help twin 2. She thought that twin 2 had died.
 Analysis and opinion: The plot is detailed enough for us to organize our workload for now.
More details will be added later during the writing process.

 Date: 03/04/18
 Questions: How many chapters will there be in Plot B? What would happen before the
traumatic event?
 Summary:
Chapters:
1. 24 hours prior 20.00 o’clock: the night before, packing bags for camping
2. 22 hours prior 22.00 o’clock : go to sleep
3. 14 hours prior 6.00: wake up dizzily, eat breakfast
4. 12 hours prior 8.00: on the way, in a car, twin forget something very significant to them
(twin 2 forgets, twin 1 brought it)
5. 8 hours prior 12.00: stop at a gas station, car engine difficulties, but ignored
6. 6 hours prior 14.00: arrive at camping site, car engine problem = car stopped
unexpectedly and started again
7. 3 hours prior 17.00: Decided to go sightseeing at night. Twin 2 doesn’t want to go but
everyone encourages her to go.
8. 1 hour prior 19.00: on the way to a stargazing place, the road is very dark, twins are
tired but the parents told them that we came all this way
9. 10 minutes prior 19.50: Car accident happens right at the cliff. Everyone can escape,
except for twin 2. Twin 1 tries to help twin 2 but failed. Twin 2 stuck inside the car.
10. 0 minute 20.00: Twin 2 fell off the cliff.
 Analysis and opinion: The countdown writing strategy is quite suitable because the readers
will be able to slowly guess that this plot is leading to a traumatic event. The events that
happen before need to have an eerie undertone. Though in my opinion, the car breaking
down is kind of a cliché “bad signal” for a story like this. I think it’s probably best to keep the
plot simple so we can focus more on the psychological connections.
How will our plot be organized into chapters? What will be the most reasonable and effective
order of plot A and plot B?
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 Date: 04/04/18
 Questions: How would we describe the prologue? How would the murderer and the victim
be revealed?
 Summary: Murder scene: Starts with a girl was killed by an anonymous murderer. She was
found dead in the backyard of her house with two identical ceramic dolls shattered around
her. A knife sticks out of her heart.
 Analysis and opinion: This is a rough draft of the prologue section. In the real novel, it would
be described more vividly.

 Date: 24/04/18
 Questions: How can we begin plot A?
 Summary: Chapters:
1. introduce twin 1’s name and emotions after the trauma (does not reveal the trauma)
2. Background information of twin 1’s childhood (without mentioning twin 2) and
parenting method (authoritative): reasonable
3. Conversation between mom and dad about how she used to be happy and active (but
after the traumatic experience she completely changes herself into a different person)
4. life at school
 Analysis and opinion: I think it’s quite difficult to start laying out twin 1’s life story without
any context. So we had to think of new events that involve twin 1 which would reveal her
struggle with her mental illnesses. Also, we might need to distinguish plot A from the plot b
in terms of writing style.

 Date: 25/04/18
 Questions: How can we continue plot A?
 Summary:
4. Describe twin 1’s life at school (Her abnormal behavior in class) She has a shorter
attention span and zones out often. She becomes depressed quite often, less interaction
with the surrounding. Her friends try to cheer her up but it doesn’t work. She also has
nightmare about the traumatic experience and it’s hard for her to go to sleep.
5. Her disorder becomes severe. During sleep, she sees images that remind her of the
trauma and experiences weird sensations. See/hear things that don’t exist. She has
hallucination which is hard to distinguish between reality and imagination.
6. Parents take twin 1 to Psychotherapy, has some conversations with
psychiatrist/psychologist. Also focus on how her parent take care of her. On their way
home from the clinic, she asks her parents if she could go hang out with her friends but
they rejected because they’re afraid she’s gonna cause trouble/won’t be able to control
herself.
 Analysis and opinion: Today we focused more on the nature vs. nurture concept as we
had to describe her life and how her environment at school affects her personality. Other
than that, we strengthened her symptoms by giving her sleep disorders. We also added the
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part where twin 1’s teacher calls her mom to tell that she’s acting normally so it would tie
the story together by giving a reason why her mom would remember her childhood. Also,
we would be able to see the contrast between the teacher’s perception of twin 1 and her
parents’ perception of her.

