Many communities face challenges that affect their way of life. These can include anything from bullying to pollution and a host of things in between. The question then becomes, how do communities deal with these issues. On one hand, they have a great deal of knowledge and experience involving the issues. At the same time, many of the community members are probably not versed in the scientific inquiry. Therefore, there is a need for a professional with such experience to help with the problem-solving. The professional in many cases, however, will be new to the situation, and not completely knowledgeable about the background. Given this scenario, the most logical step would be to combine the two, such that they are working together in an effort to create the necessary social change. This is exactly what Participatory Action Research (PAR) attempts to accomplish.

Participatory Action Research is a research method within social sciences that “emphasizes collaborative participation of trained researchers as well as local communities in producing knowledge directly relevant to the stakeholder community” (Coghlan & Brydon-Miller, 2014) Essentially, a trained professional, (psychologist, biologist, ecologist, etc.) works with members of a community in an effort to research, and solve some problem, or create some change within the community. It is based in “self-reflective inquiry”, in that both the researcher and the community members look at the things that they do in an effort to improve their practices and situations they find themselves in. (Baum, MacDougall, & Smith, 2006) There are three distinctions that make participatory action research different from traditional research: research is conducted in an effort to enable action; participants are active in the research process; power is shared between the researcher and researched. (Baum, MacDougall, & Smith, 2006) These methods have been applied to a host of settings including activism, community problem solving, education and health care.

At the agency where I work, one of the divisions uses participatory action research to create social change in school environments. The division creates a yearly Youth Advisory Committees (YAC), comprised of high school teenagers, who, in conjunction with paid professionals, research topics important to the youth audience. Topics include teen pregnancy, drug and tobacco use, underage drinking, bullying, and a host of other issues they deem important. Once they have identified the issues they want to focus on, they begin working on solving the problem. The meet bi-weekly at our agency in an effort to come to a solution that creates change in their audience. The teens on the committee look at themselves, and their environment, and with the help of professionals, are able to analyze and troubleshoot troubling behaviors that create solutions that can be applied to all individuals in this particular community.

When communities face problems, it is they who have the power to correct them. In many cases, however, they lack the knowledge and skill to effectively create solutions to these problems. Participatory action research helps to solve this issue. It introduces a professional to the problem who guides the community on identifying issues, conducting research, making analysis, addressing policies, and creating change. (Phillips, Berg, Rodriguez, & Morgan, 2010) Through this process, communities can better solve problems, and create change that positively influences their quality of life.

Baum, F., MacDougall, C., & Smith, D. (2006). Participatory Action Research. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 60(10), 854-857.

Coghlan, D., & Brydon-Miller, M. (2014, December 24). Participatory Action Research. The Sage Encyclopedia of Action Research. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Phillips, E. N., Berg, M. J., Rodriguez, C., & Morgan, D. (2010). A Case Study of Participatory Action Research in a Public New England Middle School: Empowerment, Constraints and Challenges. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46, 179-194.

Perhaps one of the most prevalent thoughts in American society is that criminals deserve what they get. There is this longstanding debate over whether or not the death penalty should still be applied to criminals. And seeing as how many states still practice this, it is obvious which side is winning this argument. Now I’m not asking here whether punishment fits the crime, per se. Sentencing laws are an entire issue on their own. What I would like to discuss is the social view on criminals.

Why do we put people in jail? Is it meant to be for punishment, or for rehabilitation. Which one works best to ensure that no future crimes are committed? I’m sure many people would love to be optimistic and say rehabilitation. But rehabilitation is not what goes on in prisons.  For some prisoners, it feels like they are put through a “deprivation of liberty” (Ginnekin, Esther, Hayes, 2017). They feel like their whole lives are restricted, their freedom, their choice, their futures. Especially if they get out of prison, then the next big step is reforming their life by getting a job and starting over. But they can’t exactly just go about doing that, can they. There’s too much stigma around being a former convict. “How is my criminal record… being put behind me, if every time I have to apply for a job, I have to disclose it, considering that my actual criminal record has no bearing on the actual job that I’m actually applying for” (Ginnekin, Esther, Hayes, 2017).

In comparison to the treatment that they receive while they are finally released, the treatment that they have to endure while inside prison is astoundingly cruel. However society doesn’t even bat an eyelash at this because the social view of this is that the criminals deserve whatever punishment comes to them. Which is an understandable view for people who may have lost loved ones and such, but for society as a whole to not care about treatment of criminals, it is simply astounding.

Perhaps I am overstepping my bounds, but this topic is rather personal to me as my father was sent to prison a few years back on charges of second degree murder of a business associate of his. Of course such a crime is unforgivable and the man at fault certainly deserves the time he has to serve, but that doesn’t mean he should be treated like an animal once inside the prison system.

Let me give an example of what I am talking about on a social level. I would like to affect social change in the sense that we need to stop dehumanizing criminals. When my father was being put on trial, there was a lot of media buzz surrounding it. But they all spun the same story. That he was just another immigrant who came to this country to cause gun violence and take away the lives of hard working Americans. Never mind the fact that my father came here as a refugee after having his village bombed by Americans during the Vietnam War, personally watching his mother stabbed to death by soldiers, recovering enough to come to this country as a teenager, perfecting the language enough to get a bachelors in English, learning enough to get a masters in Buddhist studies, spending years as a monk, raising a family of his own out of poverty. No. None of that mattered. All that mattered was that he was a criminal. He was a bad guy who deserved to be punished. Anyone who saw the news would see an image of a monster painted before them. But anyone who knew him would say “Bruce? The Buddhist monk?”

Affecting social change pertaining to opinion on such a large scale would be rather hard. But like we saw with Rescue, if we aim to conduct research in such a manner as to target specific demographics, disseminate information in a widespread and easily consumable manner, then perhaps public opinions on criminals can change.

References:

Participatory Action Research is a tool often used by the government to conduct research investigating public health and social impacts of policies. This approach uses feedback and emphasizes participation and action in communities, and uses these results to try and change the communities for the collective improvement of society and local groups. Tools like this are essential to applied social psychology and government interventions.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) makes extraordinary efforts to bring help and assistance to members of the community who are typically quiet, or such a minority that their voices go unheard. This is especially true of male victims of sexual assault/rape. 1 in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives and men are 140% more likely to develop PTSD as a result. (Penn State University, 2018) This may be due to a number of factors but one of the leading suggested causes is the lack of current support networks for male victims of sexual violence. In our society, sexual violence towards men is often misunderstood or even turned into comedy. This only makes the psychological strain on the victims even more harsh. Due to methods such as PAR, research and funding can go towards programs to help male survivors cope and develop needed support networks.

Applied social psychology is beneficial in many ways to communities. Utilizing tools such as PAR, researchers and psychologists can work to develop efficient and beneficial intervention programs and policies for individuals in need. Using feedback and communication directly from the community, the policy can be tailored to fit the specific needs of the group.

References

Baum, F., MacDougall, C., & Smith, D. (2006). Participatory action research. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 60(10), 854-7.

.

Nsvrc.org. (2018). Statistics about sexual violence. [online] Available at: https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf [Accessed 19 Nov. 2018].

