Social change can be most effective when peaceful methods are used (Butcher & Svensson, 2016) and when interested parties can come together and find common ground upon which to fight for change (Chinn & Falk-Rafael, 2014). According to Butcher & Svensson (2016) non-violent means for social change are most frequently found in states where the GDP is rising and the manufacturing industry is on the rise.

The reason given by Butcher & Svensson (2016) for this phenomenon is that the increased manufacturing brings together people from all walks of life who come together with common needs and goals. The coming together of these people in a state which is rising financially generally creates a strong union with influence on the social climate.

The strength and diversity of the union along with common goals generally allows for a more peaceful approach to social change. The workers are able to communicate with governments in a way which allows their power to show without any force being needed. A possible explanation for this method not being common in less industrialized states is that there may be a lack of common ground and diversity of input to allow for the generation of peaceful solutions. There is likely a lack of power among the people as well which prevents the government from being motivated to change.

On a smaller scale, Chinn & Falk-Rafael (2014) found that for a group of nurses who wanted to create change in their workplace, finding common ground among themselves and creating unity gave them the power they needed to influence change. They were also more able to generate peaceful approaches to problem solving.

Both Butcher & Svensson (2016) and Chinn & Falk-Rafael (2014) found that when a group of people use peaceful methods and the power of unity, the effort to make changes are more effective and the changes are longer lasting.

References

Butcher, C., & Svensson, I. (2016). Manufacturing dissent: Modernization and the onset of major nonviolent resistance campaigns. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 31-339.

Chinn, P. L., & Falk-Rafael, A. (2014). Peace and power: A theroy of emancipatory group process. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 62-69.

Over the past five years, city of Los Angeles have been dedicated in revamping downtown Los Angeles to a residential and pedestrian friendly metropolitan city.  This has caused hostility and chaos for the homeless that have been calling Downtown LA their home for over a decade.  City lawmakers are trying to “clean up” the streets by barring homeless people from parks, streets and making it a crime to help the homeless.  It is illegal for an individual in LA to give food to the homeless. They would have to go through an organization to do so.  Sometimes the shelters are not able to accommodate the large amount of homeless people that rushes in and often runs out of food.  All of this with the intention to make the homeless leave the city.

Recently,  people from different communities have come together for this issue.  Utilizing the virtual community as a place to spread the word, getting people together to prepare food for the homeless.  I have had the honor to be a part of this social cause.   Different groups would adopt different days of the week.  People either donate money, food or their time to prepare and certain amount of food.  Then the food would be sent to the shelters for distribution.

Of course,  handing out food to the homeless is certainly not a long-term solution to homelessness. But eliminating charity isn’t going to make  homeless people magically have  a different lifestyle. The choices of the homeless are constrained by the absence of social programs, healthcare and income support that people need to find permanent housing and stability.  There is still much that needs to b done but at the mean time this is the least we can do to make sure they don’t go hungry.

10,9,8,7…the countdown begins, celebrations are started and then the next day resolutions are made for the new year. It’s New Year’s Day and most people are trying to get a start on their health goal to get into shape and lose weight in the form of resolutions. Unfortunately, the most notable thing about resolutions is the fact they are forgotten or given up on within a short amount of time often due to a lack of support or boredom. Proof of this can be seen in the fact that there are around 1.5 billion adults around the world are overweight or obese  even though many people have lose weight or get into shape as a resolution (Pena & Quintanilla, 2015). However, thanks to social media there have been some strides made towards helping people get started on their goal and stick with it. By using social media sites, such as the Facebook page for Weight Watchers, consumers can make their goals and achievements known to those they choose and this will increase their commitment due to the social pressure to stick to their goals (Pena, 2015). Another aspect of using social media for reaching goals is that when a person slips they can admit the slip to others who can give them encouragement to get back on track. It is easier to admit set-backs when it is possible to decide what to share and who to share it with; this allows a person to seek help in a comfortable way. These online sites can also provide a person with information, such as, recipes and ideas for physical activities that can help them attain their goals. In the case of Facebook if a person “likes” a post more posts that are similar to the original will be suggested. For example, recently, I “liked” a post that had a recipe for a lower calorie, healthier brownie, immediately after reacting to the post several suggested posts showed up directly below the original. I could scroll through these and see if there are other similar posts that may be of interest to me. This could help a person who is at the beginning of changing to a healthier lifestyle by personalizing their page and giving suggestions they may not have found on their own. This can help a person stay on track by keeping them from getting bored with healthier food choices or the same old exercises. It is much easier to stick with a goal that keeps our interest and can be fun.

Social media sites have the ability to educate, encourage, share ideas and keep people in contact with others who are working towards the same goal. This allows people to find help in a comfortable way by allowing them to the provide information about their goals or setbacks in a way that is comfortable for them and getting the praise or help they need. This information and support may assist some reach the goal of a healthier lifestyle and weight.

de, l. P., & Quintanilla, C. (2015). Share, like and achieve: The power of facebook to reach        health‐          related goals. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 39(5), 495-505.        doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1111/ijcs.12224

Until 2011, I was feeding myself and my family whatever was featured at the grocery store.  I paid no attention to whether my vegetables were organic or whether my grains were genetically modified organisms (GMO).  In fact, I had never heard of these issues.  The idea that the seemingly healthy food I was consuming might be a danger to me and my family did not even cross my mind.  That was until I saw a TED talk from Robyn O’Brien (2011), through which she explained, in alarming detail, the increase in life-threatening food allergies as a result of something foreign being introduced into our food and our bodies.

Beginning sometime in the early 1990s, scientists began manufacturing new proteins that the food industry could use to enhance production and yield greater profit.  1994 marked the advent of introducing a synthetic growth hormone in cows meant to increase milk production (O’Brien, 2011).  Following the dairy industry’s success at increasing their profit margins from GMO milk, the corn industry sought to increase profits by reducing the number of crops lost to insect infestation.  The industry leaders paired with scientists to genetically engineer corn to produce its own insecticide within the corn seed, which would then be released as it grows.  Has anyone checked to see what effect this might have on the human body upon consumption?  At the time, these modifications had not been tested in people.  Nevertheless, the United States seemed to be the largest proponent of GMO foods.  Meanwhile, across the pond, all 27 European countries, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom did not allow the introduction of GMO processes into their industry or imports (O’Brien, 2011).  Additionally, major US brands like Kraft, Coca Cola and Walmart do not use GMO products when manufacturing goods for export to these countries (O’Brien, 2011).  These other countries are getting the good stuff!  So why are we being fed these dangerously modified strains?  Well, profit.  These GMO products generate greater profit, plain and simple.

The worst of these GMO products, in my opinion, is soy.  According to the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (n.d.), 93% of the soybean crops in the United States are GMO.  And we can find it in almost everything, from soy flour to soy milk, and even soy lecithin in your favorite chocolate bar.  It is marketed as a legitimate source of protein, when it is actually incomplete, lacking methionine, an essential amino acid (American Nutrition Association, 2010).  Even more surprising is that soy actually interferes with the digestion of protein (American Nutrition Association, 2010), acting as an anti-nutrient. The soy industry is doing very well, inserting this product into an unbelievable number of our food products.  It is an inexpensive crop that flourishes due to the GMO modifications created to withstand very high doses of weed killer (O’Brien, 2011).  Yet another GMO product that should not be used for human consumption.