 Date: 26/04/18
 Questions: How can we continue plot A?
 Summary:
7. Her disorder reach the peak point which everything already goes out of control. She
can’t go to school anymore. She refuses to cooperate with the doctors that they had no
choice but to keep her at the hospital. She develops schizophrenia and often has
hallucination. She is unresponsive to the surroundings.
8. Reveal the secret: Twin 2 is still alive. She is living in a bad society near the suburbia
where gangsters used a lot of violence. So she imitated them and gradually increased
her thirst for revenge. (Social learning)
9. Describe about twin 2’s plan to revenge twin 1. She steals a knife from one of the
gangsters. Then, she takes several transportation to reach her home in the city at night.
On the same day, twin 1 couldn’t handle the therapy and escapes from the hospital and
came back home.
10. Reveal the murderer scene from prologue. Twin 2 is the one who murders twin 1.
 Analysis and opinion: I think we got the big picture quite clearly laid out and we’re ready
to write the actual novel.

 Date: 01/05/18
 Questions: How can we write a capturing prologue without revealing too much about the
characters?
 Summary: Prologue
Welcome to morning news report with MM Channel. Breaking news just came in that at 12 AM
today near Boulevard Hilton, a girl was found murdered with a knife in her own backyard. Her
parents just saw the devastating scene and reported the police at 8 AM. They said the girl had a
serious illness and was admitted at Horizon Clinic. However, she had secretly escaped in the
middle of the night without anyone knowing. Her parents were in the room sleeping with her while
they later woke up unaware that their daughter has left. They came home quickly and realize the
painful death. The girl was found with a knife in her chest and two eerily identical ceramic dolls
shattered around her body. Wounds from physical brutality were clear. Now, the police is in the
process of investigation from the fingerprint on the shattered ceramic dolls. We will report the
news later when we have more evidence. Let’s go to the weather forecasting section….
 Analysis and opinion: It was not difficult to write as we already had an outline, but we
struggled a bit with the naming of places and people. I think the next logical step is to write
the first chapter, keeping in mind that we can never reveal names in plot B. In addition, we
also used some Stephen King books as a reference for writing format, order and writing style.
 References: Stephen King’s “The Long Walk” and “Misery”
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 Date: 02/05/18
 Questions: How do we begin chapter 1?
 Summary: Chapter 1
24 hours prior

Inside a silent house, there is a warm family consisting of a father, a mother and two
identical twin daughters living together. The twins are very close to each other and understand one
another really well. All of them love to go traveling. So when the father announces that they are
going on a trip this weekend, cheerful sounds came from all of them.
“We will go camping tomorrow. Are you excited?” says the first twin.

“Of course, the best thing of all is to go travel with you!” says the second twin

“I really want tomorrow to come early,”

“Same as me!” cries the twin.

The door opens, and the father steps into the room.

“Wanna go camping now?”

“Of course, daddy!” shouted the two twins.

“Then you better pack up all your things and get ready for the trip!” said Dad, with a joyful
sound.

“We can’t wait for the day to come!”

The father leaves the room. The children take out their bags to prepare clothes and
necessary things. Their things come in pairs, two identical dresses, hats, pairs of socks, and more.
It’s very hard to distinguish between both of them. They spend some time packing their bags that
night before going to sleep.

Chapter 1 - untitled

The silence has never felt this overwhelming since the last time we came home. I felt like I
had lost a part of myself, incapable of getting it back. missing. longing. regretting. All feelings were
present but I couldn’t even feel my own presence anymore. Rocking back and forth on the worn
out mattress, my consciousness slowly faded away, when everyone else’s seem to brighten up.
Suddenly, I heard a familiar knocking sound, the one I hope to get me out of the depths of
numbness.

“Ally! You’re gonna be late to school if you don’t wake up now!” said Edith, Allison’s arch
enemy, controller and mother.