Penn State University (2018) Psych 270 Canvas Module – Developing PTSD. Retrieved November 18, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1914063/modules/items/24970423

One of the goals of community psychology is to analyze social change and to guide social action toward resolving social problems (Goldstein 2015). I am currently writing a research paper regarding the death penalty for another class. As part of my research, I watched a TED Talks video featuring Bryan Stevenson titled “We need to talk about an injustice,” and I started thinking about social change research.

Bryan Stevenson’s lecture is a very powerful and enthralling speech. I was intrigued by the speaker and he held my attention from the beginning to the end. From the very beginning of the speech, Mr. Stevenson persuasion is very clear. He shares information about his goal and provides information, truths, and facts about current situations going on the American justice system. Mr. Stevenson says “There is power in identity. When we create the right kind of identity, we can say things to the world around us that they don’t actually believe makes sense. We can get them to do things they don’t think they can do.” That is a very powerful statement and it holds so much truth to it. Mr. Stevenson then told a story about his grandmother, and how she pulled him to the side and told him three things. The story was rather humorous, but it’s not just the humor that sticks with you. The story had a message. His particular message that he got from his grandmother was to not drink alcohol, and that stuck with him as he grew older.

Mr. Stevenson’s area of expertise is law. According to the bio, Bryan Stevenson is a public-interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. He’s the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based group that has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent prisoners on death row, confronting the abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults. With this background, Mr. Stevenson is more than qualified to speak on the subject. Mr. Stevenson gives facts to support his cause. He uses statistics to further add emphasis to the cause. He pleads to everyone, this is not just about one or two races, this about humans as a society. Mr. Stevenson says “Wealth, not culpability shapes outcomes. We cannot be fully evolved human beings until we care about human rights and basic dignity. That all of our survival is tied to the survival of everyone. That our visions of technology and design and entertainment and creativity have to be married with visions of humanity, compassion,and justice.”

“Participation Action Research (PAR) works to address the specific concerns of the community as well as the fundamental causes of the oppression, with the goal of achieving positive social change (Brydon-Miller, 1997). I see this video combining research and law together to bring about change in our society, which is very important if we are to progress as a society.

Reference

Brydon-Miller, M. (1997). Participatory Action Research: Psychology and Social Change. Journal of Social Issues,53(4), 657-666. doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00042

Goldstein, E. B. (2015). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience. Stamford: Cengage learning.

We need to talk about an injustice [TED Talks]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice?quote=1385#t-1265890

The question presented in the conclusion of this class, whether social research good or bad, made me stop and think. I cannot come up with a reason why it is bad. In fact, I think that all of psychology is based on social psychology. Psychology aims at seeking to understand behavior, and creating interventions that have a positive effect and outcome on people. The reason why the field of psychology is ongoing and continuous is because we are not complacent on research that has been done and are constantly seeking to understand more. This starts from a desire to understand human behavior, which is the social factor of psychology, in all umbrellas of psychology. With out that desire of trying to understand human behavior, psychology wouldn’t exist. So, from that standpoint, applied psychology should be credited with creating psychology in general. All other forms of research are based off of an applied social psychology approach. Awesome job applied social psychology!

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/australian-journal-of-environmental-education/article/role-of-social-research-in-effective-social-change-programs/8E9A52ECBEB93946FE45C5BA283BF2D5

Since I live in Southern California where fires have been ravaging our mountains, neighborhoods and homes of thousands of people, I have decided to write about social change with regard to the environment. Of course there are many reasons fires can start, and sometimes we don’t ever find out the cause, but the information we do have is vital to help prevent the spread of wildfires moving forward. 

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “since the 1970s, unusually hot summer days (highs) have become more common over the last few decades.” While other parts of the country are experiencing extreme temperatures and weather conditions that are evident in all of the hurricanes, flooding, etc., the West Coast is hit by extreme heat that leaves us more susceptible to wildfires.

Many people think that climate change is not a social issue, but that is simply not true. There is no one magic cure or answer to this major issue, but if everyone made just a concerted effort to be more conscious of their choices, we could be headed in the right direction. Even the simple act of not tossing cigarettes or cigarette butts out the window while driving could potentially save an area from being overtaken by wildfire. 

Basic research has already been conducted on what’s going on in the environment. Now is the time to target specific areas that have markedly extreme consequences of climate change and implement interventions. This can be on a grand scale, nationwide, or on a smaller scale, countywide. So many people are already coming together to do what they can to rebuild their community, but beyond that moving forward, progressive intervention needs to occur so that we can prevent more tragedies from happening in the future. Now is the time for companies, like Rescue: The Behavior Change Agency, to start encouraging young people to be proactive and change the world! 

EPA: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/weather-climate

Relationships can be one of the hardest things in life to maintain, and there are so many of them in your life at that. You connect to various people in your life through a familial relationship, friendship relationship, or maybe it’s just someone that you share your morning commute with but you always have a great chat every morning. Some relationships are just moments like the morning commute or they are long term like friendships and family.

Which is why I wonder if my relationship with my wife will stand the test of time. I’ve seen so many relationships break up that I think what will be the thing that does us in. Do we truly have the patience for one another?

Well I think I can finally answer that question now, I think sometimes in life you are given opportunities to test whether or not a relationship will stand the test of time particularly a marriage and I think recently we’ve had two such tests.\

The first test, we had two guinea pigs that both fell ill the same day (warning this gets tragic), one was put to sleep immediately (on my birthday no less), and the other still had a chance. We had to medicate him every two hours, and hand feed him every four hours. There was no rest for either of us as we did this for over twenty-four hours. You might be wondering why is this a test. This is a test, because if we had an infant, we just proved to each other that despite the lack of sleep we can work together, try to make informed decisions together about care, and that we were willing to take turns and allow the other to get some sleep while the other took care of our guinea pig in this case, but it could just as easily be a baby. Unfortunately it was all in vain as the second guinea pig died in our arms twenty minutes after we got him two new companions to encourage him to maybe want to start eating on his own.

The second test, and this was a true time test here, we recently spent two days driving from California to Canada. Road trips can be fun, but they can also be stressful, it can really cause a lot of fighting between couples. And time certainly seemed to drag on and on, but somehow we managed to communicate and enjoy the drive rather than fight the entire way. This was a mini test of time, as in the car there is really no getting away from one another, there is only room to entertain each other, talk to one another, so if you get into a fight. But somehow we managed to come through this unscathed.

So now I know better that we do have the patience to attempt to stand the test of time.