After seeing this TED talk, I started paying very close attention to the food I purchase.  I started looking for “non-GMO” on my produce labels.  But my journey to eating healthier, more organic foods would not have happened if I hadn’t stumbled across this information.  There are countless others who are blindly purchasing these GMO products, harming themselves and their families, simply because they do not have the information.  Positive social change initiatives, like the efforts of Robyn O’Brien, have joined the battle against GMO, and are beneficial to educating the consumer about the dangers of the GMO foods that are being pushed to Americans for profit.  Many of the countless illnesses and allergies related to these scientifically engineered food products may be avoided if we could just raise awareness and stand up to tell the major food industry leaders that enough is enough.  We should be demanding healthier alternatives without the added cost.  Some states have mandated the labeling of GMO foods, but others are still in the pockets of the big corporations driving this problem.  Until we can change awareness and demand action, like the mandatory labeling laws in Europe, which will “likely drive these controversial foods and crops off the market (Cummins, 2013)”, we either find ourselves at the mercy of big business, or paying exorbitant amounts for safer alternatives.

American Nutrition Association. (2010). The whole soy story. Nutrition Digest. Retrieved from http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/whole-soy-story

Cummins, R. (2013). Millions against Monsanto: Five lessons from the battle against GMOs. Retrieved from https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/millions-against-monsanto-five-lessons-battle-against-gmos

O’Brien, R. (2011). Robyn O’Brien: TEDxAustin 2011. Speech. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixyrCNVVGA

Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility. (n.d.). Fact sheet: Genetically engineered foods. Retrieved from http://www.allergykids.com/defining-food-allergies/fact-sheet-what-are-genetically-engineered-foods/

In order to promote social change, both the researcher and the community may be involved in gaining deeper knowledge regarding a local issue and developing interventions and solutions toward alleviating the problem. This is referred to as participatory and/or action research (Penn State World Campus, 2016). Both participatory and action research may be utilized to solve various concerns by observing why certain negative behaviors occur and how to help prevent them, while also involving community members in the process of identifying and/or alleviating the issue. Multiple problems have been addressed through this form of research, including childhood obesity, a serious health issue costing approximately one hundred forty seven billion each year for the United State’s system of health care (Finkelstein, Trogdon, Cohen, & Dietz, 2009).

For example, Berge et al. (2016) point out that interventions aimed at preventing childhood obesity have shown little progress, in which the difficulties of involving adults such as parents in interventions could have influenced smaller success. To deal with this issue, Berge et al. (2016) tested CBPR, which stands for Community-Based Participatory Research. This type of research is action based in a sense that community organizations, members, and researchers join together, without contrasts in hierarchy, in order to gain information and find solutions to issues that are local and able to be sustained (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2003; Peterson & Gubrium, 2011; Israel et al., 2003). Through community and researcher involvement, individuals offer different abilities and important information, especially regarding the specific needs of the community, which can enhance members of the community’s overall happiness, health, and lives.

The goal of Berge et al.’s (2016) study was to develop and apply an intervention (called Play It Forward!) that is family oriented and helps prevent childhood obesity through a CBPR-based Citizen Health Care strategy, in which the researchers would team up with members of the community in a Citizen Action Group (CAG). Additionally, the study aimed to analyze if and how weight-based behaviors (e.g. physical inactivity or activity, food intake) and weight in children and families were affected by the intervention. The community of focus in this study was in Paha Sapa in Burnsville, Minnesota. For 8 months, resources and needs of the community were examined with the CAG in 1-to-1 interviews with members of the community, including neighbors. In regards to the intervention (Play It Forward!) developed using the CBPR-based CHC strategy, Play It Forward!  included events held at parks local to the community with activities encouraging healthy eating behaviors and physical activity (e.g. play), which were managed by members of the community with abilities and/or enthusiasm relevant to the activities. To examine the success and usefulness of Play It Forward!, Berge et al. (2016) conducted an initial test study, which included an experimental group of families encouraged to attend as many local events (based on the intervention) possible, and a control group from a “bordering community” that attended normal events within their own community.

As a result of Berge et al.’s (2016) test study, CBPR techniques turned out to be useful in pulling off the study aimed at preventing childhood obesity. Greater than half of the experimental condition families participated in seventy five percent of the events, while thirty three percent of the experimental group participated in all events. In addition, members of the CAG found that pulling off the events in Play It Forward!  was a “low burden” since there were “spontaneous (e.g., pick-up games)” or “low-key preplanned events (e.g., kickball, dodgeball)”. Both academic researchers and members of the community involved in the CAG expressed “high satisfaction” with the development of the CAG and the formation, application, and conveyed message of Play It Forward! In their reportings, members of the community felt “equal in decision making powers and in carrying out the study”, while researchers felt “supported by the community.”

Berge et al. (2016) concluded that partnership and involvement of the community in developing interventions toward preventing childhood obesity could be a method that holds much promise for other interventions with the same goal. This is at least partly due to the potentially raised chance of intervention success when individuals are provided with more involvement in intervention development and are allowed to choose the degree in which they would like to be involved. Based on the potential effectiveness of the CBPR technique in developing and applying a successful intervention, such as Play It Forward!, more research should be conducted in situations involving partnership between researchers and parents.

References

Berge, J. M., Jin, S. W., Hanson, C., Doty, J., Jagaraj, K., Braaten, K., Doherty, W. J. (2016). Play It Forward! A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach to Childhood Obesity Prevention. Families, Systems, & Health, 34, 15-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fsh0000116

Finkelstein, E. A., Trogdon, J. G., Cohen, J. W., & Dietz, W. (2009). Annual medical spending attributable to obesity: Payer-and service-specific estimates. Health Affairs, 28, w822–831. http://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.5.w822

Israel, B., Schultz, A. J., Parker, E. A., Becker, A. B., Allen, A. J., & Guzman, J. R. (2003). Critical issues in developing and following community based participatory research principals. In M. Minkler & N. Wallerstein (Eds.), Community-based participatory research for health (pp. 53–76). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Minkler, M., & Wallerstein, N. (2003). Community-based participatory research for health. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Penn State World Campus. (2016). Lesson 13: Social Change/Participatory Research.

Peterson, J. C., & Gubrium, A. (2011). Old wine in new bottles? The positioning of participation in 17 NIH-funded CBPR projects. Health Communication, 26, 724–734. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2011.566828

Social Change and Activism Research is an integral component of social psychology because they are the forces that propel society forward and keep public issues away from constant stagnation. The key ingredients to social change include mass mobilization, social action, citizen participation, public advocacy, popular education, and the development of local services (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). The beauty of social change is that is unites a community and shows the importance of awareness for public issues in order to ignite the force that is social change. The following post will discuss how important public advocacy, popular education, and citizen participation is when it comes to social change issues. The article discusses the failure of a 2010 educational overhaul in Newark, NJ due to a poorly executed plan for social action.