“I’m awake,” the faintest sound slid out from that creaky wooden door. I didn’t realize my
voice was so soft until mom told me that over and over. Voices, right? I’ve made them a nice cozy
home in my brain, only to amplify their strength.
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Allison could do nothing but hope to find another moment to isolate herself as soon as
possible. Now, the only choice available was to leave home and go to school. Allison gathered
herself and went downstairs to eat breakfast with mom and dad. Mom took a while to prepare our
toasts, as usual.

 Analysis and opinion: I think we got a lot done today as the plot lays out nicely. Mook took
charge of the plot B while I took charge of plot A. As plot A is not quite detailed yet in the
outline, I have the chance to write more freely as my writing style is mostly getting all over
the place with ideas.

 Date: 03/05/18
 Questions: How can I further describe Allison’s symptoms of depression and PTSD?
 Summary:
The silence has never felt this overwhelming since the last time we came home. I felt like I had
lost a part of myself, incapable of getting it back. missing. longing. regretting. All feelings were
present but I couldn’t even feel my own presence anymore. Rocking back and forth on the worn out
mattress, my consciousness slowly fades away, when everyone else’s seem to brighten up. Suddenly,
I heard a familiar knocking sound, the one I hope to get me out of the depths of numbness.
“Ally! You’re gonna be late to school if you don’t wake up now!” said Edith, Allison’s arch
enemy, controller and mother.

“I’m awake,” the faintest sound slid out from that creaky wooden door. I didn’t realize my
voice was so soft until mom told me that over and over every day. It’s hard to hear your voice
when the static noise inside your head feels so dominating. Voices, right? I’ve made them a nice
cozy home in my brain, telling myself that I am only amplifying their strength by doing so.
Nonetheless, I still can’t get them out entirely.

I can do nothing but hope to find another moment to isolate myself as soon as possible. Now,
the only choice available is to leave home and go to school. I gather myself and go downstairs to
eat breakfast with mom and dad. Mom took a while to prepare our toasts, as usual. Dad sits down
reading a newspaper. He speaks about some politics, but I can’t quite comprehend what he said.
Mom puts down the toasts and butter. Then, we start to eat. Now, everything around the kitchen
seems to move in slow motion just as I realize I’m entering this territory of my mind again. Nothing
seems to matter in this realm. Time stands carelessly still. There are no borders no matter how far I
look. It feels like I’m the only person who’s stuck in here, hopeless and uncared for.

 Analysis and opinion: I struggled a bit with the words that might be inaccurate when
describing depression, like ‘voices’. I think hearing voices is more of a symptom of
Schizophrenia. So, I was indecisive on whether I should keep that part or not. I changed the
voices to ‘static noise’ so it could be interpreted as a disturbance to Allison’s mind and
something that disrupts her concentration. As a loss of concentration is one of the symptoms
of depression. The next step now is to write more about what happens in Allison’s physical
life aside from writing about what happens inside her head.
 References: https://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/detecting-depression#1
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 Date: 08/05/18
 Questions: How do I start writing Plot B of chapter 2?
 Summary:
22 hours prior

“Hey! Is that my sock?!” says one of the twins, pointing at a pink wool sock sticking out of a
backpack.

“No! That’s obviously mine!” shouts the other twin. “It’s the same as the one in my
backpack. Check it if you want!”

The riot continues on for a couple minutes until the father drowsily comes to tell them to
stop.

“Guys, how about you finish up your packing and go to sleep, huh? You’re gonna want a
good rest before a big day!” says the father to their lovely rowdy children, desperately trying to
have a peaceful sleep.

The sounds finally come to a stop as if a switch has been turned off, literally. As soon as the
lights go off, the whole family is fast asleep from all the packing stress. The jam-packed bags and
the silence-filled air take their turn in the house. Between the deafening silence, nobody knows
that one of the twins is having a terrible nightmare.