References:

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

Social change is something that we are always going to witness and see happening as people evolve.  Usually social change is for the better and helps people accept others for who they are/want to be.  For example, big groups that are bringing social change to the communities around the United States is the LGBQT community.  The LGBQT community is for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights.  They started in the late 1980’s and they really started this organization because they believed that the “gay community” does not necessarily represent everyone.  Their purpose is to bring awareness and acceptance to all individuals despite what their sexual orientation is.  They also like celebrate their pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality.  Every year their typically is a LGBQT parade in NYC and this parade is to demonstrate for legal rights such as same sex marriage.  Although some states have implemented this as a legal right in their state not all of the states in the United States have adopted this law.  I think it is important for groups like the LGBQT to bring awareness and show their determination to gain the legal rights that they want to see happen.  Again, everyone despite their sexual orientation are people and they should be able to choose who they want to marry and be able to do so legally and rightfully.  So again I think that social change is needed to bring more individuals up to date and understand that they deserve the same rights that a heterosexual couple would have.  Social change is important for the evolution of people in general.  Another example is if you look back to 51 years ago… interracial marriage was finally legally allowed in all the states in the United States.  Allowing a couple of different race to be able to marry also took social change to make this occur.  This allowed different social relations to take place for a couple of two different races because it was now legally allowed in all states.  If the law was never passed in all states I am sure that social relations between a black and white couple in a state that allows them to get married would be different in a state that did not allow them to be married.  Social change is extremely important for society and even for people for growth, acceptance, diversity, and much more.

While our lesson this week put an emphasis on what initially sparks a relationship, my blog is going to dig a little deeper into what maintains a relationship. The basics I think we have all heard from the age of teenagers…opposites attract but so do similarities. For most relationships, I believe the attraction falls somewhere in the middle. It is a unfamiliar enough to create an interest, yet similar enough to make us comfortable. My story is a little more complicated.

I met my husband when I was 18, a little over 12 years ago, and while our initial attraction may be straight out of the psychology laws our journey has been nothing of the sort. The lesson states that the Myers-Brigg Typology Indicator scores indicate that people with similar personalities tend to get along well because they think, feel and act the same. When I was 18 I was shy, naive, and let’s just say a little straight arrow. My husband was the “bad-boy” from out of town that no one really knew much about. He was a risk, and after a lifetime (it seemed) of following the rules I was ready for a little rebounding. In this case, we are a prime example of the popular idea of “opposites attract.”

Let’s fast forward a few years through our roller-coaster relationship that now includes our son. We had been all over the map of attractions from the most passionate of thoughts to wanting to strangle each other. Our opposites for the most part were not attracting anymore, because the real-world kicks in and those little things I once found so exciting I now found to be immature and stupid. I am sure my husband will agree the same as my quiet and inexperienced self became more of a responsibility to him. At this point… I think we would have found comfort in a more similar relationship then we did with our alternate ends of the spectrum.

Ultimately, the fact that we were so different pushed us to the further sides of life experiences and we became so distant until we lived separate lives. My husband took a job on the road and basically came home only on holidays while I maintained as much of a normal life for our son at our home. Slowly, we relied less and less on each other for anything and discovered new attractions outside of our marriage. A very dangerous game to play! We were both craving for the similar-to-me effect.

My story does have a positive ending, as after a LOT of consideration and efforts we changed the direction of our story. My husband left his job on the road and we reestablished a relationship based on the people we had grown into, instead of who we were years ago. I believe the biggest aspect of relationships is keeping an attraction going, while understanding that what the attraction is might change over time. Initially we were attracted by our differences and then at some point we needed to look harder to find the similarities to maintain the attraction. I think there can be a mix of both!

Winston Churchill once said, “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, while an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”. What he is referring to is the manner in which people view the world. An individual’s knowledge and experiences go a long way in shaping a person’s attributions. Attributions are inferences individuals make about why something is or has happened. (Schneider et. al, 2012) People can be defined in one of two ways based on attributions they make about situations; optimists or pessimists. Pessimists have negative outcome expectancies that tend to demotivate people and produce destructive actions that are contrary to goals. Optimists, on the other hand, have positive outcome expectancies, that both influence individuals’ thinking and approach to life. (Schneider et. al, 2012) For the sake of this discussion, I will be focusing more on optimists and the concept of optimism. In particular, I will focus on the many benefits associated with the mental attitude of optimism.

Optimism by definition is “a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions, and to expect the most favorable outcome to occur.” (Optimism, n.d.) Research findings have consistently found that individuals who operate under an optimistic frame of mind, consistently reap a host of social, psychological, and physical benefits their pessimistic counterparts do not. In the realm of romantic relationships, research suggests greater optimism among the people in a relationship correlates to greater satisfaction, happiness, and functioning in the relationship. (Schneider et. al, 2012) In friendships, optimism has been linked to a greater social support, as well as lower incidence of interpersonal conflict. In terms of health, optimism leads to better health-related lifestyle habits, higher levels of happiness, and a better ability to control personal mood. (Schneider et. al, 2012) The effects of optimism can also be seen in interpersonal group settings, such as offices and classrooms. Research suggests that optimism is associated with better performance, job satisfaction, work happiness, and organizational commitment in the occupational setting. Extensive research has been conducted on the concept of optimism, and the results all point to the idea that having an optimistic attitude provides a wealth of social, psychological, and physical benefits.

Optimism is best in moderation. Like with anything else, too much of it is not always good. For example, extreme optimism, or unrealistic optimism, can lead to arrogance, or overconfidence in one’s self. Unrealistic optimism is the tendency for people to believe that they are less likely to experience negative events, and more likely to experience positive events than others. (Jefferson et. al, 2017) This overconfidence can lead to a host of issues, including making bad decisions, interpersonal conflict, the better than average effect, and the illusion of control. These can all work together to affect an individual’s perception of what is based on reality and what is not. Optimism, therefore, can be likened to red wine. In moderation, there can be some nice benefits, but excessive amounts can create problems of its own.

People’s feelings and experiences drive how they view situations. These inferences are referred to as attributions. How people develop these attributions, determine whether they are categorized as an optimist or a pessimist. There are a host of benefits, (socially, physically, and psychologically) related to having an optimistic attitude. However, like with anything else, moderation is key, as too much optimism or blind optimism can create issues in its own right.

Jefferson, Anneli et al. “What is unrealistic optimism?” Consciousness and cognition vol. 50 (2017): 3-11.

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

Optimism [Def. 1.] (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved from Optimism

Someone once asked me what it is like to be beautiful. I replied to my mom that no one else besides her thinks I’m attractive. Throughout this lesson, we are told that physical attractiveness is one of the key components to relationship. In fact, it may be the most important factor in initial mating choice. However, I felt it was important to look at this from a different perspective. This is an online class, so perhaps we could add a little online flair to things.

MMORPG’s, or massive multiplayer online role playing games have become increasingly popular over the years. In fact they are so popular that there are now tournaments in which players compete for millions of dollars in real life. If teenage me could have predicted this, I wouldn’t have listened to my mother; rather I think I would study less and play more. But one of the more interesting aspects of these games is the role playing aspect. No, I don’t mean like pretending to be a family in game or some other such weird nonsense (although I have seen such tomfoolery). I mean the general building of relationships that are built through playing as a certain character. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to make friends with someone all the way across the world, knowing that the only thing you have in common might be this one passion. I feel it is reminiscent of the days when people would get on their ham radios just trying to make a little conversation with a stranger. There is a certain fondness and connection that can be built from these online relationships, even though you can’t exactly see the other person.

One study aimed to look at just how exactly online relationships function. Coulson et al. (2018) found that although physical attraction was certainly a factor in terms of predicting levels of attachment through online relationships, social attraction and task attraction were better indicators of how secure their attachment was. In fact, people tended to rate their online friends as less attractive than their real life friends, even though they spent more time with and communicated more with their online friends (Coulson et al., 2018).