The Stanford Social Innovation Review posted an article titled “Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever)” that describes the how a well-meaning educational reform completely failed due to poor community education and involvement. In 2010, Chris Christy, Cory Booker, and Mark Zuckerberg announced their plan to invest over 200 million dollars into Newark’s educational system. The plan was announced via the Oprah Winfrey Show. They expected the well-kept secret plan to go off without hitch; however, after their big announcement the entire plan completely flopped. According to the article Christie and Booker “adopted a top-down approach because they thought that the messy work of forging a consensus among local stakeholders might undermine the reform effort…installed a board of philanthropists from outside Newark to oversee the initiative, and hired a leader from outside Newark to serve as the city’s superintendent of schools” (Barnes and Schmitz, 2016). Rather than excite the members of the community, the community was left in the dark and the plan failed because the community members felt the plan did not meet the needs of the real issues effecting Newark’s education system. The community was completely blind-sighted and outraged: “Instead of unifying Newark residents behind a shared goal, the Booker-Christie initiative polarized the city” (Barnes & Schmitz, 2016). By 2014, 77 local ministries pleaded with Booker and Christy to drop the initiative due to the unbearably toxic environment that resulted from it.

The attempt for social action failed to educate the community properly, failed to draw a consensus from actual members of the community on what the issues were first, failed to excite mass mobilization and bring attention to the issue before the plans were released, failed to engage citizens and failed to create public advocacy from members within the city of Newark. The plan was a well-kept secret that the lawmakers unveiled swiftly onto an unsuspecting community, and the lawmakers failed to overcome the social boundaries necessary to induce social change in an underprivileged city.

The Barnes & Schmitz (2016) article stresses that in order to have successful social changes, the leaders must treat community members as “active partners.” Citizen participation is important in order to create a successful foundation for social change. This community empowerment will urge members of the community to be more actively engaged in social change and feel a sense of ownership over the changes: “It’s important, in other words, to view community members as producers of outcomes, not just as recipients of outcomes. Professional leaders must recognize and respect the assets that community members can bring to an initiative” (Barnes & Schmitz, 2016).

This is a clear example of how a well-meaning plan for social change failed to reach its estimated potential due to its failure to involve critical components for social change such as citizen participation, public advocacy, and appropriate education.

References

Barnes, M., & Schmitz, P. (2016, March). Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever) (SSIR). Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://ssir.org/articles/entry/community_engagement_matters_now_more_than_ever

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

People, generally speaking, are good.

I highly doubt that many people actually wake up in the morning to the thought of “gee, I hope I can ruin someone’s day today.” Most folks just want to go about their lives, not be bothered, and avoid making eye contact with other pedestrians on the street. But for all of those people, there are a few who really do set up to hurt, harm, or take advantage of others while getting ready for the day. But even they don’t necessarily plan to be evil or cruel. No one sees themselves as the villain. So, if people generally feel like they’re acting as they should in their lives, what can be done about it?

Enter Social Change Research. There are a lot of ways to define Social Change, depending on the subtype, but for the most part, it’s safe to infer that “the general idea is that the researcher(s) are actively changing something in a social situation that they are a part of” (PSU, 2016). This concept is extremely broad and widely applicable, and can be seen in more social settings than just about any other topic covered in a standard course on psychology. There are little snippets of it lying around just about anywhere you look, and it’s used in ways that range from the altruistic to the insidious.

A good example of altruistic social change research might be looking into ways to effectively provide food and shelter for the homeless. A recent project in Salt Lake City, Utah deals with precisely that, and is a prime example of the concept in action. In an article published by National Public Radio, first heard on the popular daytime program “All Things Considered,” the project, called Housing First by the state, has its results broken down and examined. Said results, while imperfect, are astonishing in their own right. “Utah set itself an ambitious goal: end chronic homelessness.

As of 2015, the state can just about declare victory: The population of chronically homeless people has dropped by 91 percent” (McEvers, 2015). The story has generated interest from media outlets around the world, and is a (mostly) prime example of how social change research can be implemented and applied to change something in a social situation. Sound familiar?

As pretty as the Utah story is, however, not all social change research ends up being for the greater good. By counterpoint, several states have attempted to institutionalize bigotry through what they’re calling “religious freedom laws” to restrict the forward momentum of what some would call progress, but what others would call ‘an attack on traditional values.’ In some other states, women are not allowed to have an abortion if the only reason for it is because the child will be born with a crippling disability. Depending on which side of the argument you fall on, it’s rather easy to see how social change research and Activist research (and the inherent implementation of policies that said research was designed to propagate) can be much more ambiguous, and potentially dangerous, than housing the chronically homeless.

In my own city, Jackson, Wyoming, there is a group campaigning to block all new affordable housing projects for fears that a particular subspecies of sage grouse will be negatively affected. Property in Jackson comes at a serious premium. Due to the proximity of the town to the famous Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, along with a good swath of National Forest and National Wilderness, only 2% of land in the county is available for private ownership. As a result of this, home prices are staggering. On Trulia.com, a real estate brokerage website, the most current average listing price for property is $1,655,749. It is impossible for the middle class and working class workforce in the region to own property, but because a conservation group has (very effectively) employed activist research to its advantage, all affordable housing projects submitted to the town council in the better part of the last decade have been denied.

It is abundantly clear that social change research and its subtypes and relatives are a powerful tool.  Drawing a parallel back, basically no one sees themselves or their cause as unjust or harmful. Yet if wielded irresponsibly, social change research can cause great harm to many individuals, groups, and demographics. It is the imperative that the social psychologist be aware of the great responsibility that comes with the power they have to effectuate a difference in their social scenarios.

In our hurry to effect change on one group, we have to make sure our actions don’t become chains on another.

Penn State University. (2016). Applied Social Psychology, Lesson 13: Social Change/Participatory Research. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp16/psych424/001/content/14_lesson/01_page.html

McEvers, Kelly. (2015). Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness by 91 Percent; Here’s How. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how

Trulia. (n.d.). Jackson Real Estate Market Overview. Retrieved from http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Jackson-Wyoming/

How influential is social media in our daily life? Do you realize the the social influences that happen when you log in to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? The reality is that all of these services are social, a melting pot of cultures and ideas that you see everyday.

The reality of our online lives is that we are constantly adapting and changing. Faster than ever we are updating status and editing pictures to conform to others perceptions of us online. What is really behind you taking that picture of yourself every week or day? Probably for the attention it brings and the people who comment or ‘like’ your post. It goes beyond posting a new picture though. Our ideas and morals are questioned every day when we browse through these sites. We see things we are ‘expected’ to see and do, feel and like. A quick look into research on this said that when: “[geotagging] occurs…the probability of a friend in the network adopting the behavior increases (source).” It may seem like geotagging a picture is a small thing, but it spreads to the bigger thoughts and morals you hold. Posting that picture of your food, campaigning for your new favorite candidate, or getting that new tattoo were probably decisions made for you by the social influences online.

There is no real solution to stop the social influence the internet has. As we see with social change research, the best way is to move away from that damaging environment. This doesn’t mean stopping internet usage all together, which is impossible, but move to different communities online that aren’t as damaging. This may be difficult to pinpoint though, because things like Facebook have us tied in with our families, effectively tying us to that site due to social obligations. Leaving something like that is like leaving your actual family behind. Other sites like Instagram and twitter have us scrolling to be entertained or impressed. Constantly on the verge of the next ‘great’ thing, or so we think.

