Shrinithi Sathiyaseelan: Week #16 - Peak-End Theory
I don't mean to state the obvious, as it has currently been weighing very heavily upon us all, but we have about two weeks left before the end of junior year. It's crazy to think about. It feels as if our class of 2023 has been suddenly been taken from freshman year, the very beginning of high school, and just dropped into the end. While things are very stressful for us now, I like to think of the future and envision myself ten or so years later, taking a nostalgic look back at these years of our life.
We are actually pretty biased when we form memories from our experiences. Even when we think we are recalling facts about a certain experience, our recollection of events tends to be incomplete and very dependent on the feelings we have during the experience. The peak-end theory says that our memories of positive and negative experiences are dependent upon what we were feeling at the most extreme (peak) point, which is the best or worst moment, and how the experience ended.
Our recollection of an experience is not an average of positive or negative moments. Rather than remembering the entire journey or how long an experience lasted, all we really truly remember is how we feel at the peak and at the end. Learning about this phenomenon made me realize that the highs and lows we face are really what shape us as people and the times we look back on. It also reminded me about how we are feeling now, because this time is likely a peak for many of us.
I hope that the sum of all of our peaks in high school, as well as our ending, leave us feeling fairly satisfied overall about our experiences at American. But even if they don't, I hope that we'll be able to learn from all of the highs and lows we've experienced here as we move on with our lives.
Hey Shrinithi! I really hope this year is not my peak, because if it is, my future is about to get a whole lot worse. However, this trend and theory does excite me because I genuinely do believe that we all can reach that level of satisfaction as time passes given that we’re only 16 or 17 years old. We have many more years and experiences ahead of us and I can’t wait to see where they’ll take me. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHello Shrinithi! I certainly do find the thought of being able to laugh at all this stuff 10 years down the line rather reassuring. I also see what you mean in what you’re talking about remembering only the peaks like for my debates I only remember the debates themselves rather than the long annoying hours of working on the case itself. But in the end all these experiences are still worth having and I really do hope school ends up feeling that way.
ReplyDeleteShrinithi, what a nice and personal post to read about. This peak theory is very interesting to read about and to be quite honest, confuses me a little. We are still very young and believe that we need to experience many more things if we are to experience the peak that the theory takes about. From what I can understand is that peaks are what we remember most in our memory which I think is absolutely true but to experience the peak and enjoy the peak we need to experience the bad as well. This year did not have many, if any peaks for me. Hopefully next year there are more peaks.
ReplyDeleteHi Shrinithi, although it does make sense and I have experienced this peak-end theory, but a lot of times I associate the memories that make up something from my past the everyday experiences. I certainly remember the highs and lows, but the small seemingly normal details also make up a huge part of how I remember something.
ReplyDeleteHi Shrinithi! As a freshman, I always had the prescription that seniors are really old and 2023, the year we graduate highschool is not going to come for a long time. However, as junior year is speedily coming to an end this perception vastly changed. As a soon to be senior, I realize that life goes by fast and that I should cherish all the little things in life. Although there were hard times and struggles, I definitely will look back upon this year of my life fondly as there were so many fun moments that I will never forget. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the outcome of this school year and hope to end it on a high note. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Shrinithi, I have definitely experienced the peak-end theory like how I am not really able to recall all the tedious parts of band camp. I know that there were those annoying and frustrating moments practicing over the summer, but I mainly associate my experience being in band camp with the peaks I had during the time like how the peak-end theory describes how we view our memories. I also hope that by the end of school we can end up associating this experience with a positive feeling from the peaks we had. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Shrinithi, from our classmates’ previous blogs, I remember that many times our minds do not allow us to recall our positive memories and focus more on the negative ones. I am glad I learned from your blog that there is a deciding factor for why we sometimes remember good things and sometimes bad. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Shrinithi, I cannot agree with you more that our class of 2023 were somehow jumped from freshmen to juniors. It all felt like in the blink an eye. Just think, this year is the first actual year of high school where we will have completed a full year of in-person education. This truth was struck to me as I just received my yearbook as I am writing this. This is the first high school yearbook I have gotten, considering how my freshmen one never reached my hands because of COVID and my sophomore one was also never given to me. This year has definitely been a year to remember, and certainly a very exciting year (maybe too much) for our first full year of in-person education.
ReplyDelete