So perhaps in this new age of technology, some of the rules are flying out of the book. As for why people tend to prefer online relationships with people who may be less attractive, the question is anyone’s guess. Perhaps because they are not constantly looking at their friends when they are socializing, they don’t associate their physical attractiveness with how highly they each other. Perhaps social attraction is more important because people have to make up for the fact that there is no physicality to be impressed with, so they push to be more social in order to form bonds. And in terms of task attraction, it makes sense that people will prefer friends who are good at the game, as opposed to players who can’t do much to help themselves let alone others.

Maybe physical attraction is on the way out. Maybe online friendships are on the rise. There are a lot of factors at play here, but it seems that there is a constant in all these things. For people that play online games, physical attraction is not the most important factor. On the contrary, social and gaming skill seem to the preferred traits. Maybe it is our time, the time for the ugly barnacles to thrive.

References:

Coulson, M. C., Oskis, A., Meredith, J., & Gould, R. L. (2018). Attachment, attraction and communication in real and virtual worlds: A study of massively multiplayer online gamers. Computers in Human Behavior, 87, 49-57. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.017

Our current political climate is very divided and it says a lot about our community. Primarily, it says a lot about our political identities. We have become very loyal to our political parties in a way that reflects social categorization. Meaning, that we have definitely taken on a “us versus them” mentality. Now, depending on what side you are on this is a very good thing. It can feel like you are fighting for what is right but when it is coming from an opposing side, it can feel like ignorance. The political rhetoric is passionate but also harsh and demeaning.

Social media is driving this divisiveness. Social Media has opened up the world and exposed us to a lot of information and to far away connections. If you live in a divided county or a place where your ideology is challenged you don’t need to deal with it, you are allowed to find a group of people who do share your views. This has proven valuable not just in that we can expose connect people to those who think alike to each other, but there is an opportunity to rally and organize to fight together.

But again, I come back to what that does to our communities. If we are not forced to try and understand the reason behind what our neighbors are thinking, we will never try and we will continue to maintain a “us versus them” mentality.

People will always be complicated and diverse and if we believe what we say when we say that “diversity is what makes us strong” then we need to develop the skill set of understanding that others develop opinions using different perspectives and that they don’t always jive with ours. We don’t have to share all the same opinions but for the sake and strength of our community and what makes our country strong, we have to learn to talk to each other.

There are many different terms and phrases used to describe the ideal setup for the perfect relationship. “Opposites attract”, “Birds of a feather flock together.” But the reality of it isn’t as simple. These phrases are often used to over-simplify the often complicated emotional attachment we have with others as well as dumb down any psychological aspects of our attraction to others. The reality of relationships is that it truly isn’t that simple.

The phrase “Opposites attract” is used meaning that people with very different beliefs/interests will be drawn to one another. This may be true for short-term relationships, but in the long-term those differences will cause conflict and negativity. (Nelson, 2018) The differences that someone has is attractive due to the excitement of seeing something different, or experiencing a different lifestyle/interest – but if someone truly doesn’t share the same interests, beliefs, and thought processes it will only lead to the end of the relationship.

“Birds of a feather flock together” is the over-simplification of the belief that people who share more values, thoughts, and interests will be brought together. In most cases, for long-term relationships this is the truth. However, rather than the interest stemming from the things in common – it could be the lack of chances of conflict that allows the relationship to thrive. The psychological term for birds of a feather is the similar-to-me-effect. This effect states that individuals get along with others that think and look like they do, however, like all things pertaining to attraction – there are outliers.

Attraction is extremely complicated and has many variables, however psychologically the desire for the similar-to-me-effect in romantic partners is the easiest explanation. Being able to share the same hobbies, interests, beliefs, thoughts, and even looks with someone allows a relationship to experience life as a pair rather than two individuals that will inevitably have conflict if things weren’t so similar. Relationships differ across many cultures and areas within the United States. Different customs, upbringings, and social settings can heavily influence what someone seeks in another partner. The psychology behind relationships is determined both by desired evolutionary traits (physical fitness for example), and cultural reinforcement.

References

Nelson, A. (2018). Lesson 12 Relationships/Every day life, Attraction. Retrieved November 11, 2018. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942493/modules/items/25002553

Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.A. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems-2^nded. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Chapter 15 in our class textbook which discusses relationships and our need to be close to others  lists traits that are desirable qualities.  The qualities are listed in pairs but one quality in each pair reflects more of  a social orientation. The readers are asked to pick one word of each pair and to give themselves a point for picking certain qualities over others. Your choices reflect your level of social orientation and serve as a crude test for defining you as someone who has a greater interest in relating to others than in developing a personal ability. I interpreted this as a greater desire to be selfless than selfish but yet found myself picking the words not worth points for the most part. out of Strong or Kind I chose Strong. Out of Intelligent or generous I chose Intelligent. Out of Friendly or Brave I chose Brave. The only two I chose words worth points is I chose sympathetic over popular without any internal conflict on the matter and after much internal conflict I chose Helpful over Artistic. So I guess my results of this crude test would conclude that I am not very socially oriented. Perhaps the test is right….but I felt very differently about the myself. I personally think I tend to put others before myself but I chose to be Strong over Kind because I know strength is a hard thing to cultivate and life is very difficult. Kindness is worth its weight in gold as the saying goes but but having inner strength is a treasure that gets you to a new day when nothing else can.  Being strong is important to survival in a way that kindness never can be.  I chose Brave over friendly because I think friendly is a rather superficial term while bravery is something you cannot pretend to me. A person can pretend to be friendly but a person cannot truly pretend to be brave…at least not past a certain point. Out of intelligent or generous I chose Intelligent because I think to be generous with ought intelligence is to be foolish. I think in order to truly be generous you need to understand the risk involved and choose to do it anyway. I don’t care about being particularly popular. I think being popular is nice and brings with it power which is a completely different beast, but I would rather be sympathetic than be a person surrounded by people who tell them how cool they are. Helpful or artistic was hard for me. I feel like the urge to create art is something innate to a persons soul. That art can transcend and help in unexpected ways. However I thought about my mother who I love very much and I realized if I had to give up music (something I love) to help my mother I would not hesitate.

In conclusion though I didn’t like this test. I think life is too many shades of grey to play such abstract concepts against each other and pretend they give us some form of understanding on human nature. I think human attraction is an area of psychology that still has a while to go before its understood, if ever. Yes we are animals…but we are also a shade of grey.

Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.A. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems-2^nded. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Does the prosecution of cyber bullying infringe on civil liberties?

This is an interesting question to think about. With the increasing incidents of cyber bullying that are leading to suicide, it is something that lawmakers really need to discuss. One of the most public trials that started this debate was with Michelle Carter who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of her boyfriend. Carter was on the phone with her boyfriend, Roy who had second thoughts about going through with his planned suicide. Carter told Roy to get back into the car and stayed on the phone and listed to him die and did not do anything about it. Carter’s attorneys filed an appeal stating that the prosecution of the text messages and online conversations that were used as evidence in the trial, violated Carters freedom of speech. Many civil liberties organizations, such as the ACLU came out in support of Carter and her appeal.