The tie we have to social media influences us dramatically. The environment we experience online changes our perceptions, effectively making us all the same based on what we see. Depending on what you use or what you see, this influence can be good or bad. Chances are, you are influenced a lot more by what you see online than you think.

Papagelis, M., Murdock, V., & Zwol, R. V. (2011). Individual behavior and social influence in online social systems. Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia – HT ’11. doi:10.1145/1995966.1995998

From: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c600/0f09d0697065661410c9450d285d3e45bb03.pdf

One of the most famous traditional Chinese Idioms is “mèng mǔ sān qiān”.  The literal translation is “Mencius’s mother, three moves”.  Mencius was a famous Chinese philosopher during the Song Dynasty.  His father died when he was really young so he lived with his mother. 

Since they had very little money or close to no money they were living close to a cemetery.  His mother began to notice that Mencius would talk like or act out the funeral processions for fun.  After seeing this, his mother realized this wasn’t a good place to bring up his son so they moved. This time they moved to a place nearby a very noisy market. It was a vibrant market filled with merchants hawking their goods.  After a while, Mencius began to do the same.  Mother Meng decides this is no place for her son.  Discard their financial troubles, she took on extra work and paid more money to live next to a school. Mencius naturally began to imitate the behavior and study habits of the students.

This reminds me of a friend I knew.  We went to different high schools but met through a mutual friend.  He was living in a neighborhood known as the “Beverly Hills” of Asians.  All the rich Asian immigrants would buy or build a mansion in this neighborhood and leave their children with the mother or a close relative for schooling. With the unlimited allowance and lavish lifestyle, children were not focused on schooling but rather on partying. When I met him he had already been in the States for 5 years and still couldn’t barely speak a word of English.  Things got bad for him when he started hanging out with a bad crowd and got into a lot of trouble with law enforcement.  His parents finally realized how severe the problem was and decided to move him to Ohio.  The first couple of months i would get calls from him telling how bad and boring it was.  There was nothing to do, no parties, nobody speaks Chinese and it was driving him absolutely bananas.  Fast forward twenty years later he is now a successful man who spoke perfect English (with no accent), college graduate and with an MBA  and working for a big financial institution.

We are all affected by situational influences. We live our life in a social context, considering and reacting to the events and conditions surrounding us.  In human experience, thoughts, feelings and actions are shaped by the social environment (pp.353)  We learn how to interact with other in order to fit in or be accepted  This comes naturally because we all seek a sense of belongingness. Humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow listed “belongingness” as the third most important motive after physiological and safety needs. One’s closeness to others is vital to one’s survival and well being (pp.355)  Of course not everyone can be like Mother Mencius. Sometimes choosing our social environment may be out of our control but we should always try to associate ourselves with a positive environment or as close to one as we can.

References

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Have you ever heard the saying ” Birds of a feather flock together”? Well I’m sure this is true for birds but what about people, especially couples. I think most of us would agree that we all seem to gravitate toward people that are similar to us. You should choose someone who likes the same sports, activities and general interests. (PSU, WC, L. 12) According to Luo & Klohnen, 2005 ” Birds of a feather, flock together” tends to be how long- lasting relationships succeed. (PSU, WC, L.12) But what about “opposites attract”? You can’t have it both ways.

I won’t deny that if you ask a couple who has been together for over 20 years what is the key to the success of their relationship you will hear many things. Some will say they make time for each other, some will say they have the same interests, some will even say they take time for themselves. While you will hear many stories all we be different. Here’s our story:

She was just 16, a junior in high school. He was an 18 yr. old who graduated 30 days before. They were brought together by a working relationship. She ran the concession stand at the local baseball complex and he was a scorekeeper. She was the captain of her cheerleading squad and he was the local bad boy from LA. However, she saw something different. She wasn’t convinced he was worth her time. He didn’t have a car, no job that had more then 15 hours a week and wasn’t even looking at college. So what was it about him? He had mischief eyes, he did things she would never do, he smoked. All things she knew where bad. She knew her parents would not be happy. So she took a chance. It was just a boyfriend. She could get rid of him at any time. But something happened. She started to really like him.

It turned out that he was sweet, and sensitive and there was this attraction between them. Then things started happening. He became jealous of all her guy friends. Jealousy is an emotional response that like other strong emotions will subside over time. (PSU, WC, L. 12)  He didn’t trust her and she wasn’t too happy about his lack of ambition. After about 4 months they broke up, then got back together, then broke up. This went on for 4 years.

Things changed. She went to college and he had finally started taking classes. She worked a lot and so he started working more because she was working. Some how things had changed this time. They both had matured a little. He no longer smoked or put himself in bad situation. He actually tried to make himself a better person, for her. He had too. He had to keep up. She was ambitious and new exactly what she wanted. Then something happened neither was ready for, she became pregnant. At 20 and 22, they were having a baby and like it or not it was time to figure out what was happening with this relationship. Just like always, she knew she wanted to be together and raise the baby. And for the first time it became clear that she was now going to be his entire life.

Flash forward 17 years later, we are still together and the attraction has never been stronger. So what’s our success? 17+ years changing together. We grew up. We did it together, my success was his and vice versa. We tried new things together, even when the other person was not interested. We are each other biggest cheerleaders. We are not the same people we were at 16 and 18. From our perspective, other couples from high school didn’t change together so the relationship faultered.

So now when someone says that “birds of a feather flock together” I would argue that “opposites attract” are way more fun and can work for you if you love what is opposite about them and don’t try to change them, just change together.

References:

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2015). Applied Social Psychology. Psych 424. Lesson 12: Relationships/Everyday Life. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp16/psych424/001/content/13_lesson/printlesson.html

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Recently, a class action suit has been filed against the New York City Education Department alleging that violence in schools has increased to the point that it is impeding students’ constitutional rights to an education. The complaint was filed last Wednesday by eleven students and their families as well as a pro-charter advocacy group named Families for Excellent Schools. The suit claims that school violence has increased and that the violence is more often than not against minority students as well as members of the LGBT community. However, Mayor Bill de Blasio refutes these claims stating that the major violence in schools is actually down 14.29 percent (Harris, 2016). In many ways this conflict is representative of the challenges discussed by Limber (2004) in regards to the difficulty of implementing comprehensive bullying prevention programs. Quite often, the integral players cannot agree on the severity of the problem, and that assumes that they can agree that a problem even exists (Limber, 2004).

Limber (2004) named that one of the biggest barriers to adopting a successful program is resistance from school staff and parents. That resistance often stems from a lack of awareness regarding the actual statistics of bullying in schools. In the case of the New York City Education Department, things are further complicated because people on either side of the argument are using different sets of data to argue their points. Mayor de Blasio bases his claims that the schools are in fact less violent on figures drawn from a database run by the New York Police Department that tracks any occurrence where a member of the police department is involved. This data does not include any acts of violence that were witnessed by teachers or students where the police were not called or notitified. Families for Excellent Schools, one of the parties in the class action suit, base their opinions on data drawn from New York State which includes any incidents reported by school administrators regardless of whether the police were involved. Some question the validity of this data as there is not a clear distinction between minor incidents and serious complaints and the data is not always verified. However, this data suggests that violence in schools actually rose 23 percent (Harris, 2016).