A girl was nervously waiting to jump off the plane. She looks at the city from up above,
thinking only to enjoy the excitement of parachuting. While her lifeguard was preparing the safety
equipments, he tells her that he would have to accompany her as she flies down for safety
purposes. She quickly agrees as she cannot wait any longer. The time has come for her to jump off
and finally be free. In just one blink of an eye, she is up in the air, floating, flying and feeling all the
things she ever wished for. During that moment, it is hard not to let go of her problems. Suddenly,
a belt snaps broken, sending her off much faster than she supposed to. As soon as she look up,
she can no longer see her lifeguard. He is gone and so is the plane. That was the moment she
realize she was abandoned. The fall feels much more never-ending than anything she’s ever felt
before.

Lying restlessly on her bed, the half-awake twin grasps the sheets while suffering from the
seemingly endless pit of a nightmare.

 Analysis and opinion: Today I started writing the plot B of chapter 2 which talks about the
twins having a small fight and their father telling them to go back to sleep. I also described
a dream twin 2 had which is a bad omen that foreshadows the traumatic event: the loneliness
she felt from falling alone.
We also discussed about how readers would differentiate plot A and plot B in the final
product. So, we choose to either make them different fonts or italize plot B.
 References: (For finding alternative word for “said”)
https://www.nownovel.com/blog/dialogue-words-other-words-for-said/
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 Date: 09/05/18
 Questions: How do I start writing Plot A of chapter 3? How do I transition from chapter 2 to
3?
 Summary:
Plot A: Chapter 3

It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day. If it’s supposed to be a new life, then why the hell am I still
stuck in school, thinking about this? After a fair amount of walking through the empty morning
hallways, I find my desk and walk to it. I take out my pencil case from my backpack and take a look
at the window on my left. A filthy gang of teenagers passes by. They probably got drunk the night
before and come to school just to save their “A”-filled attendance, with all the absences they had.
But the joke’s on me, because I probably had some too during that time.

The school bell rings. It’s so obnoxiously loud that I can’t even hear myself. Is it class time
already? I take a close look at my watch and realize the painful truth. As usual, the teacher comes
in and babble on for an hour. How can a person like me bear through this the entire day? To be
honest, I have absolutely no idea of what we have done in class this past quarter. I just can’t do it.
It’s too hard for me, and I’m in no condition to learn.

Ms. Jocelyn, our math teacher walks past me and passes out today’s worksheet. She didn’t
even look at me, but I hope she never does anyway. I don’t like eye contact.

Little did she know, Allison was being fooled. Even though Ms. Jocelyn didn’t look at her,
she was extremely worried about her. The person who called Allison’s mom yesterday was none
other than her. From Ms. Jocelyn’s perspective, her condition is much worse than how Allison sees
herself. She notices that Allison has lost her attention span completely. She is unable to focus in
class and zones out often. She always delay to answer when the teachers call on her. She also
doesn’t respond to her friends like she used to. Usually, her friends would come talk to her for
advice on how to get good grades, but now she cannot even maintain her own. She was definitely
the mom friend of her group. Now, Ms. Jocelyn cannot even tell if she still belongs in that friend
group anymore. She knows her parents are trying to figure it out, but it has been worryingly long
since that incident. She should have recovered by now, but what can Ms. Jocelyn say? She’s just a
clueless teacher relentlessly trying to educate the new uncooperative generation.

“Allison! Allison! Are you listening?” a familiar girl’s voice somehow rose from the noisy
crowd. “Your math grades are out! Aren’t you excited to see it? Come on, you’re always the first
person to see the scoreboard!”

“What---score?” I said that with as much consciousness as I could gather, which is not a lot,
honestly.

“Ally! Don’t just sit there, come with us! I’m sure you got better score than any of us around
here got,” says a boy in a white hoodie and camo shorts. I can’t quite recall his name.

“Stop saying that to everyone! I’m ashamed enough on my own! At least I got a solid 23%,
you know? At least I’m not average!” responds another boy sarcastically.
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“Hey! Are you shaming my perfectly beautiful 51%? How dare you!?” jokingly chuckles the
hoodie boy.

The conversation seems fun. I want to join them, but I don’t trust myself. Will I say
something stupid again? I won’t risk that.