This is all very hard to understand for me. On the one hand, I think that anyone who does not try to intervene when someone is hurting themselves, even if it is intentional, should be held responsible. On the other hand, courts have for the majority of time considered suicide to be an act of free will. I also think that when lawmakers are creating policy surrounding bullying, that the question of – was bullying ultimately what lead to a person committing suicide? Then, that would mean that bullying should be an offensible action and we need to create uniform policy that holds people who engage in bullying accountable. To my knowledge, there is no such policy in place at this time, except for some schools adopting a zero-tolerance policy.

Moving forward, I personally think that there should be clear policy on the consequences of bullying, and I do think that someone should be held accountable for involuntary manslaughter for cyber bullying. Bullying is a social problem, not a technical one and we need to address it and start discussing the really tough questions such as where civil liberties and accountability fit in?

Cramer, M. The Globe. In Michelle Carter appeal, high court considers whether encouraging suicide amounts to manslaughter. October 2018.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/10/04/state-highest-court-hear-appeal-michelle-carter-case-today/jkjaR4SzLuHMr86MvIR6ZJ/story.html

When people consider my husband and I’s relationship they often comment that “it must be true that opposites attract!” My husband is an extreme extrovert, he’s a musician, and at times can be all over the place. I, on the other hand, am structured and organized and prefer quiet nights in to wild nights out (with an occasional exception). These examples are the basis of the idea that we are total opposites, so of course opposites attract. What most people fail to realize is that we are much more alike than we are different. When we began dating we learned that we both wanted the same sort of things out of life. We knew both eventually wanted kids and a stable relationship. We both had educational and career goals. My husband and I both wanted to move to a different area and travel when ever and where ever possible. Most importantly we have the same morals and values. This is indicative of the similar-to-me effect, which states that people generally get along with others that think and look similar to them (Nelson, 2018). Our relationship doesn’t exemplify the notion that “opposites attract,” it represents the notion that “birds of a feather flock together.”

As I reflect on the similar-to-me effect, it not only rings true to my romantic relationship but to my friendships as well. I have one friend in particular who worked for me years ago, and we couldn’t stand each other, but at the point in our lives we were complete opposites. I had one child and was very career and family focused, to be perfectly honest boring. Cork on the other hand was the epitome of a wild child, she was single, had zero responsibilities, lived at home with her parents, and I had already outgrown this phase. Since then we have both evolved and grown, had similar life experiences and lessons. She is now one of my very closest friends and confidants.

References

Nelson, A. (2018). Lesson 12 Relationships/Every day life, Attraction. Retrieved November 8, 2018. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942493/modules/items/25002553

As we discussed in this weeks lesson attraction is the first steps in any romantic relationship.  Generally two people find themselves attracted to one another and in most cases start to bond and spend quality time together.  Also like we discussed in this weeks lesson the saying “Birds of the same feather flock together” is a true saying and I stand by this old saying.  As mentioned in the lesson sometimes adolescents find themselves attracted and dating someone who is totally different from them both physically and personality wise however if you look years later down the line they are not attracted nor dating this same person.  People in most cases like to date/be romantically involved with someone who shares common interests, beliefs, customs, values, etc.  With that said this occurs because it makes people feel more comfortable when they are romantically involved with someone who understands them.  Many times in relationships the “one major psychological explanations that is used is the similar-to-me effect.”  Basically the “similar-to-me effect is when individuals are attracted or like people who think and look like they do.”  There are proven facts that people who like the same things or who have similar personalities and demeanor’s end up getting along a lot better than those who don’t.  My fiance and I are living proof of the similar-to-me effect. We both share common interest, likes, values, beliefs, and customs.  We’ve been together since 2009 and still together almost nine years later and finally engaged with plans to be married July 2019.  I feel like communication is that much easier in a romantic relationship when someone knows you because you feel comfortable to be and act yourself.  With that said we still have so much diversity between us which is a good thing and a very unique thing in my book.  You want some diversity in a relationship because if you literally have none then it could just seem washy or even like you are dating yourself.  Fortunately our diversity is something I love about our relationship he is African-American and I am Caucasian and we both come from different places.  He was born in Zimbabwe and his family migrated here for good when he was just four years old while I was born in the United States.  We still have diversity but our personalities just connected on a much deeper level because we share so much in common.  I believe that these are true and valuable traits to a long lasting romantic relationship.

(Luo & Klohnen, 2005)

(Lurtz, 1999).

Pinterest is a online community that can be for anyone and everyone.  This community is ultimately unlimited when it comes to searching because you can practically search anything on their app such as recipes, animals, skin benefits, vitamins, work out videos, health food/drinks, clothing, fashion, cars, sports, shopping, quotes, wedding ideas, holiday ideas… etc. Basically in other words anything you can think of can be searched for on Pinterest.  We spoke about how online communities/interactions can be a sense of feeling a belonging too and gives an individual the feeling of a sense of community.  Being a Pinterest user myself I believe it does give me a sense of belonging.  Sometimes I might search for a recipe and later on when I am eating with my family someone always asks where did I find the recipe and when I say “Pinterest” my one sister always says send me that one.  It gives me a sense of belonging and not only that a common interest with my sister “Cooking and searching for recipes on Pinterest.  The definition of online communities is a group of people who share common interests and likes while all utilizing the internet.  The differences between regular in person communities and online communities is that they allow people to basically pick and choose who they want to socialize with.  If someone is interested in nature they might type in the Pinterest search bar “nature” and end up following and pinning to their board certain nature photos/trails to do in the future.  Online communities allow people to pick and choose what they belong or are exposed too whereas in person communities like neighborhoods are not always a choice and sometimes you are a product of a community you didn’t exactly what to be in nor be a part of.

(Yeager, Trzesniewski, Tirri, Nokelanian, & Dweck, 2011)

I would consider myself an incredibly happy person. Is my life perfect? Absolutely not. In the last few months I broke my foot, my mom was hospitalized for a week due to struggling mental health, my car required expensive repairs, and my family had to put down a cat that we have owned since I was in the 5th grade—all while juggling work and school. But somehow, regardless of what obstacles or setbacks I face, I have been able to remain positive and motivated. But just a year ago, this was not the case. Even a very minor setback would discourage me to the point of having awful anxiety attacks. It is not that my life was any objectively worse or better at the time than it is now, and I’m not on any anxiety medications—I just process thing optimistically. “Optimism is an individual difference variable that reflects the extent to which people hold generalized favorable expectancies for their future” (Carver et al. 2010). Because I have adapted a more optimistic outlook on life with better outcome expectancies, I have gained a positive well-being.

Positive well-being is defined as, “optimal adjustment to life and positive mental health” (Schneider et al. 2012). To me, I know that I have a positive well-being because my anxiety no longer gets in the way of me preforming important tasks or attending planned events, I practice regular self-care, I no longer experience being too depressed to get out of bed, and I am able to adjust to changes and setbacks in life. As someone who spent most of their young adulthood so far crippled by anxiety and depression, being able to say those things about myself is a big deal! And I would say without a doubt, that I owe that sift in my well being to more optimistic.