This highlights the need for unbiased and empirical data prior to the implementation of any intervention. From an applied social psychological perspective, before any intervention can take place, they would first need to do a thorough needs assessment to determine if there truly is a problem. Then they would need to take the time to understand the precipitating factors, or the things that led to the violence in the schools in the first place, as well as the perpetuating factors which have sustained that violence. Only then can they hope to implement any kind of strategy to address the reduction of violent acts (Schneider, Gruman, Coutts, 2012).

The New York City Education Department could benefit from implementing a program similar to the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. One of the biggest issues facing New York appears to be a lack of consistency in how acts of violence are defined, addressed, and reported. The Olweus program would address those issues by developing school-wide, and potentially district-wide, rules against bullying. The program would also provide a framework for how those incidents can and should be reported, as well as the appropriate actions that should follow each act of violence (Limber, 2004). If nothing else, the program would provide consistent information so they can later determine whether acts of violence are in fact increasing or decreasing. Additionally, a key component of the program is to encourage participation between the school, parents, and the community (Limber, 2004). This could help to bridge the apparent gap between the New York City Education Department and the families and communities they serve.

References

Harris, E. A. (2016, April 7). New York Education Dept. is sued over violence in schools. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/08/nyregion/new-york-education-dept-is-sued-over-violence-in-schools.html

Limber, S. P. (2004). Implementation of the Olweus bullying prevention program in American schools: Lessons learned from the field. In Bullying in American schools: A social-ecological perpective on prevention and intervention (pp. 351-363). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

A family member once said to me, “You shouldn’t spend so much time with your daughter; it will cause her to be awful for other people to watch!” Even though watching my daughter may be challenging for some, I feel the time spent with her is beneficial for our relationship and her growth into adulthood.

Secure attachment style is known for causing infants to be unhappy when their attachment figure is away and smoothed quickly once they return (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). When a child is left, they experience separation and they only gain attachment with one or two specific people. It is believed that the form of attachment a child has as an infant will reflect what kind of attachment style they will have when they turn into an adult.

The other forms of attachment are the insecure attachment styles. One is considered anxious and ambivalent where the infant acts unhappy about being separated but are still clingy whenever the figure would return (Schneider, et al,. 2012). The other form consists of avoidance, where the infant acts as if they were not worried about the presence or absence of the attachment figure (Schneider, et al,. 2012).

Those who have a secure attachment are often found to have a positive self-concept (Brookes, 2011). They believe in themselves, in a sense and are able to determine things for themselves. They are also able to regulate their emotions and not become overwhelmed by them (Brookes, 2011). Another benefit is they are able to make positive assumptions about others and the can engage in altruistic or prosocial behavior (Brookes, 2011). For instance, they are capable of expressing appreciation, gratitude, comfort, and volunteer themselves.

Children who experience insecure attachment as infants, often result in social difficulties. They are misbehaved, aggressive, bullied or easily bullied by others, and do not listen to authority figures (Long Term Effects of Attachment, 2011). These children have a difficult time sharing with others and are less curious about learning new things. They have a low self-confidence and have a hard time displaying their emotions (Long Term Effects of Attachment, 2011).

However, as Schneider (2012) explained, whatever attachment style one has had, during their infant stages, there is always the possibility to unlearn that behavior and build a new form of attachment. Therefore, even though an individual did not choose their form of attachment with their caregivers; they have the power to change it as they grow into adulthood.

Now, looking back on the statement that once had me concerned; I don’t feel the need to change the amount of time I spend with my daughter. In fact, I want to embrace it!

References:

I always wondered when I saw people with certain people or a friend of mine is a pen pal with an inmate, what does that person see in the other? Why is that what I see as ugly or bad, someone else can see good or beauty in them? Why do people want to date someone in jail or someone with a criminal history? why would anyone marry someone who has done evil and bad in their lives?

I have a friend, I will call her Melanie. Melanie was an addict, a stripper, an escort and an all around just ugly bodied person. For some reason men flocked to her. She was physically beautiful; nice eyes, teeth, smile, nice body: the perfect girl. I guess I am not the only person to question why this happens. In one study by Julio Gonzalez-Alverez (2015), this question was the topic. Do men dissociate sexual attraction from moral judgment more than women? The findings were what I expected. During the experiment men and women were asked to rate attractiveness of photos of the opposite sex. These photos were paired with a sentence about the person or something they had done. ie: this person rehabilitates hurt owls before sending them back into the wild or this person laughs at children when they fall at the playground. It was found that men were more likely to dismiss morality when rating the photos of the women and instead focused just on their physical appearance. Women were more likely to see someone they thought as beautiful before to be ugly after reading the sentences of the person’s morality. So do men dissociate sexual attraction from moral judgement more than women? The answer as found in this study is yes! That explains why men loved Melanie even though every fiber of my being was thinking she was disgusting.

Reference:

González‐Álvarez, J. (2015). Men dissociate sexual attraction from moral judgement more than women. International Journal of Psychology, doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1002/ijop.12228

Attachment is the connection that an individual develops during the first year of life (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). The attachment style varies depending upon the level of sensitivity and responsiveness that was provided in the first year of life by a caregiver. Attachment styles can range from, secure, preoccupied, fearful and dismissing.

A secure attachment is an attachment style that is developed when the caregiver was extremely sensitive and responsive to the baby’s needs. The outcome of this attachment is that the child will grow up to be trusting, and comfortable with maintaining relationships with others. Individuals who have secure attachments also tend to be very independent (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012).

Individuals who have a preoccupied attachment, are individuals whose caregivers may have been sensitive and responsive, but not consistently. Individuals who have this type of attachment usually feel the need to constantly want to be close to others. They are very independent and they want close relationships, because they tend to be worried about abandonment(Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012).

An individual with a fearful attachment tends to be distrustful of others. They also seek close relationships with others because they fear being abandoned, however they do not do very well with maintaining these relationships from their end. They are likely to be this way because they experienced either a neglectful or in some circumstances an abusive caregiver. This is not always the case but it is a possibility. They sometimes perceive that others will abandon them because it is possible that’s what they experienced with their caregiver.

The last attachment is, dismissing. A dismissing attachment style is where the individual tends to be self-reliant, and independent. Though these characteristics sound great, the reasons behind them are not. An individual who tends to be completely self-reliant and independent is usually this way because they have no interest in developing intimate relationships. This usually occurs because they were not able to develop an intimate relationship with their caregiver. This could mean that the caregiver was not always present or that when they were present they did not show any sensitivity or seem to be responsive to the child’s needs (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012).

Although these attachments are developed within the first year of life, they are present throughout the entire lifespan. Our attachments reflect in how we maintain our relationships and friendships. It can also play a role in how we parent our children. Needless to say the development of an attachment between the child and caregiver is extremely important. With that being said, it is also important to understand that attachments can be changed. Attachment styles are shaped by experiences, unsuccessful behaviors can become those of the past with awareness and effort to build better relationships.