“It’s okay guys. I’ll just check it out during recess. I have to come by Ms. Jocelyn’s office
anyway,” I said with a cheek-hurting smile.

“Are you sure? We can check it for you if you want! It’s totally cool though if you don’t want
to come. We just want to talk to you, you know?” the girl said with an understanding but slightly
concerned voice.

“Yeah,” was the last word I could say before they went away. I come back to think about
myself again. “We just want to talk to you” What does that even mean? The way she said that
definitely doesn’t tell that she just want to have a casual chat. Oh god...did I embarrass myself
again? Did she notice that I’m acting abnormally? Oh...no, no, no, no, no. I can’t deal with this
feeling. I need to go to the bathroom, ASAP.

 Analysis and opinion: I think the shift between first and third person perspective makes the
story a bit confusing.

 Date: 10/05/18
 Questions: How can I make the writing less confusing by changing the perspective? How do
I decrease/eliminate the shifts between perspectives?
 Summary:

I bust through the first bathroom stall I can see and shut it as fast as I can. These four
vandalized walls are the only thing that’s keeping me apart from society, and that’s all I’m asking
for right now. I closed the toilet lid and sit on it. My energy is completely gone. I slowly leaned
back and automatically cried myself to sleep. I don’t know when it happened. It just...happened.

“In the fantasy world, anything can happen!” a theatrical sounding voice rose out of nowhere. As
I’m sitting in the backseat of our car, I realize that it’s the sound of the guy on the radio. He’s
advertising the circus in the town where we’re approaching. He’s talking about a lot of trained
animals, carnival games, clowns and oh god, a LOT of clowns. “Come meet Beebo! Our world-
renowned friendly clown! C’mon, He won’t hurt you! He would give you FUN and FUN and endless
amounts of FUN! hahahaha Don’t wait! Come visit Trinesque Circus!” shouted the same guy
enthusiastically. I thought he must have a very good life to be that happy. While I’m looking out the
car window, I realized something strange. We’ve been driving up this mountain for quite a while but
the sights I see now is not like it was in the past hour at all. The rocks start crumbling down. Piece by
piece, growing bigger and bigger. The giant boulders crushed our car to ruins. I desperately grasp on
to the last piece of our wing mirror as I hold on to dear life.

I know now that I am dreaming, but weirdly, I don’t plan on waking up anytime soon.
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 Analysis and opinion: Today, we corrected the parts where it is written in third-person
perspective by putting the name of the characters whose perspectives are used. For example,
the part where Ms. Jocelyn is talking, her name would appear on top of the paragraph, along
with a line of asterisks bordering the top and bottom.

 Date: 17/05/18
 Questions: How do we distinguish the different characters’ thoughts from Allison’s
thoughts? How can we do that with the least amount of change?
 Summary: We settled on using a line of asterisks to border the paragraphs that are in other
characters’ perspectives. We also had to put each character’s names at the top of those
paragraphs in order for readers to tell who was talking in that part.
 Analysis and opinion: I think this is a clear and understandable method to use when we
have to include many perspectives into one story. It might seem like reading a play, but it is
what makes the most sense as we can’t tell what is true from Allison’s point of view because
she has Schizophrenia.

 Date: 23/05/18
 Questions: How do I start chapter 5? How do I incorporate psychotherapy into this chapter?
 Summary: Allison was admitted to a hospital. Her parents meet a psychologist and then a
psychiatrist.
 Analysis and opinion: In reality, I’m not sure which person the patient’s parents should meet
first, the psychologist or the psychiatrist.

 Date: 24/05/18
 Questions: Which kind of sayings work best when a doctor deals with the patient’s parents?
How will the parents act towards the doctor? Which medications will the doctor prescribe?
 Summary: Her parents and the psychiatrist had a conversation about what happened to
Allison. The doctor explains her treatment plan.
 Analysis and opinion: I think the conversation is pretty accurate and believable.
 References:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/diagnosis-treatment/drc-
20354449
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23304082
https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-64439/abilify-oral/details
https://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/depression-medications-antidepressants