So how did this shift occur? About three months ago, sometime in the third week of this semester, I came home from work and was venting to my fiancé about how stressed I was with work and school. I was going on and on with negative comment after negative comment, then all of a sudden it hit me how much I had been complaining over the last couple of weeks. It was clear with to me that I had been putting everything through a negative lens  and sabotaging my own happiness. I realized that if I was ever going to be happy, I needed to stop wasting my free time being negative and assuming the worst, and instead focus on all the positive things in my life.

The tendency for pessimists to put things in a negative lens doubt their chances of achieving their goals comes from the process of making negative attributions. “An attribution is an inference about why something happened” (Schneider et al 2012). Optimists and pessimists make very different types of attributions. For example, pessimist are more likely to make internal attributions when something bad happens, meaning they blame themselves for it, and more likely to make external attributions when something good happens, meaning they do not give themselves credit for the good things in their lives; optimists are exactly the opposite, giving themselves credit for the good things and not blaming themselves for the bad things(Schneider er al 2012). For example, my optimistic attitude when I was proud of myself for being strong maintaining my straight A’s even though I have had some personal setbacks this semester (internal attribution), but I did not blame myself for breaking my foot and having to miss a couple days of work (external attribution). In the past though, I likely would have said that my classes were just easy and that I was a clumsy idiot for falling and breaking my foot.The attributions of optimists and pessimists also differ in how we see a negative event as effecting or not effecting future events. “Optimists tend to make stable attributions for good things that happen (i.e., the cause of the good event will continue to benefit me), and unstable attributions for bad things that happen (i.e., the cause is temporary and thus unlikely to harm me again). The attributions of pessimists reflect the opposite pattern in which they see the cause of positive events as unstable and the cause of negative events as stable” (Schneider et al 2012). In my case as an optimists, I made the stable attribution that my ability to juggle work and school through these recent setbacks means that I will be able to face future setbacks; and the unstable attribution that just because my mom is struggling with her mental health now does not mean that she will always be sick, but rather that she is very likely that she will be better after seeking help. But without my optimistic outlook, I more likely would have seen it as me barely having gotten through the tough time and that I wouldn’t be able to handle it if anything else went wrong. I also would have told myself that my mom’s poor mental health would never improve and that I would always have to worry about her. Finally, the attributions of optimists and pessimists differ an how they apply the occurrence of a negative event to events in other areas of their lives. “Optimists tend to make global attributions for good events (i.e. the cause has benefited me in this area and can also benefit me in other areas) whereas they tend to make specific attributions for negative events (i.e. the cause has harmed me in this area but will not in other areas). As you might expect, pessimists tend to explain good and bad things that happen with the opposite pattern of attributions” (Schneider et al 2012). In my case, when I found out my car needed to be repaired and that it would cost a lot I was stressed, but because I knew the problem was specific to the situation I did not have an anxiety attack and decide that my entire day was ruined. Because I have a pattern of using these multiple attribution styles associated with optimism, you could say I have an optimistic explanatory style.

Research supports my claim that my overall quality of life is greatly improved due to my shift to more optimistic explanatory style. “Optimism has been linked to better emotional well-being, more effective coping strategies, and even to better outcomes in several areas of physical health” (Carver et al. 2010). I would say that all of those things are true for myself: I am less anxious, I am able to cope with stress, and I am sleeping and eating better than before. “The advantages of optimism also seem to translate into the domains of interpersonal relationships: optimists are better liked than pessimists, they benefit from their natural tendency to see things in the best light, and they appear to engage more productive effort in the sorts of problem solving that keep relationships alive” (Carver er al. 2010). I have seen this point in action both in my romantic relationship and my friendships. Looking back, I used to spend my time catching up with friends talking and venting about things I was stressed or upset about; now, I instead try to talk about positive things that I am excited about. While it is nice to have friends and parters to vent to, I have found recently that my relationships thrive more when I focus on the bright side. I hope that in the future I am able to continue to maintain my optimistic explanatory style, and in turn maintain the positive well being I have found.

References

Charles S. Carver, Michael F. Scheier, Suzanne C. Segerstrom, Optimism, Clinical Psychology Review, Volume 30, Issue 7, 2010, Pages 879-889, ISSN 0272-7358, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.006.

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

This isn’t a new concept, it has always been around and comes in very different varieties.  Currently however, it seems to be screaming at us from not just our television screens, but also our computers.  We know more faster now than ever before, and people are able to easily post lies and sell them as truths.  I see it in my own state, in my town, in my own family.  Politics were always a touchy subject in any community circle, but it was never something fought about inside my family.

I am a registered Democrat and until the election in 2016, so was my mother.  We have always had a volatile relationship at times, but never has it been so explosive as now.  People are being pitted against each other in ways we haven’t been in the past, it doesn’t which side you are on, it gets worse every day.

Reading articles and not caring whether they are supported by research or simply just written by a “keyboard warrior” as they are called.  If the article says what they want to hear, that aligns with their views, it’s viewed as the truth.  If you try to present them with proof that it’s not, most often they don’t try to see things from a different point of view.  My mother is the perfect example of this, in fact if it’s research based on science she believes it even less.

Reading an article recently I came across something that made a lot of sense.  Each side views events with bias.  If you ask Democrats how the economy was before 2016 and Republicans, most often their opinions will be the opposite.  The same is true if you asked about it since 2016.  Many studies have been done to support this, even as far back as the 1950’s. 1

We’ve always had this divide between political parties, but as our community has grown, being able to talk with anyone, anywhere in the world at any time.  The divide has grown and it will continue to grow as long as we continue to feed into it.

References

1. Resnick, B. (2018, October 23). 9 essential lessons from psychology to understand the Trump era. Retrieved November 4, 2018, from https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/4/11/16897062/political-psychology-trump-explain-studies-research-science-motivated-reasoning-bias-fake-news

Youth gang membership is a growing problem in the United States. According to a recent study, there are over one million juvenile gang members in the U.S. ages 5 – 17. The study found that an average of 2% of American youth are gang members, reaching a peak of 5% at age 14. (Sam Houston State University, 2015) The blame on adolescent gang membership is often placed on poverty rather than a lack of community. However, by looking closer at what gangs have to offer perceivably neglected children, it becomes clear that the sense of community gangs give is the real culprit for their success.

A sense of community refers to the degree to which community members feel a sense of belonging or membership in their community and is characterized by interdependence and attachment to other community members. (Schneider et al. 2012) Important characteristics of community that these gangs offer are membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection. Gang affiliation addresses all of these needs as well as allowing individuals in large sprawling populations to become members of a smaller community, something studies suggest that a human’s small-group hunter gatherer brain can handle.

Although there are many pros for an adolescent joining a gang in an urban setting, most of the cons are common knowledge. However, little known effects of long-term membership in a gang for an adolescent are that it can lead to lower rates of educational and occupational attainment, and even poor physical and mental health in adulthood. (Sam Houston State University, 2015) A wide-spread governmental intervention is required in order to prevent recruitment from climbing.