Disclaimer: This information should not be used to try and label the attachment style your boyfriend/girlfriend, friends, or any one for that matter. Attachment styles can only be properly studied in an experiment called the Strange Situation, developed by Mary Ainsworth. If you would like to see how the strange situation is done you can watch the video below. =)

Schneider,F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied SocialPsychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nded.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

I missed at least thirty days of my senior year of high school. I started the year with the seven or eight close friends I always had. Then, one of them decided she wanted to spread unbelievably false rumors about me, causing the loss of my friendship with her and two other friends. Following this difficult time, I finally had my fill of a teacher who mercilessly picked on me all semester, and went to the principle about him. An investigation was brought against him by the school for his treatment of me and other students (as well as several other indiscretions), and he was fired. I was put into another class, but because a lot of people were getting easy A’s with this teacher, I lost the rest of my friends except for one. That is when I started staying home from school, and eating my lunch in my mom’s office when I did attend (my mom is a secretary at the school).

Throughout this horrible year, I frequently bounced between optimism and pessimism (but mostly pessimism). It was quite difficult for me to see my future as positive when I went from having a lot of friends who supposedly cared about me to eating lunch at my mom’s desk. In other words, I had negative outcome expectancies rather than positive ones (Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, 2012). Since I didn’t see any point in carrying on a social life at school, I gave up and would just stay home. While my situation was already bleak beyond my control, I made it worse by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy; I expected the situation to get worse, so it did (Schneider et al., 2012). In a survey study by Hunter, Boyle and Warden, it was found that victims of school bullying are more likely to feel as though they have less control of their lives (2007). Furthermore, students who are bullied are more apt to use emotion-focused coping than problem-focus coping, making their attempts to overcome the situation less effective (Hunter et al., 2007). While pessimists are often blamed for their situations (and they do have some fault), it is more complicated than that; it is a vicious cycle of bullying which reinforces negative outcome expectancies, which reinforce the situation outcome, etc.

I certainly fit this mold when I was eighteen, though I became more optimistic toward the end of my senior year. Rather than seeing my situation as permanent, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel as graduation grew ever near. I began to make unstable attributions to my situation at school, as I knew this was definitely a temporary thing and I would be done soon (Schneider et al., 2012). As I slowly changed my way of thinking, I actually started to feel happy again. I started hanging out frequently with my one good friend, and started to smile at school again. Oddly enough, when those who would pick on me saw that smile, they started to leave me alone. What is even more special about the end of that year is that the principle was aware of my situation, and decided to have the school adopt strict bullying policies. According to my mom, in any case of severe and persistent bullying, the perpetrator is expelled. While this makes me happy, I only wish this policy had been in place when I was in high school.

While the scare tactic of expulsion certainly does work, high schools would probably be more benefitted by a program like the Olweus Prevention Program. It gets everyone involved, and has programs that are school-wide, class-focused and individualized (Limber, 2004). At the very least, active participation on the students’ and teachers’ parts would bring more awareness to the situation of bullying, rather than just the threat of being expelled. Such a program not only forces bullies to examine their own behavior and see its effect on others, but the teachers are taught how to better their strategies for intervening and helping victims. Even though my own high school never had this kind of program, and even though I had a horrible experience, it did not adversely affect the rest of my life. I am a happy person, I have a great life, and nothing matters less to me than high school. However, the fact that bullying and mean-heartedness still persist is something that every one of us should care about.

References:

Limber, S. (2004). Implementation of the olweus bullying prevention program in american schools: Lessons learned from the field. 351-363.

Hunter, S.C., Boyle, J.E., & Warden, D. (2007). Perceptions and correlates of peer-victimization and bullying. British Journal of Educational Psychology. 77. 797-810.

Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied social psychology:
Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Cyber-bullying rates have increased significantly over the past several years due to the high creation of technology. Bullies are no longer confined to picking on other kids on the school playground. Today, most bullies are refraining from physical assaults and dodging responses by bashing individuals via email, social media, instant messaging, and other online platforms. According to the article cyber bullying statistics 2014, 25% of teenagers report that they have experienced repeated bullying via their cell phone or on the internet. Over half, which is 52% of young individuals report being cyber bullied. This means that half of the bullying of young individuals is occurring online for the whole online community to witness. 33% of the individuals who have reported being cyber bullied have also reported that their bullies have issued online threats. Both bullies and cyber bullies turn to hate speech to victimize their target. One-tenth of all middle school and high school students have been on the receiving end of hate terms hurled against them. 95% of teens who witnessed bullying on social media report that others, like them, have ignored the behavior. Cyber bullying affects all races and boys are more likely to be threatened by cyber bullies than girls. More than half of the individuals they have surveyed say that they never confide in their parents when cyber bullying happens to them.

The sad part about cyber bullying is that the people who love the individuals who are being cyber bullied often don’t know what to do to help. With the high rate of cyber-bullying provided there are several ways to prevent it and decrease the rate of cyber-bullying. The awareness of cyber-bullying needs to be recognized. Not many individuals are aware of it nor take it as seriously as they should. Individuals need to talk to teens about cyber-bullying, explain why it is wrong and how it can have serious consequences. Parents need to take action over their children who choose to bully other individuals. Parents need to make a rule that teens do not send mean or damaging messages, even if someone else started it or they will lose their cell phone and computer privileges for a time. Encouraging teens to report incidents of cyber bullying to an adult will decrease the likelihood of cyber-bullying.

Parents should take the appropriate steps to console their children who are victims of cyber-bullying. Victims should start by changing their cell phone number and contact the provider to block the bully from contact. As far as social media goes the victim should block the perpetrator from all accounts. I would suggest the parent taking their child for therapy to deal with their emotions in a positive way. Parents should also take the bullying issue to the school’s attention to take the proper pre-cautions if the perpetrator causing the cyber-bullying attends the victims school. A parent who takes the proper steps in making their child feel safe will create an open communication between them.

References: http://nobullying.com/cyber-bullying-statistics-2014/

Recently, there was an op-ed piece in the The New York Times opinion pages about school integration (Potter & Quick, 2016).  School integration can easily be discussed under the topics of education, or intergroup relations and diversity, but in many ways it is a community issue. In fact, the core arguments surrounding school integration incorporate the values and approaches of community psychology. Particularly, the article, and the broader topic of integration, involve many core values of community psychology such as sense of community, social justice, and citizen participation and empowerment, to name a few (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).

The article discusses the increasingly apparent trend of racial and socioeconomic segregation of schools, due in no small part to such segregation within communities. Potter and Quick (2016) highlight the fact that many schools resist integration efforts as they see it as the responsibility of the communities rather than the responsibility of the schools. In essence, they feel as though communities need to be more integrated, which will in turn lead to the schools becoming more integrated. Some schools, however, have taken steps to change enrollment practices in order to promote integration and diversity (Potter & Quick, 2016). While this may promote the inclusion of previously marginalized populations, could this negatively impact a person’s sense of community? If students are being bused out of their neighborhoods in order to attend more diverse schools, they may unfortunately lose the sense of membership within their own communities. For that reason, it would be the role of community psychologists to balance the need for diversity and the need for a strong and positive sense of community (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).