Most programs in place are focused on educating youth on the dangers of gang membership rather than giving them an alternative. In order to address the void of the sense of community that these adolescents are seeking, groups need to have a focus on providing a safe and healthy alternative such as sports clubs/common interest groups. Unfortunately, conventional institutions in urban settings are widely underfunded, schools simply cannot afford to provide many afterschool activities and extracurricular groups. However, the need for these programs needs to be a higher priority.

References

Sam Houston State University. (2015, February 12). Juvenile gang members in US top 1 million, new study finds. Retrieved November 4, 2018, from https://phys.org/news/2015-02-juvenile-gang-members-million.html

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

We are definitely at a time in America where voting is really, really starting to matter. People are campaigning for others to vote more than ever before. When I first registered to vote, I did so simply to vote for the President, thinking that that was the only vote that really mattered. But as I’ve gotten older, and more educated, I’m beginning to understand just how important the smaller elections can be. This coming up midterm election is hopefully going to be a large milestone in voter turnout, and hopefully this trend can continue to grow. Hopefully, people will begin to realize that they do indeed have a voice.

Social action and activism have become a huge aspect of today’s American society. I live in Los Angeles, and in January 2017, almost a million people showed up in downtown for the Woman’s March (NBC, 2017). Just recently after the horrid shooting at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, over 2,000 people moved to the streets in protest of the President’s arrival (Selk & Swenson, 2018). Whether someone has difference in political affiliation or not, it is clear that social action is becoming realer than it has in decades. It is believed that there is power in organizing social action, and that the power of these organized people could be used to counter the power that comes from the most influential segment of society (Schneider et al., 2012).

Organizing social action is also becoming easier than ever before with the help of the internet and social media. Before the internet, organizing a rally or protest had to be done by passing out flyers and making unsolicited phone calls. It was simply harder to make people aware of what was happening around them. With new age social media, we can induce the awareness of thousands with a click of a button. We’re able to congregate, cultivate and educate together as one. This helps bring about the strategies of social change – pushing mass mobilization, social action, citizen participation, public advocacy and popular education into the forefront (Schneider et al., 2012). Social media brings these strategies straight into the eyes and ears of the people.

Now, many know that social media and mass mobilization can also provide the negative effect in gathering people to protest or march for their beliefs that may be at the disparity or harm of other people’s freedoms and equality. Social media can “empower” individuals to have a voice (Murthy, 2018) but it can also empower those who did not initially have a voice for good reason. But, I want to focus this blog post on the positive aspects that can result in social change and activism. In studies of enterprise social media use, tweet-like microblogging was thought to lead to “more team cohesion and lead to faster problem solving”. Twitter has been found to have linked geographically disparate groups during the Occupy movement (Murthy, 2018).

Basically, social media has linked people together that would have normally never met or interacted a day in their lives. It brings a cohesion and a feeling that someone isn’t alone, and that every person can have a say in how they want their world to be. We’re living in a time now where we can use our resources for very good, or very bad, but we cannot deny just how strong these resources have an influence in our sense of selves. It used to feel like no matter what, one person couldn’t make a difference, but as things are evolving, and people are banding together to create a better future, it’s beginning to feel like we can all truly make a difference, whether that be alone, or together.

References:

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

NBC Los Angeles Staff. (2017, January 23). 750K Flock to Downtown LA for Women’s March: Organizers. Retrieved from https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Thousands-Womens-March-Los-Angeles-411409495.html

Selk, A., & Swenson, K. (2018, October 31). Here’s the ‘small protest’ Trump says he didn’t see in Pittsburgh. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/31/heres-small-protest-trump-says-he-didnt-see-pittsburgh/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e905b3302c4d

Murthy, D. (2018). Introduction to Social Media, Activism, and Organizations. Social Media Society,4(1), 205630511775071. doi:10.1177/2056305117750716

With election day approaching quickly, this week’s lesson on community psychology made me think about the psychology of voting. I early voted last week on a Thursday afternoon and the polls were absolutely packed. I took my fiancé to vote on Saturday and there was a line extended outside of the board of elections! This early voter turnout was fairly shocking to me because when I early voted in the last midterm election (on a weekday afternoon the week before the election just like this year), I was the only person at my polling place. Nationwide statistics support my observations that early voting turnout has has a massive increase, and suggest that the overall election turnout will continue to trend high. “Democratic and Republican analysts, along with independent political scientists, say turnout could approach 50 percent, levels not seen for a midterm since the turbulent 1960s” (US News 2018). This makes me wonder, what compels people to vote? What makes this election different from previous ones? Could community psychology have an effect on voter turnout?

Community psychology can be defined as psychology concerning “the relationships of individuals with communities and society” (Schneider et al. 2012). To me, this definition makes it clear that community psychology and voting go hand and hand; the choice to vote (or not to vote) is a direct reflection of an individual’s relationship with their community and their society, because it shows whether or not that individual has the desire to effect social change and have a voice in community matters.

Multiple concepts discussed by Schneider et. al (2012) suggest ways in which community psychology could be effecting voter turnout. First of all, they assert that there are certain factors which can determine a person’s sense of community—including membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection. Of those elements, I think that the one having the largest effect on voter turnout is a strong emotional connection. However, I do not think that the shared emotion that people are bonding over is a positive one: I think that people are coming together based on their shared anxiety and stress. “This year’s midterms, two years after the surprise election of President Trump, have brought on a major case of national anxiety. The tenor and tone of the national discourse has deteriorated to the point that most Americans think it will lead to violence” (Elving 2018). I think that this anxiety has connected many community members based on a shared emotional experience, thus motivating people to be active community members and vote.

Additionally, I think that concept of diffusion of responsibility has come into play in these midterms. As previously cited by Elving, the election of Donald Trump was a huge surprise to democrats. From my personal experience, most people believed that their was no real chance that he would ever get elected. But despite this, “Democratic base did not turn out to vote as it did for Obama. Those sure-Democrats who stayed home handed the election to Trump” (Ben-Shahar 2016). Ben-Shahar points out that Trump did not receive many new voters, but that because of a huge decrease in Democratic party turnout he was able to win the election. I hypothesize that this phenomenon occurred because of diffusion of responsibility. Diffusion of responsibility is, “where observers do not help because they believe that other observers will help” (Schneider et a. 2012). Democrats thought it was so obvious that Trump would not win, that they thought that plenty of others would vote against him and that their vote would not make a big difference, so they did not vote. So, after watching these assumptions be incorrect when Trump was indeed elected, community members now see the importance of their involvement and are showing up at the polls for midterms.

Finally, I think that this midterm election turnout has been influence by organizations and public figures. Whether or not community psychology served to inform these organization and public figures, there strategies are community with how social psychology can work to bring about social change. Over the past few weeks, I have received constant reminders to vote. Facebook has displayed a banner at the top of my new feed reminding me of voter registration and of the beginning of early voting, companies and organizations (such as Planned Parenthood, Greenpeace, and even Chipotle) have sent me text reminders to vote, and  citizens have marched down the streets of my city with signs and banners reminding their community to vote. Not only have all of these sources served as a reminder to vote, they all provided information on how and where to vote with links to websites that will tell you your early voting and election day polling location, as well as that location’s hours. I would classify these methods of influence under the community psychology tactics of citizen participation and popular education—because they encouraged citizens to be involved in their communities and shared important information on how to do so (Schneider et al. 2012).

Overall, I think it is clear that community psychology has played a large roll in this year’s midterm election so far. Voters in 2018 are coming into election season with a shared emotional experience of anxiety, a better understanding of the error of diffusion of responsibility, and strong encouragement from public actors to vote. I hope that in future elections, people’s sense of community will remain strong and voter turnout will continue to rise. I believe that if influential organizations and public actors continue to use principals of community psychology,  that rise will be possible.

Works Cited

Ben-Shahar, Omri. “The Non-Voters Who Decided The Election: Trump Won Because Of Lower Democratic Turnout.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 June 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/omribenshahar/2016/11/17/the-non-voters-who-decided-the-election-trump-won-because-of-lower-democratic-turnout/#43b9b9fa53ab.

Elving, Ron. “There’s Plenty To Stress Over In The ‘Anxiety Election.’ But What Will It Settle?” NPR, NPR, 3 Nov. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/11/03/663752006/theres-plenty-to-stress-over-in-the-anxiety-election-but-what-will-it-settle.

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

“States’ Early Turnout Setting Records Ahead of Election Day.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 3 Nov. 2018, 12:35 a.m., www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2018-11-03/states-early-turnout-setting-records-ahead-of-election-day.

In this week’s reading, the topic was the community. In the intro of chapter 12 Applying Social Psychology to the Community, stories were told of several individuals who committed suicide. As a result, community programs were created to help the youth cope. This is crucial if we want to come together and heal as a community. Regrettably, these individuals fell victim to being bullied and prejudice behavior. Not only does racism and discrimination need to be reduced in the community, but it must also be reduced in the online community.

Unfortunately, prejudice and racism are extremely popular topics both in the media and the internet. People use social media, websites, blogs etc. to support their racial and gender stereotypes and promote discrimination. There is a high level of anonymity that prevails online. This is one of the most distinctive and significant features of communication on the internet. Anonymity allows for the promotion of expressed bias.

When individuals are secluded and anonymous, group-based social effects including stereotyping, discriminatory actions, and group conformity are more likely to occur because their identity is hidden from the salient group. Once users develop and foster common identity groups, adherence to group influence is enhanced. These margins are strengthened rather than dispelled.

However, we should consider that the internet also affords opportunities to reduce intergroup bias, through the active promotion of tolerance exploiting on the ability to reach a broad audience and the facilitation of intergroup contact. One way to reduce prejudice on the internet is by the promotion of tolerance. I think tracking prejudice and discrimination is extremely vital and reducing their visibility on the internet is key. The internet-based companies and search engines should develop software that restricts and filter out racist, bigoted websites. This will help reduce some of the hatred and prejudice information available on the web. This is not to infringe on any civil rights or freedom of speech, this is to reduce the hate rhetoric that is dangerous and potentially harmful to society.

I think it is equally important to facilitate positive intergroup contact on the internet. While it is nearly impossible to get different members from different groups to interact in person, the internet can tailor requirements to achieve optimal results. On sites or online communities where groups are segregated or where online communication tensions rise, there should be a carefully strategized ad or contact that can serve as a buffer in this setting. This type of contact is one way to promote intergroup harmony. Another solution would be to strategically place interactive sites on these forums that address stereotypes of the outgroup. This would serve to improve the attitude towards the outgroup which would make for a positive interaction when faced with someone from the outgroup.

While we have a long way to go in terms of reducing prejudice and discrimination on the internet, these are just a couple thoughts that I believe could aid in the process.

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References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2015). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: SAGE

United States has put mass shootings in the spotlight of national conversation; we have seen the talk of mental illness shape the narrative of motivation for these individuals who commit mass shootings. The underlying motivation of mass shootings still remains a feverish topic among both left and right wing politics but under the current administration there are talks about bringing back asylums as an answer to treating mentally ill individuals.

“In the wake of the horrific school shootings in Parkland, Fla., President Trump has called repeatedly for building or reopening mental institutions.”

The call for opening asylums has both support and disagreement from the psychology community. Those in favor see an ability to mitigate the damage that can be done by individuals with mental illness through the process of screening people at risk of hurting themselves and others. Detractors of the proposition are reminded of how ineffective and most importantly how ethically cruel asylums were in the past; the fear of bringing back an outdated system that seemed to cause more harm than good.

Asylums have a great effect on communities and the overall well being of society.

“Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year. Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S.—9.8 million, or 4.0%—experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.”

As our understanding of psychology expanded for the turn of the 20th century we have had better success at diagnosing patients who suffer from a form of mental illness/ mood disorder. The issue at hand is do we have 4% of the population committed to these facilities and what effect it will have on their well being? Individuals for asylums argue that creating qualified institutions will allow for individuals to have the resources needed to be treated properly and therefore long-term treatment can be properly administered potentially saving many lives while reducing the chances of psychotic episodes that may put people at risk.

Yet, there is a glaring issue with the process; in order for these facilities to work there needs to be proper funding from the government to make such a plan become feasible. Under the current administration we have seen budget cuts to social programs that benefit marginalized individuals in various fields such as mental health and if there isn’t enough resources going into a prominent proposal we will see the same effect happen in mental asylums that had taken place decades ago. It’s even more daunting if you take the position of privatizing mental institutes for profit companies; a step in direction would mean that the mental health of patients administered in these institutes would become secondary in order to make a profit off of asylums by private companies.

My family lives in Wingdale, NY and right down the road from our home there is an abandoned mental asylum that closed its doors in the 1980’s; the facility is a grim reminder of the abhorrent treatment individuals with mental abnormalities suffered when in hospice care. We as a community, as a society have to either commit resources to help individuals with mental illness or face the dire consequences of our inability for resolve. So to simply institutionalize individuals with mental illness and then leave them to the mercy of whatever poorly funded operation is taking place to me is inhumane, because these individuals could be one of our friends, one of our family members or even us.

Carey, B. (2018, March 05). Trump Wants More Asylums – and Some Psychiatrists Agree. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/health/mental-illness-asylums.html

NAMI. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers

I am currently employed as a Family Navigator for a relatively new program designed for at risk youth between the ages of 16 and 21. This program was developed with the purpose of diverting at risk youth from the juvenile probation system as well as reducing the risk of becoming dependent upon public assistance. This program was developed in collaboration with the Juvenile Probation Office, Children and Youth Services, and the Criminal Justice Advisory Board in order to resolve barriers that would otherwise inhibit the chance for these youth to lead successful lives. I believe the program exemplifies one of the many purposes of community psychology.

Through this program I am able to either keep youth who are at risk of withdrawing from school enrolled and successful in obtaining their Highschool diploma or assist youth who have already withdrawn themselves from school in successfully obtaining their high school equivalency. I am also able to connect these youth with resources that can address any issues that may contribute to mental health, challenging behaviors, or any additional barriers.

One thing that I have discovered is that many of the youth that I am currently working with exhibited externalizing behaviors and/or have been in high needs situations since birth, pre-school, or primary age. My ultimate goal is to develop an intervention to reduce the likelihood or prevent children, like those that I previously worked with at the primary age, from needing a program like the one I currently work in.