Potter and Quick (2016) discussed a ruling made by the Pinellas County school board to use increased reliance on residential patterns to determine school zones. This move resulted in thousands of black students, who previously enjoyed the benefits of integration, to be relocated to underperforming schools (Potter & Quick, 2016). This goes against community psychology’s goal of social justice. Social justice refers to the need for equitable distribution of resources within a community, in this case, fair access to equal education (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Due to an increased focus on residential patterns, the Pinellas County school board failed to protect the rights of minority students within the community (Potter & Quick, 2016).

Another aspect of community psychology that lays at the heart of this issue is the need for citizen participation and empowerment. In many ways, the citizens in these segregated communities have to find a way to gain control and actively seek out ways to promote both racial and socioeconomic integration, not only within their schools, but within their neighborhoods. They need to find ways to gather strength in numbers to advocate for themselves and their children. The empowerment of the members of the community, particularly those who have been marginalized, is paramount in the efforts of community psychologists (Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, 2012).

If we address the issue of de facto segregation in schools as a community issue, we are so much more likely to see real change. It is an issue of education as well as intergroup relations and diversity, but one that requires the participation of the community to promote social activism. By developing collaborative relationships with the community, and promoting social programs based on empirical evidence, community psychologists can encourage a stronger sense of community as well as promoting the formation of schools that reflect the rich cultural and socioeconomic diversity of our country.

References

Potter, H., & Quick, K. (2016, February 23). The secret to school integration. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/opinion/the-secret-to-school-integration.html?_r=0

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

In 2012, I was sitting on the shinkansen in Tokyo Japan.  I was on my way to work and as I finally settled down in a vacant seat, I looked up and what I saw astonished me. Everyone and I mean everyone was on their smart phones. (texting, surfing the web, watching a video etc.)  From 60 year old grandma to children as young as elementary kids were starring at their phone.  Fast forward to 2015, I was visiting a very busy doctor’s office with my mother and as I open the door to the clinic everyone in the waiting room was either on their Smartphone or tablet.  No one was speaking to each other and was totally absorbed by their own virtual world.  Yes, I admit I am at times guilty of this as well but I am still pretty “old fashioned” and enjoy an occasional conversation with a stranger.   I remember thinking to myself, “how can any of this be healthy?” All humans are social creatures. (Aronson 2007)  As social animals, we all need social relationships and feel a sense of belongingness.  In other words, the feeling of sense of community.  The advancement of technology has robbed us from proximity.  Having the accessibility or nearness to develop and building interpersonal liking to another individual in the real world. (Schneider)  As I recently read a relationship article teaching couples rules and things to be aware of when texting.  The article suggest that many couples may be using “texting” as their main source of communication instead of face to face.

Although a new community has developed in the virtual world it has decreased our real world social contact and possibly decreases our overall sense of well being.  Re-shaping our values and philosophical goals as a community.  A couple of years ago in Taiwan a truck were transporting a rhinoceros from one location to the other.  For some reason, the rhino either jumped or fell off the truck resulting in severe injury. The rhinoceros was obviously bleeding and was crying in pain but nobody was helping or doing anything but taking pictures or recording.  In the video that someone later posted on YouTube, some people were even laughing at the poor animal.  Yes, I know it’s not every day that we see a rhinoceros on the side of the street but come on!

The feeling of belongingness in the virtual world is slowing taking over the real world.  I think we will see many changes and reshaping of societies, communities and individual interaction.  Personally I am a bit scared and uncertain of how we are all going to deal and cope with this change but I know we will all eventually adapt.

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

The bystander effect is present in offline communities, however, is this negative behavior present online? Based on Brody and Vangelisti’s (2016) study on cyberbullying, the bystander effect may play a role in affecting a fairly new type of community, the Internet. I won’t rewrite the entire article here, but I will provide some interesting information gathered by Brody and Vangeliti (2016). Almost one-hundred percent of students who are four-year college undergraduates are online on a daily basis, while eighty-six percent are part of a “social networking site” (Smith, Rainie, & Zickuhr, 2011). The more technological devices are utilized, the more exposed people may be to negative situations such as cyberbullying. In fact, a rising number of bullied students in college, fifty-percent at the time of Kowalski, Giumetti, Schroeder, & Reese’s (2012) research, have been accounted for. In order to better comprehend and anticipate “communication” in situations involving cyberbullying behavior, Brody and Vangelisti (2016) examined the potential influence of “presence of bystanders, anonymity, and relational closeness” on bystander’s actions during a cyberbullying event.

In Brody and Vangelisti’s (2016) second study, which was conducted in order to cover issues and limitations with their first study, three hundred and seventy nine students who were undergrads were recruited, with one hundred and nineteen of them being male and two hundred and sixty of them being female. The participants’ ages spanned from eighteen to fifty years old, with most of them being Caucasian, and the rest including Native American, Middle Eastern, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and other.

Participants were provided with a scene in which cyberbullying was read by them (Brody & Vangelisiti, 2016). Scenes involving victims of identical sex to the participant were also read. While participants read the scene, they were instructed to picture themselves as the “observer” in the occurrence. Afterwards, participants finished a survey online. The relationship between the participant and the victim, visual anonymity, and the amount of bystanders were inspected by researchers. Whether or not the participant was signed in to chat on Facebook and “visible” to the cyberbully and/or victim was modified in order manipulate visual anonymity, while the amount of victim’s friends on Facebook was also used to manipulate the amount of bystanders. DVs and scales were utilized to measure participants’ amount of friends on Facebook, cyberbullying experience, sex, how hurt they felt, their support network, how actively they defended a victim, and their emotional and esteem state.

As a result of Brody and Vangelisti’s (2016) 2nd study, a reduced chance of defending the victim actively was found when participants read the cyberbullying scene with a large amount of bystanders compared to participants who read the cyberbullying scene with a small amount of bystanders. This suggests a moderation of visual anonymity on the impact of amount of bystanders during readings of cyberbullying scenes involving acquaintanceship with the victim. On the other hand, participants in the reduced visual anonymity situation did not display contrasts in defending the victim actively during which large or small amounts of bystanders in scenarios were read. Additionally, participants who read cyberbullying scenes involving a victim as a “close friend”, and were placed in both small amount of bystanders and reduced visual anonymity situations expressed the greatest chance of defending the victim actively.

Based on Brody and Vangelisti’s (2016) research, they suggest that later on studies should focus on the potential of teaching or raising awareness in individuals regarding aspects of the situation that reduce the likelihood of intervening online in order to encourage more online helping behaviors. In turn, if victims of cyberbullying, and perhaps offline bullying, are more informed about intervention problems, their chances of searching for support from positive social influences in order to get back on their feet after a cyberbullying occurrence may increase.

References

Brody, N. & Vangelisti, A.L. (2016). Bystander Intervention in Cyberbullying, Communication Monographs, 83:1, 94-119. doi:10.1080/03637751.2015.1044256

Kowalski, R. M., Giumetti, G. W., Schroeder, A. N., & Reese, H. H. (2012). Cyber bullying amongst college students: Evidence from multiple domains of college life. In L. A. Wankel & C. Wankel (Eds.), Misbehavior online in higher education (pp. 293–321). Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Smith, A., Rainie, L., & Zickuhr, K. (2011). College students and technology. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/College-students-and-technology/Report.aspx

What is your community?  Is it the neighborhood in which you live?  Is it your group of coworkers?  Is it your family and friends?  What happens if you have none of these?  Some argue that being isolated without community interaction is an unfortunate, lonely existence.  You might wonder how anyone can survive without the support of friendship or community.  It just so happens that even the most isolated of individuals is never really alone if they simply turn to the World Wide Web.

There have been many arguments that social media is disrupting our ability to connect in the physical world.  As a matter of fact, I have written about the detrimental effects of social media on intimate relationships.  However, social media can also have a positive effect on even the most isolated of individuals.  The findings from Hampton, Sessions and Her (2011) suggest that, of 2,500 surveyed Americans, those who had a presence on social media had more close confidants that those who do not participate on social media (as cited in Hampton, 2012).  Furthermore, although we may average fewer intimate relationships than 20 years ago (Hampton, 2012), our support group has expanded because of social media.  But can we really claim a community of support in a virtual world?

A recent broadcast from ABC News (2016) confirms that yes, we can.  The latest trend in social media is the online community.  Schneider, Gruman and Coutts (2012) explain that there are four elements contributing to a positive sense of community:  membership, influence, shared values, and a shared emotional connection.  ABC News (2016) highlighted the community of a newly developing online sorority, known simply as Girls’ Night In.  This online sorority is an exclusive, membership only group of women who have come together in a virtual world to provide a sense of community no matter where one resides in the world.  This sorority adheres to all of the community criteria set forth by Schneider et al. (2012).  They have strict, exclusive membership requirements, in that each new member must be nominated by three veteran women, and subsequently researched and deemed worthy of admission.  They carry influence over each other, in that each member is evaluated by the entire group based on her various posts.  Their shared values carry over from member to member through their strict nomination process.  Finally, their shared emotional connection carries on through supportive posts that range from acceptance of an outfit choice to the need for physical community, when members in a common region can be called upon to rally together at a designated location for Girls’ Night In.

This particular sorority is just one of many exclusive membership groups becoming established through social media.  These blossoming online communities are not widely common as of yet, but provide a beautiful alternative to the relationship-damaging effects that we have seen from social media in the past.  It is not difficult to imagine that, given time, these virtual communities may dominate our society.

ABC News. (2016, March 28). Inside ‘Girls Night In,’ the exclusive all-female digital club. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/inside-girls-night-exclusive-female-digital-club/story?id=37974468

Hampton, K. (2012, June 18). Social media as community. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/02/12/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-living-alone/social-media-as-community

Hampton, K. M., Sessions, L. F., & Her, E. J. (2011). Core networks, social isolation, and new media: How Internet and mobile phone use is related to network size and diversity. Information, Communication & Society,14(1), 130-155. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2010.513417

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: Sage.

In reading this weeks lesson materials, particularly around the reticence of individuals to act in ambiguous, overt, but typically potentially dangerous situations, I immediately thought of an analogy that is popular with military service members that has roots in this very discipline. It’s a bit of a generalization, but the logic and rationale are both sound, and backed by psychological research. Hopefully, it will be enjoyable, informative, and will shed some light for further discussion on why many vets feel the way they do about their commitment to step into harm’s way, as they see it, for their countrymen.

In Colonel Dave Grossman’s (US Army, Ret.) acclaimed book “On Combat” (2004), he discusses the depths of the fight-or-flight repsonse, pointing to a number of differing factors and thousands of in-depth studies that determine, amid many fascinating facts on the human psyche under stress, the one thing that has stuck with me throughout my life since I read it: when reacting to the presence of a malicious threat, like an explosion or the sound of gunshots, an enormous majority of human beings will involuntarily experience the urge to put as much distance between the disturbance and themselves. The other minority, by contrast, will move toward the sound. Col Grossman, considered one of the premier researchers on the psychological impact of warfare and violent conflict, has written multiple books on the subject, and while general in many of his assertions, raises the question of whether or not different people are better wired for danger than others.

The matter is discussed at some decent length in the course material, giving a considerable amount of attention to the bystander effect, or, “which states that people are less likely to help in an emergency when other bystanders are present” (Schneider et al, 2012). There are a number of aspects that are addressed by this, but nowhere is it more prevalent in terms of simplicity than it is in Grossman’s analogy of the sheep, the sheepdog, and the wolf.

For the purposes of the analogy, titles are meant to be assigned in a very broad way. I feel that it’s necessary to note the distinct absence of any derogatory intent before continuing.

In the paradigm, most people in the world are sheep. This has no connotation other than the fact that, in a simplistic description, most people want to stay at home, spend time with their family and friends, and generally be left alone to live their lives absent any threats or (relative) dangers. Then, a few people are wolves. The wolves live by hunting the sheep, dominating and harnessing them to their own will. The wolves, of course, constitute those who would intend harm to the population in general, or a group in particular. Also a general connotation, it is fairly safe to say that those who would do harm to the population are not large in number, but, as with wolves and sheep, they don’t need to be to wreak havoc, per se.

The third element of Grossman’s paradigm is the sheep dog. Leaving aside elements of control that sheepdogs fill, in this analogy, the dogs are there to protect and defend the sheep from the wolves. Says Grossman, “the sheep aren’t fond of the sheep dog. He looks an awful lot like the wolf” (Grossman et al, 2004). The sheep would not trade places with the sheepdog, because it is not a sheepdog. It wants no part in the dog’s grisly work. If any reader chooses to disagree with this last portion in particular, ask yourself if spending cold nights in the mud sleeping under a truck and waiting for the enemy to attack sounds like a good time. If you don’t immediately feel averse to the idea… well, you may want to reconsider stopping by a military recruiting office, or maybe the local precinct or jail. The sheep dog lives with, among, and for the sheep. It is his/her primary concern. When the wolf comes, the sheepdog exists to stand up to it, and drive it away from the flock. In terms of the number of sheepdogs to a flock, the balance with wolves is rarely in their favor. So with cops, EMTs, soldiers, and security professionals, the balance between the good guys and the bad guys hardly seems fair on a large scale (Grossman et al, 2004).

Grossman’s research, while varied, backs this idea. Particularly in the analogy of the sheep, deindividuation is strongly used and is supported by class materials (Schneider et al, 2012). Hence the apportioned comments as to the proportional representation of those who run toward the sound of gunfire, not away from it. There’s a long-running debate over what makes someone run toward danger; generally, most agree that it is a trait that can be developed. As an Afghan war vet, I find it interesting and engaging to consider the bystander effect from the vantage point of societal roles. It’s a feasible argument to say that most people didn’t intervene in the Kitty Genovese case because it simply wasn’t part of who they were or what they do. Were a proverbial sheep dog present, the day might have ended a bit differently.

Grossman, D., Christensen, W. (2004). On Combat; the Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace. PPCT Research Publications.

Schneider, F., Gruman, J., Coutts, L. (2012). Applied Social Psychology. 2nd Ed. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications.