31
Mar 19

Ask for “Angela”

In today’s world, we unfortunately hear about sexual assault and date-related violence occurring on a regular basis. Whether it’s in a small town bar or at a fraternity party on a large college campus, young women aged 18-24, as well as the LGBT community, have astronomically large odds of experiencing it at some point.

In order to combat the large threat to the community that date-related violence poses, cities are implementing a measure known as “Ask for Angela”. With the knowledge of the bystander effect in mind, city officials and law enforcement are aware of the difficulty that may arise should something occur in places heavily populated. Because of the bystander effect, the surrounding crowd may not feel inclined to respond should they hear or see something that may be concerning, due to the fact that others around them aren’t responding either. If the situation isn’t an obvious emergency, and there is some question to its severity, the chances of someone responding fall dramatically. This doesn’t leave much confidence in the minds of young adults, and people of all ages, who may fear being in such a situation.

“Ask for Angela” was developed in Arlington, VA based upon initiatives that started in cities across the United Kingdom (Norwood, 2019). The program is now live in approximately 22 bars and restaurants in the area and allows people who feel unsafe or threatened in their current situation to have an immediate resource of help on their side by simply “asking for Angela”. The program trains staff in these establishments to watch and listen for any woman or man who “asks for Angela”. Should someone ask for her, the staff members are trained to help this individual leave the establishment safely, and obtain a cab for them to get home (Norwood, 2019). This program is training staff throughout the city to respond efficiently instead of falling subject to the bystander effect.

Personally, I thought this was an incredibly effective method to combat the unfortunately common occurrence of situations like these. In wake of the #MeToo movement and the opening of conversations into this topic, I felt it was very relevant, needed, and most definitely instills confidence in the community. It’s almost a way to bring the community together, to target and fight these types of crimes together. It gives victims a sense of hope and a reason to feel less alone should they fall into a situation that would require assistance like this. It also allows people to subliminally ask for assistance without blatantly saying it. I thought this was important because there may be times in which a person doesn’t feel it is safe to bluntly ask for assistance. Ask for Angela is almost a disguised way to do so. This all said, I am hoping that initiatives such as this are put into play in cities across the country, because I truly believe it would make a huge difference.

References

Norwood, C. (2019). In #MeToo Era, Cities Train Bystanders to Intervene. Governing. Retrieved from https://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-arlington-ask-for-angela-sexual-assault-prevention.html


31
Mar 19

Stigmatization and Mental Illness

It is all but guaranteed that you know or love someone who has struggled or currently struggles with some type of mental illness. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (2015), 1 in 5 adults in the United States (that’s 43.8 million people) experience mental illness in a given year. That’s a lot of people. Despite being so prevalent in our society, people struggling with mental illness face intense levels of stigmatization that often prevent them from getting the help that they need and can have impacts on things from their career to what landlords will rent to them.

Stigmatization is what happens when a label is applied to someone that implies they are different, deviant, or somehow flawed (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). There are many different things that are stigmatized in our society: obesity, the LGBTQ+ community, certain chronic health disorders including infertility, and many more. If it in any way deviates from what most people consider “the norm”, there is most likely a certain stigma attached to it. Once someone learns that you are associated with a stigmatizing characteristic, that becomes the master status by which they will judge everything else about you (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). They see you through the lens of this stigma and this influences their perception of your whole character, usually in a very negative way.

One thing that I have personally witnessed start to become less stigmatized is tattoos and piercings. Just 10 or 15 years ago, virtually no one was allowed to have visible tattoos, facial piercings, or excessive ear piercings in the service industry. In 2006, I was a waitress at a breakfast restaurant chain, and I had an eyebrow piercing. Their dress and appearance code was very strict about no facial piercings, and no more than two earrings in each ear. I had put a clear retainer in my piercing to go to work, and even that wasn’t acceptable as I was made to take it out during work hours. I recently went back to that chain and noticed that many of the people working there had facial piercings and visible tattoos, signifying to me that times were changing and these body modifications were becoming more accepted.

If only it worked like that with everything, right? There have been many campaigns to try to bring more awareness to mental health issues in an attempt to reduce the stigma surrounding them. There have been a few studies that suggest that while a person’s verbal acceptance – what they say about it – of mental illnesses is much higher than their actual behavioral acceptance – what they do when faced with an actual opportunity to prove this acceptance (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). The researchers would verify that an apartment for rent was still available and then they would call these landlords, posing as someone who identified themselves as a former or current psychiatric patient in need of housing accommodations (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). They found that in about 90% of these situations, the landlord provided “deliberately falsified” information about the availability of the apartment (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). In other words, they lied. People like to give acceptance of those with mental illnesses a lot of lip service, but maintain their same stigmatized views which go along with the theme of public acceptance but private rejection (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). This can be attributed to the social desirability of acceptance… even if someone isn’t really accepting, they don’t want to look bad by admitting it (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).

People with mental illnesses are often more stigmatized than people with physical illnesses (Ozer, Varlik, Ceri, Ince, & Arslan-Delice, 2017). They are often viewed by society as dangerous, frightening, unstable, irresponsible, unpredictable, and having communication issues (Ozer, Varlik, Ceri, Ince, & Arslan-Delice, 2017). That is some pretty heavy stuff. Is it any surprise then, that all people with any degree of mental illness are all lumped together like this and any time a serious crime is committed (like a mass shooting), it is automatically assumed that the perpetrator is mentally ill while being sensationalized by the media? While it is true that certain psychiatric conditions, like schizophrenia, are associated with violent behavior, it is only a small percentage of them and “even if the elevated risk of violence in people with mental illness is reduced to the average risk in those without mental illness, an estimated 96% of the violence that currently occurs in the general population would continue to occur” (Varshney, Mahapatra, & Krishnan et al, 2016).

Add on top of all of this that the media in the form of newspapers, TV shows, and movies, hardly every portrays people with mental illness in a flattering light. This only works to strengthen the stigma associated with the belief that mentally ill people are often violent and unpredictable and dangerous to others. As I mentioned earlier, the media loves to sensationalize tragic events and portray these violent offenders as mentally ill even when there is no such information to confirm this belief.

What can be done about this? There is some evidence that suggests that giving people information that counters these stigmas before they are introduced to stigmatizing portrayals of mental illness can help to reduce the perceived stigma (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Education always seems to be the key, doesn’t it? Parents and schools need to teach acceptance and inclusion of all different people of all different abilities and statuses to reduce the stigma not just of mental illness, but many other things as well.

References

NAMI. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers

Ozer U, Varlik C, Ceri V, Ince B, Arslan-Delice M. Change starts with us: stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illnesses and the use of stigmatizing language among mental health professionals. Dusunen Adam The Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences 2017;30:224-232. https://doi.org/10.5350/DAJPN2017300306

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2012). Applied Social Psychology. Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Varshney MMahapatra AKrishnan V, et al Violence and mental illness: what is the true story? 

27
Mar 19

Bystander Effect at PSU Frat Emergency

During this week’s assigned readings in Applied Social Psychology, Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems, by Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, we learned about the bystander effect. The bystander effect is defined as a phenomenon that occurs when multiple witnesses of an emergency fail to get involved (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts). There are three triggers related to the bystander effect: Audience inhibition, social influence, and diffusion of responsibility (Latane & Nida, 1981).

  • Audience inhibition: A bystander may choose not to intervene in an emergency because they are afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of other people (Latane & Nida, 1981).
  • Social influence: When bystanders do not know how to act in an emergency situation, they will look to other bystanders for cues on how to act in the ambiguous situation. Unfortunately, in an ambiguous situation, most of the bystanders will not know how to act and everyone will be looking for cues from each other. This results in none of the bystanders getting involved (Latane & Nida, 1981).
  • Diffusion of responsibility: Bystanders believe they do not need to help in an emergency because someone else will (Latane & Nida, 1981).

Since I have learned about the bystander effect, I have been thinking of tragedies that could have been prevented if proper help was initiated. One tragedy that sticks out to me is the incident that occurred on February 2, 2017 at The Pennsylvania State University. Unfortunately, it is possible that the bystander effect influenced events that led up to the death of Tim Piazza.

FULL DISCLOSURE: THIS ANALYSIS IS BASED OFF OF INFORMATION FROM NEWS REPORTS. I DO NOT CLAIM TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED ON THE NIGHT OF FEBRUARY 2, 2017, AS ONLY THE PEOPLE WHO WERE THERE DO.

For those who do not know, Tim Piazza was a sophomore at Penn State University who died from a collapsed lung, lacerated spleen, and a fractured skull after a bid-acceptance night at Beta Theta Pi (Pallotto, 2019). Below, I will address the incidents that occurred (reported by Benjamin Wallace of Vanity Fair) and how they could have been influenced by the bystander effect:

Tim was extremely intoxicated and fell down the basement stairs. After some time, a few of his fraternity brothers carried him back upstairs. Tim was obviously unconscious and had multiple visible injuries, but they set him on the couch and carried on with the night. Every single person at the fraternity house physically saw Tim and the condition he was in, yet no one did anything. Finally, one of the fraternity brothers argued with another that they needed to call 911 and got shoved. 911 was not called and the party continued. The party eventually ended and everyone left, leaving Tim alone for the remainder of the night. Two fraternity brothers found Tim the next morning and did not call 911 for almost an hour after (Wallace, 2017).

  • Audience inhibition: It is possible that the bystanders (fraternity brothers, other party-goers) did not call 911 or try to help Tim in any other ways because they were afraid they would be ostracized for it. In fact, this actually occurred when a fraternity brother wanted to call 911 and got pushed across the room for it.
  • Social influence: It is possible that the emergency that occurred was ambiguous. Some of the fraternity brothers and other people at the party may not have understood what exactly was going on with Tim. It is also possible they thought he was just black-out drunk like they have seen hundreds of other college students. It is also possible that the bystanders were too intoxicated to fully understand the circumstances of the situation. With this being said, the bystanders most likely looked to other bystanders to know how to react to the situation, and everyone was responding by ignoring the emergency and going on with the party.
  • Diffusion of responsibility: It is possible that the bystanders of the emergency thought that there were so many other people at the party, someone must have had called 911. Bystanders also may have assumed it was the president of the fraternity or the upperclassmen’s responsibility to get help.

Tragedies can be avoided if the proper help is initiated. However, due to the bystander effect, witnesses of an emergency often fail to get involved or get help because of audience inhibition, social influence, and/or diffusion of responsibility. Unfortunately, it is possible that the bystander effect contributed to the wrongful and premature death of Tim Piazza. As college students, it is important that we keep the bystander effect in mind if we are ever in an emergency situation like the one Tim and his fraternity brothers were in. Remembering the bystander effect could actually save a life.

 

References:

Latané, B., & Nida, S. (1981). Ten years of research on group size and helping. Psychological Bulletin, 89(2), 308-324. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.89.2.308

Pallotto, Bret. (2019). It’s Been 2 Years Since Tim Piazza’s Death at Penn State. Here’s What’s Happened Since. Retrieved from: https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/state-college/article225340915.html

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2012). Applied Social Psychology. Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Wallace, Benjamin. (2017). How a Fatal Frat Hazing Became Penn State’s Latest Campus Crisis. Retrieved from: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/penn-state-fraternity-hazing-death


27
Mar 19

Successful Teachers Make Successful Students

It is well known that scholastic performance dictates the way school-aged children view themselves, and their ability to succeed in the present and future. When students begin to make social comparisons against peers who yield greater performance success, he or she may begin to associate poor performance with lack of ability. In these situations, it is imperative that students are able to gain the motivation to work harder to succeed and disassociate low performance with a lack of aptitude. The academic self-concept has been found to affect motivation and performance in a school setting and is constantly being influenced by the student’s beliefs and attitudes on their performance in comparison to others (Schneider et al., 2012). When students gain a sense of competency, they may begin to set higher academic goals and achieve higher academic success.  Therefore, it is essential that teachers are able to facilitate a classroom environment that boosts positive beliefs about academic skill amongst student’s alongside constructive feedback on performance to help him or her improve (Schneider et al., 2012).

Much of the time, the “system” of education as a whole is criticized. However, reform on a macro scale may take more time to achieve than focusing on micro components, like teachers, for improvement within education. Teacher effectiveness and teacher-student relationships have direct and immediate effects on student performance. Hence, why it is important to discuss how teaching style may influence student learning to achieve optimal performance and ability for all students in a given classroom.

The cornerstone of the learning environment is profoundly determined by the student-teacher relationship. The formation of personal and supportive student-teacher relationships often requires much emotional involvement from teachers. For students, the quality of the student-teacher relationship is a determinant for their school engagement, wellbeing, and academic success. It has been found that positive teacher-student relationships also benefit teachers and the classroom, as, it heightens an educators personal commitment to the student’s success (Spilt et al., 2011). It is also true that not all teachers feel responsible for improving their relationships with students, nor do they understand the positive effects relationships have on student motivation and outcomes (Spilt et al., 2011). According to the Academic-Risk Hypothesis, children at-risk include those with low socioeconomic status, or SES, ethnic minority status, and those with learning difficulties will be more significantly influenced by teacher-student relationships than normative students. A study by Roorda and collogues (2011) found support for this theory, specifically, that negative or conflictual relationships further deteriorated engagement and achievement for these disadvantaged groups with emphasis on those with learning difficulties. Sadly, this research coincides with the social psychological findings that teacher’s perceptions and expectations predict academic success more strongly for low achievers than high achievers (Schneider et al., 2012).

In addition, success in schools also depends largely on student’s abilities to engage in classroom learning tasks. There is a known association between the perceived classroom environment and student-engagement and motivation. Those perceptions students make directly affect their beliefs on their ability to complete school work which that influence his or her ability to engage in academic tasks. The classroom social environment has a large potential to change an adolescent’s personal beliefs about themselves and their potential, and therefore requires close consideration (Patrick et al., 2007). For instance, when students feel supported emotionally by their teacher, they are likely to engage more fully in their academic work and put forth more effort and are likely to have higher achievement. When student’s feel cared for by the teacher, it encourages them to invest in their material and to have a desire to comply with the teacher in a way that minimizes concerns that thwart learning (Patrick et al., 2007). This way, perceived teacher support may support intrinsic motivation and emphasize mastery goals. In addition, feelings of care, support, and encouragement from peers are important to facilitate participation in academic tasks by increasing confidence and improving distracting anxieties (Patrick et al., 2007).

Altogether, it is important that classrooms become less focused on the individual success of each specific student, and more concerned on improving the classroom relationship as a whole. A study by Patrick, Ryan, and Kaplan (2007) discovered that when students received emotional support from teachers and academic support from peers; personal motivation, mastery goals, and academic and social efficacy were heightened. This research emphasizes the influential power of the classroom environment. Therefore, it is plausible to conclude that student-teacher and student-student relationships should be collaborative, cooperative, adaptive, and supportive so the entire class may be able to thrive together. Unfortunately, if a classroom fails to achieve an optimal and equal level of support for all students, there is a great possibility or even certainty, that disadvantaged groups of at-risk students will suffer poorer academic achievement outcomes.

References

Patrick, H., Ryan, A. M., & Kaplan, A. (2007). Early adolescents’ perceptions of the classroom social environment, motivational beliefs, and engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(1), 83-98. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1037/0022-0663.99.1.83

Roorda, D. L., Koomen, H. M. Y., Spilt, J. L., & Oort, F. J. (2011). The influence of affective teacher-student relationships on students’ school engagement and achievement: A meta-analytic approach. Review of Educational Research, 81(4), 493-529. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.3102/0034654311421793

Schneider, F., Gruman, J., & Coutts, L. (2012).  Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Spilt, J. L., Koomen, H. M. Y., & Thijs, J. T. (2011). Teacher wellbeing: The importance of teacher-student relationships. Educational Psychology Review, 23(4), 457-477. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1007/s10648-011-9170-y

 

 


26
Mar 19

One more hour please

According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), students who have later start times get five more hours a week of sleep (Facts, n.d.). That is one more hour a day! A congressional resolution for reconsidering school start times was presented by Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) called “ZZZ’s to A’s” or H.C. Res. 135 back in April 2, 1999 (Start Time and Sleep, n.d.). Lofgren argued that students are not getting enough sleep, which is resulting in more students being sleep deprived (Start Time and Sleep, n.d.). Lofgren tried making efforts to pass the H.R. 1306 (114th ): ZZZ’s to A’s Act again in 2015. She reintroduced the bill back on April 28, 2017, but according to the status of the bill on the www.govtrack.us website it “died in a previous congress”(GovTrack.us, 2019).

The goal of Lofgren’s congressional resolution was to “encourage individual schools and school districts all over the country to move school start times to no earlier than 8:30 A.M.” (Congresswoman, 2003). Even though Lofgren’s bill was not passed, there has been a large amount of feedback from school districts all across the nation who have been pushing back their start times (Congresswoman, 2003). Lofgren created the bill in 1999, however only four years later “34 school districts across 19 states have pushed school start times, and the research has led almost 100 additional school district changes” (Congresswoman, 2003). Lofgren encourages school’s to look at current research when deciding on altering their schools start times.

There are many outcomes of pushing back a schools start time, which include a decrease in students falling asleep in class, a greater improvement in reaction time, and a decrease in tardiness (Minges & Redeker, 2015). Minges and Redeker (2015) found existing evidence that a student’s overall health, academic performance, classroom engagement, sleep duration, a reduction in caffeine usage, and depression will improve as well. In order for teens to preform their very best, they need to get the correct amount of sleep. What is the correct amount? The NSF suggests that teens should get about 8 to 10 hours of sleep everyday (Facts, n.d.). Students who slept less are more prone to feeling nervous, unhappy, tense, and are worried about too many things (Facts, n.d.).

 Fast forward to today, still not every school district has pushed back the start times as Lofgren had hoped. An advocacy group named “Start School Later” was created by students, sleep scientists, concerned citizens, educators, and healthcare professionals (About, n.d.). These individuals are dedicated to increase the public’s awareness on school start times, while also making sure they are compatible with an individuals “health, safety, education, and equity” (About, n.d.). This organization advocates for the push of school start times in legislation at local, national, and state levels (About, n.d.). Their webpage has a comprehensive list of various bills categorized by state that have or have not been successful. According to the State School Later webpage on legislation, at least 14 states have introduced a bill related to school hours. To take a look at these further, please do so here. https://www.startschoollater.net/legislation.html

Out of the 14 bills, only 4 have been state successes. One certification program in particular from the state of Maryland recognizes the school districts who implement the push in school start times with an Orange Ribbon for Healthy School Hours certification. This is how the school districts make sure that they are staying “consistent with the hours recommended by the Maryland Department of Education and specified organization” (Legislation, n.d.). This is a great way for parents, educators, and concerned citizens alike to make sure their school districts are following the correct protocols for the start time pushbacks.

Now that you’re more informed on the legislation for school start times in the U.S., what are you going to do about it? Are you going to join an advocacy group to help promote the bills toward legislation or are you going to let this topic sit on the back burner? The choice is yours.

References

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.startschoollater.net/about-us.html

Congresswoman Lofgren Urges Congress to ‘Wake-Up’ to the Problems of Adolescents Not Getting Enough. (2003). Retrieved from https://lofgren.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-lofgren-urges-congress-wake-problems-adolescents-not-getting

Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/teens-and-sleep

GovTrack.us. (2019). H.R. 1306 — 114th Congress: ZZZ’s to A’s Act. Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr1306

Legislation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.startschoollater.net/legislation.html

Start time and Sleep. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/school-start-time-and-sleep

Minges, K. E., & Redeker, N. S. (2015;2016;). Delayed school start times and adolescent sleep: A systematic review of the experimental evidence. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 28, 82-91. doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2015.06.002

 


25
Mar 19

Does Our Education System Kill Creativity?

There has been much criticism of our education system because it seems like it hasn’t been adapted to current times or even improved upon. The idea of creativity has been just one of the topics that are often covered in these discussions. Can being creative mean different things to different people? What can we do to increase creativity in our students? The final, big question is does the way our school system work diminish student’s creativity?

(n.d.)

I think many of us assume that creativity has one meaning. Some of us might also consider the idea that you are born with it or it can be developed. None of these thoughts are right or wrong. Creativity can be about imagination, self-expression, and innovation. Creativity can also mean using logic and scientific principles to solve problems (McLennan, 2019). There are definitely some people who are more creative than others. It is just a skill which some people possess more than others.

I don’t think education is about memorizing facts and dates as they teach in History. In school, we are encouraged not to color inside the lines. We are also taught that being “good” means being quiet and still (Dalile, 2012). While energetic students are usually reprimanded for being too hyper. Maybe it’s time to change what we teach and how. For instance, schools should start including a more diverse range of subjects in their curriculum (McLennan, 2019). We could have art or poetry classes. We could even start teaching traditional subjects in a different way. Instead of memorizing dates in history class students can act out certain events to feel connected to what they are learning.

There is no perfect school system but some are better than others. Schools can diminish creativity by the teaching style they use. Most of the subjects in school like math, science, and history (as I mentioned above) require structured right or wrong answers. While classes like art are available at schools they are usually taught as an elective and not a core subject. Maybe the procedure in which the above subjects are taught can increase creativity in young children.

To sum up, I would say our school system is not actively trying to destroy creativity. Just the way the learning takes place favors the skill of critical thinking over creativity. However, there are ways that we can keep the good things about our education system while increasing creative skills in our pupils. The first step is to consider our definition of creativity. The next step is for our schools to broaden their curriculum to include mandatory, more creative subjects (McLennan, 2019). I think it’s impotent to remember while our school system is not the best at fostering creativity we still have very bright and creative students coming out of it. Also, not everyone has to be skilled in creativity, we still need future leaders who are more talented in critical thinking.

Works Cited

Dalile, L. (2012, June 10). How Schools Are Killing Creativity. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/line-dalile/a-dictator-racing-to-nowh_b_1409138.html

McLennan, N. (2019). Do schools really “kill creativity”? – RSA. Retrieved from https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2018/04/do-schools-kill-creativity

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?safe=strict&biw=1280&bih=665&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=K2mYXLvQGtKSjwStm7PIDA&q=ourclassroms then and now&oq=our classroms then and now&gs_l=img.3…56720.63098..63275…4.0..0.183.2194.27j3……1….1..gws-wiz-img…..0..35i39j0j0i67.Kn35kXzm9bQ#imgrc=srCiKBEtEz8TiM:

 


25
Mar 19

The History of Learning and What is Success?

In the time that humans were hunters and gathers, children were used in the realm of work and the education component included much in the way of work and play.  As the Industrial Revolution began, children became enslaved and play started to disappear.  They were sent to work in the agriculture fields and the manufacturing plants during the Industrial age to meet the needs of the lords and the landowners.  During the 17th century, the education system evolved into a structure that is somewhat reflective of what we know learning to be today.  The church stepped in because they wanted children to be able to read.  The learning was frequently done through inculcation and again, fun and play were replaced by hard work and repetition.  Into the 19th century tests and exams were set up to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the training (Grey, 2008).

When we think about education today, there are so many factors that affect the students’ ability to meet the expectations of the educators.  One of the biggest challenges that students face is comparing themselves to other students.  Am I smart? do I have friends? How do I fit in? Each of these questions brings a comparison of ourselves and our scholastic abilities to our peers. This is called the social comparison theory which can create in the student a sense of ‘I need to try harder’ if the differences are not too great.  It can also be completely defeating if the student doesn’t feel capable and the gap is too great (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012).

As a career coach who works with people in recovery, I frequently see the defeatist attitude in my clients around education because they never felt like they fit in.  Their home environments were unstable and unsupportive which caused low self-esteem.  This carried forward into their school environment, where their esteem issues brought forth the self-fulfilling prophecy.  The teachers and other students have a low expectation of these students which would help to maintain an unsupportive learning environment.  They would get left behind and drop out of school, or if they were lucky, graduate with marginal marks.  According to the research of Rosenthal and Jacobson’s, Pygmalion in the Classroom, teachers unwittingly contributed to the betterment of the perceived, engaged students.  This also exacerbated the experience of those who were not engaged for the teacher, which ultimately contributed to the demise of the disengaged student (Schneider et al., 2012).

Today I spend my time with my clients to help them see the value and contribution that they can potentially bring to the community.  We look at the areas that the client has felt successful and put our energy into identifying an employment direction that will create a sense of satisfaction for them.  According to Ken Robinson in his book Finding Your Element How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life, (2013) he focuses on three key principals to create these successful outcomes.  These principals include; 1) Your life is unique, 2) Create your own life and 3) Your life is organic.  My work is doing exactly this, helping each client to see the experiences that they have had and how their experience can inform their opportunities going forward.  They create their life by setting goals that allow them to match their yet to be filled desires.  Often this is about returning to school and finding the right supports in the educational system to set them up for success.  When they focus on their strengths in education they are successful which helps to rebuild their self-esteem which perpetuates their re-creation.  Finally, we talk about how the process is organic, and that being open to something that they had not anticipated can further set them up for success.  One of the other key messages of Ken Robinson’s book is that the education system can inhibit our creativity because we are expected to follow this linear model.  But life doesn’t always work like that.

Behind us are the days of laborious work and education during the industrial age that created compliance amongst children.  We are moving into a time where education is the currency of success and this currency is inflated.  A bachelor’s degree used to get you a solid well-paying job but now a master’s degree is often the minimum requirement.   To this end, our schools need to develop strategies that don’t ostracise the learner who has still not found out how to fit.  They need to create a learning environment that focuses’ on the learner’s strengths which creates a sense of success.  In using my clients’ strengths they have been able to move past their attitude of defeat to a space of “I am interested and engaged, I can see my way to success”.

References

Grey, P., PhD (2008, August 20). A Brief History of Education. Retrieved April 24, 2019, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education

Robinson, K., & Aronica, L. (2013). Finding your element: Living a life of passion and purpose. New York: Viking.

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

 


25
Mar 19

Go Home and Fix your Hair

For this week’s lesson, we learned about how stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination can have dire effects on the education system. We were told to watch two videos: The first being the experiment with Jane Elliott’s A Class Divided (Frontline, 1985) and the second being the Bandura Bobo Doll Experiment (H Kaplan, 2009). However, the experiment with Jane Elliot caught my attention, because this issue that she was trying to address could be compared to some issues that students face in a school setting.

The day after Martin Luther King jr was assassinated, Jane Elliot, a small-town teacher from Iowa, did a daring experiment where she treated children with blue eyes as the superior children and the children with brown eyes as inferior-this led to children with blue eyes discriminating the children with brown eyes. These children from the experiment are still affected by this experiment till this day (Frontline, 1985).

Elliott’s experiment reminded me of an issue that we are facing today. Children are being sent home, suspended from school, and discriminated against because of their hair. Children with curly hair, in particular African Americans, are getting into trouble in schools, simply because their natural hair is not in accordance with school policy. There are many videos and articles circling around social media, showing young children often crying as they have to leave school, because they have been told to fix their hair or else they would not be able to attend class (Sini, 2018). Children with this particular type of hair texture are being singled out in front of other classmates and being told that if they do not follow school policies they will get into trouble.

The children’s hair are usually in styles such as braids, cornrows, dreadlocks, or simply a brushed out afro. The children are often told that they have unnatural hair styles and that is the reason for being sent home or suspended from school; however, the other children with bleached hair or highlights do not get sent home from school, which leads to the children feeling discriminated against. Two young twin sisters from a Massachusetts school got suspended from school because they were told that their braided hair extensions did not follow school policy (Mettler, 2017). The two sisters, Mya and Deanna Cook, felt that they were being punished for being black and that the policy disrespected black girls. The girls were kicked off school sports teams, banished from prom, and received hours of detention for refusing to change their professionally braided hair. The mother of the twins mentioned that all the black girls in the school were taken outside for hair inspection; this is disturbing because this singles out the girls and is a direct form of discrimination (Mettler, 2017). This reminded me of Elliott’s experiment “A Class Divided” (Frontline, 1985). Young black girls are being singled out and the other students who are not black are watching the event take place. What is the school teaching black and non-black students?  The schools are teaching them lifelong lessons of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination against black girls and that some hairstyles and hair textures are intolerable. They are teaching young black girls that their natural hair and hairstyles are unacceptable. The teachers across the country should not be allowed to do such things. They are setting a terrible example for the young children attending these schools.

Majority of American school policies have dress codes that also address what hairstyles are allowed and not allowed in schools. The dress codes mentioned things such as hairstyle should not be distracting to other students or children should have their natural hair color (nprEd, 2017). These policies are then used to discriminate the young children’s hair and deemed as distracting (nprEd, 2017).

Should hairstyles and hair texture really be a determination of a child’s performance in school? Hairstyles such as braids, cornrows and dreadlocks are natural hairstyles and can be compared to a ponytail. These hairstyles are worn as a way to either manage, style, and protect (protective hairstyles) children’s hair. Just because they have a different way of wearing their hair does not mean that it is a bad or a negative thing–it is simply a hairstyle. And when you brush out curly hair, the hairs will separate and create an afro hairstyle.

Young children are being deprived from being able to go to school. In an article published in nprEd (2017) titled, “When Black Hair Violates the Dress Code” addressed the issue of young black girls being suspended from schools because of breaking the dress code and furthermore, it interferes with the girls’ education. In the article by Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies, it stated that black student suspension rates are higher than their peers’. In addition, he found that at the highest-suspending charter schools in the nation, the majority of students were black. The article also mentions that when analyzing what the suspensions in charter schools were for, it consisted of minor nonviolent offenses including dress code violation, which were half of all the subsections in schools across the country (nprEd, 2017).

This is a discrimination that many young children are facing in our schools, we must revisit our school policies and furthermore come to the conclusion that children with curly hair are not a distraction or unnatural and that their hairstyles, which have been worn for centuries, are not going to distract other students or interfere with their learning abilities. Students facing this discrimination are experiencing limitation to the education they receive and furthermore this type of discrimination can impact their mental health. Young girls and boys should not be denied education because of their hair.

 

References :

Frontline. (1985). A Class Divided. Retrieved online at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

H Kaplan. (2009, Nov. 19). Bandura Bobo Doll. Retrieved from Bandura Bobo Doll.wmv (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Mettler, Katie Mettler (2017, May 22)Black Girls at Mass. school win freedom to wear hair braid extensions. Retrived from  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/22/black-girls-at-mass-school-win-freedom-to-wear-hair-braid-extensions/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.79fac7dd56d3

nprEd (2017, July 17). When Black Hair Violets The Dress Code. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/07/17/534448313/when-black-hair-violates-the-dress-code

Sini, Rozina (2018 Aug. 23). US School Faces Backlash after black Student’s Unnatural Hair Criticised. Retrieved from  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45269540

 

 

 


25
Mar 19

Is Preschool Beneficial?

Education is a very useful tool that we use in our everyday lives, from using our knowledge for our jobs or just simply by knowing how to read. A world without education would be a very dull and boring place. We wouldn’t have anything fun or exciting to do without at least one person asking why certain things occur in life. Without education it may be hard for society to even communicate efficiently and effectively. As we grew up to adults, we have truly learned just how important our education was or can be.

When someone becomes a parent, it can help them to realize how important school really is, because now you are thinking for your child rather than just yourself. One of the first kind of education programs that are available to your growing toddler is Preschool. Many parents of all ages have many different opinions about school at such an early age. Some believe the longer you are at home with your child the better off they are in the long run because of the nurturing effect. Nurture means to help raise your offspring and encourage their development (Nurture. n.d.). Others believe that the earlier their child starts the easier the transition will be to kindergarten.

Preschool can be very beneficial to our children. It can help them to grow as individuals, learn to appropriately interact with others, teach them how to act in a classroom and much more. Education at an early age can only help them to develop. “Children who attend preschool are more likely to have long-term educational success, attend post high school education and even have a higher income in their careers” (Shrier, C., 2015, March 06).

A lot of people in society believe that most parents that send their kids to school at an early age need the “childcare” and that is why they send them (Wright, K. 2018, February 6). But this is not always the case. For instance, my son was born premature and had many delays since he was born. He was in an early intervention program throughout his whole life until the school system took over at the age of 3. He is now 4 and he still needs some guidance on his speech. The reason I chose to send my child to preschool is because it was recommended by his therapists and I knew it would give him a good experience to be around other kids his age that can talk well. Within just a few months his speech improved drastically. The teachers have also taught him how to behave around others and follow directions. Having a routine and structure daily has helped him to improve his behavior throughout the day and night. This is another benefit to having your child attend an early learning program. Even though your child attends school it is still our jobs as parents to nurture them to the fullest and help them grow as individuals. Without preschool my son would still be more behind than kids his age. “Kids who attend public preschool programs are better prepared for kindergarten than kids who don’t” (Sanchez, C. 2017, May 03).

Reasons why some parents choose to keep their children home instead of taking them to preschool is because, they want one-on-one time with them, they wanted to teach them the basics, it can be expensive to send them to school, one parent is a stay at home mom/dad, etc… A few parents also believe their child is not socially or developmentally prepared for a classroom and they have a fear of them hating school at an early age (Wright, K. 2018, February 6).

These can all be valid points but when it comes to parenting every parent has different views and opinions on education for their children. Our main jobs as parents is to help them learn, develop, and give them as much love as we possibly can. When it comes to preschool there is no right or wrong way to raise your growing toddler. But according to professional experts it can be more beneficial for your child to attend preschool, rather than not.

References:

Nurture. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2019, from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/nurture

Sanchez, C. (2017, May 03). Pre-K: Decades Worth Of Studies, One Strong Message. Retrieved March 24, 2019, from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/03/524907739/pre-k-decades-worth-of-studies-one-strong-message

Shrier, C. (2015, March 06). Should I send my child to preschool? Retrieved March 24, 2019, from https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/should_i_send_my_child_to_preschool

Wright, K. (2018, February 6). Why I’m Not Sending My Kid to Preschool. Retrieved March 24, 2019, from https://www.google.com/amp/s/mom.me/toddler/207234-why-i-said-no-preschool/amp/

Picture: http://clipart-library.com/images-of-preschool-children.html


24
Mar 19

The Overjustification Effect in Education

How the educational system approaches motivation in the classroom has a lasting impact on a student’s inclination to learn.  First, it is important to note the two different types of motivation:  intrinsic and extrinsic.  According to the APA, intrinsic motivation is defined as “an incentive to engage in a specific activity that derives from pleasure in the activity itself (e.g., a genuine interest in a subject studied) rather than because of any external benefits that might be obtained (e.g., money, course credits)” (APA, 2018).  Whereas the definition for extrinsic motivation is essentially flipped around, “an incentive to engage in a specific activity that derives from pleasure in the activity itself (e.g., a genuine interest in a subject studied) rather than because of any external benefits that might be obtained (e.g., money, course credits)” (APA, 2018).

Ideally, intrinsic motivation is in the forefront of the learning process.  However, that is not always the case in the educational system.  It has been argued by psychologists that schools are very extrinsically oriented (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).  Can you recall any of your teachers using a type of reward in the classroom? Pizza parties, prizes, extra credit, etc.  These are things that fall under the category of extrinsic motivation to complete a task.  This is not always a bad thing, but it can certainly lead to a shift in perspective. Students may start to look at engaging in schoolwork for the benefit of the reward, rather than the enjoyment of learning something new.  This shift in motivation is known as the overjustification effect, the loss of motivation and interest as a result of receiving an excessive external reward (Schneider et al., 2012).

Deci (1971) conducted a study that shows the effects of extrinsic motivators on intrinsic motivation.  Undergraduate students that displayed intrinsic motivation for completing a puzzle (doing it out of enjoyment) were separated into two groups.  Those in the experimental group were offered a payment for solving the puzzle, which now blended extrinsic factors with the initial intrinsic motivation.  The experimental group then showed an increase in time spent on working on the puzzle due to the reward.  The financial incentive was then removed and both groups were compared.  Those that were previously paid to complete the puzzle were remarkably less motivated to complete the puzzle, compared to the control group who continued to work on the puzzle longer, which confirms the overjustification effect.  Interestingly, Deci conducted another experiment in the study which used verbal reinforcement and positive feedback as forms of extrinsic motivation (replacing the money incentive).  The group that received the positive feedback showed an increase in intrinsic motivation, compared to the group that did not receive any reinforcement or feedback.

These findings are important to note for ways to combat the overjustification effect in schools as supported by self-determination theory (SDT).  This is the degree to which an individual sees themselves as being autonomous and having a choice in actions and behaviors, without feeling pressured to behave in a particular manner (Deci & Ryan, 1985).  Extrinsic motivation can undermine an individual’s sense of autonomy and thus their intrinsic motivation to do something because they attribute their actions to the external reward.  Educational systems should consider these effects, and instead strive to foster an environment that strengthens students’ sense of autonomy which will increase their intrinsic motivation to learn.

References

Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18(1), 105-115. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1037/h0030644

Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York:  Plenum Press.

Intrinsic Motivation. APA Dictionary of Psychology.  Retrieved from https://dictionary.apa.org/intrinsic-motivation

Extrinsic Motivation. APA Dictionary of Psychology.  Retrieved from https://dictionary.apa.org/extrinsic-motivation

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 Publications.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash


24
Mar 19

The Pygmalion effect

Have you ever heard about the Pygmalion effect? In 1914, George Bernard Shaw created a play called Pygmalion. You may certainly be familiar with the movie inspired from the play: My Fair Lady. This is one of my favorite movies. Audrey Hepburn plays the lead role. She is a pretty little flower seller who meets an eminent professor of phonetics. He casually wagers that he could teach her to speak “proper” English, thereby making her presentable in the high society of Edwardian London, and he succeeded.

Very Exciting, I highly recommend the movie!

Let’s go back to the Pygmalion effect. Robert Rosenthal, a professor of social psychology at Harvard and Lenore Jacobson, an elementary school teacher in San Francisco, conducted in 1965 a study known as “Pygmalion in the Classroom”. In their class experiment, Rosenthal and Jacobson told teachers early in their school year that, based on the result of IQ test, some of their students had above average academic potential (a group labeled “bloomers”). In actuality, these “bloomers” had been randomly selected, and were on average, no smarter than the other students in their classes. The teachers were unaware that the feedback to them had been falsified, and the students were not told about the label given to them. By the end of the school year, the bloomers showed significant increase in their IQ scores when compared to students in the control condition. Teachers’ expectation had come true (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968).

My first thought after reading this study was how to apply the Pygmalion effect in my professional and personal life. I have come to a strong conviction: we all have a seed of excellence in us. Just find it, plant it in a fertile soil, water it regularly and give it enough light to grow and develop. When I share my insight with those around me, I regularly hear two reactions:

  • What if I do not have a seed?
  • It’s so theoretical !

This is how I often answer to my loved one: First, have high expectations and ambitious goals! What this study teaches us is that having high expectations for others, lets to “self-fulfilling prophecy”. A self-fulfilling prophecy refers to having expectation about another person that influences how you perceive and behave toward that person. Your expectations, and the behavior based on these, in turn, affect the way in which that person behaves when interacting with you.  According to self-theory, individuals come to “know” their own attitudes, emotions, and other internal states partially by inferring them from observations of their own overt behavior and/ or the circumstances in which this behavior occurs (Bem, 1978). Thus, by having high expectation for one self and setting ambitious goal, we can make our own expectation come true.

Then, cultivate your “self-responsibility”. A quote from Nathaniel Branden’s book “The six pillars of self-esteem”, sums up pretty much the notion of self-responsibility: “No one is coming” . In other words, the wonderful teacher who will discover your fabulous potential, and allows you to shine may not cross your path. It’s better to be your own Pygmalion, it’s less risky!

Finally, discover and develop your strengths: I often ask this question during a recruitment interview: “Do you want to work on your strengths or weaknesses? Almost all candidates answer: “on my weaknesses”. When you work on your weaknesses you can go from mediocre to not bad. But, when you work on your strengths, you can strive for excellence. Manage your weaknesses so that they are not an handicap for you, but put all your energy on developing your strengths.

To conclude,  you may just have to ask yourself the right questions: What do I like to do? What gives me energy? What works well in my life? What are the topics that spark my interest? When do I feel good? All these questions will give you a direction for were to look for your seed!

Bem, D. J. (1972). Self-Perception Theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology Volume 6 Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 1-62. doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60024-6

Branden, N. (1994). The six pillars of self-esteem. New York: Bantam.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles ; London ; New Dehli ; Singapore ; Washington DC ; Melbourne: SAGE.

Thorndike, R. L., Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the Classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 5(4), 708. doi:10.2307/1162010


24
Mar 19

School violence: Where do we go from here?

If you pay attention to the news media cycles, you will no doubt have an intimate knowledge of the school shootings that make national headlines several times a year. The most recent one that stirred the pot of controversy surrounding school violence, mass shootings, and gun violence happened on February 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida. A former student entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and killed 17 of his former classmates and staff members, injuring many more. Immediately afterward, our country was driven apart at a fracture, with people wondering how we can keep letting this happen to our children and having wildly different views on what can be done to prevent these things in the future. Impassioned pleas from traumatized students and grief-stricken parents filled the news waves for gun control, arming students and teachers, more armed security across school campuses nationwide — anything. They begged us, please do something.

Figure 1. School-associated violent deaths from 1992-2015. Courtesy of the CDC. Click to enlarge.

By all accounts, after being witness to the fallout of such a traumatic event and the intense media coverage given to these tragedies, you would think they are extremely common, that it’s an epidemic, even. But what does the data tell us? According to data offered by the CDC (2018), violent deaths that happen at school have remained fairly steady from the reported period between the 1992-93 school year and the 2014-15 school year (see Figure 1). And while even one violent death at school is too many, these numbers are not entirely indicative of a sudden epidemic or dramatic increase in violent school-related deaths. But at the same time, one has to wonder: With these incidents becoming more prevalent in the media without necessarily becoming more prevalent in everyday life and with more resources than ever before aimed at curbing these numbers, why haven’t we been seeing a steady downward trend? To me, that is the most alarming thing. After over two decades of school violence on a massive scale being front and center in the media and being the hot topic of proposed policy changes and community outrage, why has seemingly nothing changed? Perhaps the answer lies with the strategies used to try and combat this stream of violence.

As Americans, we tend to embody a culture of “let’s throw money at the problem and see if it helps.” It a lot of cases, it’s true, more money spent in the pursuit of a solution does yield favorable results, but first, you have to make sure you’re funneling the money to the solution that is actually going to make a difference. A study done by Nathaniel Bryan in 2009 looked at the correlation between the money schools spent on safety programs and their overall level of violence. What he found was pretty surprising, to me at least. He found that there was no significant correlation between a school’s financial investment into safety programs (security guards, metal detectors, cameras, etc.) and a school’s level of violence (Bryan, 2009). In other words, it did not appear to matter how much money a school spent on security measures as there was no link between more money (and more robust security systems and programs) and lower levels of violence. I mean… wow. Isn’t that what you hear all the time, that we need more guns, more guards, more cameras, more lockdown drills, more money for these programs to keep our schools and children safe?

This is an incredibly complex issue, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the solutions will not be so straightforward or easy to implement for immediate results. It’s definitely not as easy as throwing money at schools and turning them into fortresses. This is an inside-out issue: We need to fix the inside first – how students relate to one another and themselves which begins as early as preschool.

In an article by Astor et al. (2005), a study was outlined that compared the effects of low-quality and high-quality preschool programs on future violent crime and criminal activity. The findings showed that the children who attended higher quality preschool programs were significantly less likely to be involved in violent and criminal activity than those who experienced a lower quality preschool (Astor et al., 2005). The study followed these children until the age of 27 and found that these effects persist through early childhood and into adulthood with those who had attended low-quality preschool programs being, at age 27, five times more likely to be arrested five or more times with a large portion of these arrests being for violent crimes (Astor et al., 2005). Because preschools tend to focus on social responsibility, decision-making, empowerment, and conflict resolution, these children are gaining these important and necessary skills at a critical point in their development which the researchers believe is what has the tempering effect on violent crime (Astor et al., 2005). And if you think about it, it makes sense. Children’s brains grow and develop at an exponential rate, so giving them these skills at such an early age gives them time to integrate them and provides scaffolding for later experiences.

In 2017, only 40% of 3-year-olds were enrolled in full- or part-time preschool (NCES, 2019). This is alarming and kind of sad. Preschool, especially a high-quality program, has been shown to be an effective possible solution to the problem of violence in our schools. Which is why a good direction to go in is to offer free or affordable preschool options to all children in our country. Many children don’t have any real experience with their peers in a learning environment until they start Kindergarten, having missed the opportunity to learn these skills at a much earlier age which puts them at a major disadvantage.

School violence is a phenomenon that has been carefully cultivated over several decades, and there will not be an easy or quick fix to it. We have to look at our values as a society and make the conscious decision that our children deserve better… and not just the eventual victims of school violence, but the perpetrators of it as well. We are continuously failing all of them and we have to start doing better. We can’t throw money at the problem in the form of increased security, turning schools into strongholds, and we can’t expect adolescents to suddenly learn skills that have not been continually modeled starting from the time they are virtual babies. If we want to fix this problem, it has to start early, and everyone needs to have an equal opportunity to grow and thrive.

References

Astor, R. A., Meyer, H. A., Benbenishty, R., Marachi, R., & Rosemond, M. (2005). School Safety Interventions: Best Practices and Programs. Children & Schools,27(1), 17-32. doi:10.1093/cs/27.1.17

Bryan, N. (2009). Financial investments in school safety and school violence incidents in public high schools in South Carolina: Does money really matter? [Abstract]. ProQuest Information & Learning. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/622091538?accountid=13158

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2019, February). Preschool and Kindergarten Enrollment. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cfa.asp

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2018). School-Associated Violent Death Study. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/schoolviolence/SAVD.html


24
Mar 19

Stereotype Threat and Test Scores

It is no secret that there are certain assumptions made about certain groups of people performing better academically than others. These assumptions are typically based upon differences such as race or gender. For example, each of us have probably heard the thought, at one point or another, that Asians are ‘better’ at math. Even in movies and TV shows, the Asian actors or actresses are almost always portrayed as the ‘nerdy’ kids.

When digging deeper into the history of these assumptions, the phenomenon knows as Stereotype Threat was discovered. Stereotype threat is the idea that describes the anxiety students experience when in situations where they fear conforming to negative stereotypes about their social groups, especially when those groups are believed to be academically inferior (APA, 2005). Social psychologists Claude Steel and Joshua Aronson examined the presence of stereotype threat during a study involving Black and White students’ performances on a short exam containing difficult GRE exam questions (APA, 2005). Steele and Aronson gave Black and White college students a half-hour test. The study included two conditions: the stereotype-threat condition in which the students were told that the test would diagnose intellectual ability, potentially revealing the assumption that Blacks are less intelligent than whites; and, the no-stereotype-threat condition, where the students were told that the test was a problem-solving lab task that mentioned nothing about ability (APA, 2005). Results showed that in the stereotype threat condition, Blacks, who were academically equal to Whites in the group based on SAT scores, did less well than Whites. In the non-stereotype threat condition, Blacks’ performance matched that of academically-equal Whites in the group (APA, 2005). An additional study found that when students merely recorded their race, this led to decreased performance in Blacks as well (APA, 2005).

This research revealed that negative stereotypes are raising doubts and inducing high-pressure anxieties in a test-taker’s mind, resulting in decreased performance despite their actual academic abilities (APA, 2005). Simply passing reminders that someone belongs to one group or another, such as recording one’s race before completing an exam, can detrimentally lower test performance as well (APA, 2005).

This research has given insight into the world of differing academic performance, and I find it extremely relevant with how much pressure is placed upon test-takers, especially for college entrance exams. Steele and Aronson have since admitted that the phenomenon of stereotype threat cannot entirely explain the gap in academic performance between certain groups, but it certainly shows that the differences are not merely due to cultural or genetic differences (APA, 2005).

References

American Psychological Association. (2005). Stereotype Threat Widens Achievement Gap.      Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/research/action/stereotype

 


23
Mar 19

Discrimination in Education

Working in the education setting, everyday I see some type of discrimination occur. When we hear discrimination in education it happens when a person takes unfair action against someone who belongs to a certain category that is entitled to full educational rights. Last year I worked in a self-contained setting and all of my students had something called an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP). An IEP is a legal document that basically explains all of the special education services that the student will receive and it will explain why as well. Discrimination in education for example discrimination against the students who have IEP’s is very common. I have seen students not receive the help they need, because there are not enough resources and that absolutely qualifies for discrimination. A lot of times these students are discriminated against because their guardians or parents do not know their rights and it is very sad. It is also unfortunate that as an educator I am unable to let these parents know either.

Education discrimination can also be based off of the student’s disability, age, gender, nationality, or even their religion. I know it sounds pretty crazy but it is happening in this world. This discrimination normally takes place by teachers, administrators, or even by their peers. In order to prevent these things from happening, the government has implemented certain protections for these individuals. The first one is Tile VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which basically prohibits discrimination because of someone’s trace, color, or national origin. The next one is Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 which prohibits sex discrimination. Also, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1990 prohibits disability discrimination. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 does not allow discrimination because of someone’s disability. This act also protects those who do not receive federal assistant due to their disability.

You are not allowed to retaliate against any person who opposed or testifies against you in any complaint which falls under Title VI. If this does happen, it is considered a violation. All of these protections protect all education programs as well as facilities that receive federal assistant which includes State education agencies, elementary and secondary school systems, colleges and universities, vocational schools, libraries, museums etc. There are many places to name! All of these places listed about must also provide benefits and services in a nondiscriminatory manner. This includes admissions, recruitment, financial aid, counseling, discipline, grading, physical education, athletics etc.

In conclusion, if you or someone you know is suffering from educational discrimination because of their disability or something of that nature there are plenty of attorneys who specialize in educational rights. Those individuals deserve the right to a fair education, no matter their disability, age, race, gender, etc.

References:

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles; London; New Dehli; Singapore; Washington DC; Melbourne: SAGE.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). PSYCH 424 Lesson 10: Education Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1973019/modules/items/25635725


23
Mar 19

Start Early

Students in our school systems today are taught science, math, English, history, and perhaps a foreign language and a musical instrument. These are essential topics, but are children taught everything they need to succeed in society when they graduate? I think one major topic is lacking: social skills. We may believe that parents are responsible for teaching their children how to interact socially but all too often these skills are not taught at home or in the classroom. I think one of the main reasons that parents do not teach these concepts is that they do not know what to teach. When I was taking social psychology a few semesters ago, I found myself wishing that I had been taught so many of the principles while I was in elementary and high school.

According to Webster-Stratton and Reid (2004) socially competent children are more likely to be academically successful. The social skills that they list as necessary for school age children include: “emotional literacy, empathy or perspective taking, friendship and communication skills, anger management, interpersonal problem solving” (Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2004, p. 96). I believe that many of these core competencies can be taught through social and positive psychology.

According to the concept of belief perseverance, we have the tendency to maintain our original beliefs despite being taught that they are incorrect (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). Even when we are exposed to the truth multiple times, our beliefs will most likely not change unless we adopt an alternative strategy. This alternative strategy is when we think about why the new information we are being taught is correct and come up with an explanation for why our old beliefs are incorrect (Schneider et al., 2012). Because it is so difficult to change our beliefs once they have been formed, I believe that we should attempt to instill correct beliefs in people at as young an age as possible. While I do not have any children of my own, I do have eight nieces and nephews, and I am researching ways to teach them some of the principles I wish I had learned at a young age.

In the realm of positive psychology there are 2 main concepts that I believe would be useful to children: optimism and hope. The concept of “learned optimism” can be taught to children and proves helpful in academic pursuits, results in improved mental and physical health, prevents depression, and reduces anger in adolescents (Lopez & Snyder, 2011, p. 665). Hope is a construct that is defined as an individual’s belief in their ability to devise paths to a goal and their ability to follow those paths to attain their goals (Lopez & Snyder, 2011). Children with high levels of hope are more capable of solving the problems they will encounter throughout their lives. Hope and optimism will improve their sense of self-efficacy and their perceived ability to steer the course of their lives.

I also think there are several concepts related to social psychology that would be beneficial for my nieces and nephews in their social interactions. These include:

  • Attribution theory – internal vs. external attribution for self and for others
  • Self-Concept – introspection and how it helps us improve ourselves
  • Attitudes – how they shape who we are and what we believe
  • Stereotypes – prejudice, discrimination, self-fulfilling prophecies
  • Pro-social Behaviors – what motivates us to help others

I plan to use the concept of intrinsic motivation versus external rewards (Schneider et al., 2012) as I teach this material by focusing on how fun it is to learn new things. I am hoping to impart some of the joy that I experienced when I first learned these concepts. It will be a lot of work to determine the right methods to teach these concepts to young people, but I think my efforts will be rewarded by seeing them become mature, well-rounded adults.

 

References:

Lopez, S., & Snyder, C. (2011). Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 636-675). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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 Publications.

Webster-Stratton, C., & Reid, M. (2004). Strengthening Social and Emotional Competence in Young Children—The Foundation for Early School Readiness and Success. Infants & Young Children17(2), 96-113. doi: 10.1097/00001163-200404000-00002


22
Mar 19

The Value of Education

Based on the commentary notes in lesson 10 (2019) the education system is usually the first form of social interaction that takes place outside of a child’s home for many children. The effects of the exposures from it can be vital for their future successes. The education system is where a great deal of human development occurs and is shaped (Lesson 10: Education, 2019). There are several factors we should consider when it comes to student performance.

According to Ajzen (1991), the theory of planned behavior looks at the individual’s attitude, their perceived subjective norms and their perceived behavioral control. The attitude towards the behavior can be positive or negative. It is the belief that individuals hold about completing the work or tasks. Subjective norms are what an individual believes to be true based on their parent’s expectations such as working hard earns success. Along with both of those factors we should also consider the child’s behavioral control, this is the assessment of how difficult or easy school appears to be for the child (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012).

According to a study conducted by Sideridis and Padeliadu (2001), it was found that high and poor performing readers differed drastically regarding the theory of planned behavior. It appeared as if the low-level readers held less value with being a good student and had weaker subjective norms than the higher-level reading students did. In fact, the higher-level readers worked harder and showed a perceived control in their ability to achieve good grades from their hard work. These findings were interesting because it means that if educators can increase student’s beliefs about their abilities and their control they have over their academic successes, students will want to work harder to achieve higher successes/grades (Schneider et al, 2012).

Similarly, a student’s academic self-concept has been found to affect motivation and performance at school as well. Of course, academic self-concepts differ based on the student’s demographics (age, race, gender and ethnicity). Guay and colleagues (2003) found that as the students grow older their academic self-concepts became more stabilized overtime. This shows how important it is for educators and parents to help elementary and high school students develop a positive academic self-concept, and an academic self-concept is especially important for minority students (Schneider et al, 2012).

As you can see based on the information above, parents and school environments appear to be some of the most vital contributing factors towards positive social interactions and academic success for students. Having a positive academic attitude towards education, having an established positive perceived set of norms and having a perceived behavioral control over their successes can be a crucial step in building students’ successes now and in their future. Education and the factors that contribute towards academic success can start in the home with the parents/caregivers and build throughout development within the school system (Schneider et al, 2012). Without applied social psychology, these important factors may not have been assessed and discovered. It is important that caregivers and parents realize that education and educational values start in the home environment. It is time for parents and educators to work together and model and foster positive behaviors for our students and young children, as they are our future.

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles; London; New Dehli; Singapore; Washington DC; Melbourne: SAGE.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). PSYCH 424 Lesson 10: Education Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1973019/modules/items/25635725


21
Mar 19

The Learning Hindrances of Stress and Trauma

Bandura’s social learning theory states that people will learn behaviors in social settings from watching others, internalizing what they see and basing their own behavior on that interpretation (Social Learning, n.d.).  In order to successfully learn what one is exposed to there must be four components present.  People must be able to pay attention, retain the information, have the physical capacity to use information (motor reproduction) and have motivation and opportunity.  Without these components learning, including processing and imitating, does not occur.  As children watch someone model behavior, they internalize the precepts behind it and recreate the behavior in their own ways, moving beyond just imitating exactly.  Stress and trauma create a neurological state in which learning is compromised.  Increased cortisol inhibits brain function and the stress of having basic needs unfulfilled prevents students from paying attention.

Learning is a complex process that encompasses the whole being.  Social learning theory is described as a combination between Skinner’s behaviorism, in which children are simply motivated by reward and punishment, and cognitive learning theories, in which attention, motivation and memory play a part (Social Learning, n.d.).  If learning were as simple for children as it was for Pavlov’s dogs, we could easily train and predict behavior consistently.  But children have a lot going on cognitively.  Are they motivated to learn? Have they learned there is a benefit to what they are being taught?  Are they able to actually reproduce what they see?  Are they able to retain or remember methods and processes?  Or is there some physical or memory impairment?  Attention is a critical aspect of learning.  We can be exposed to the best teaching but if we are not paying attention, nothing will be retained.  What is underneath attention?  One key factor is whether our basic needs have been met.  For a student who is extremely tired or has to use the bathroom urgently, learning is not high on the list of necessary functions.  The body first requires basic needs to be taken care of.

A friend told me this story of his time from working in an elementary school.  He was called in to a classroom to deal with a child who had just ransacked the room, terrorized kids, violently upset tables and chairs and was now hiding under the teacher’s desk.  My friend Mark used skills he had learned through studying applied behavior analysis.  With no one else in the room, he quietly sat down near the student and calmly waited, saying nothing for minutes on end.  The dysregulated angry child’s heavy breathing slowly normalized as he realized no one was going to yell at him or pull him out of his safe place under the desk.  My counselor once told me in reference to my own out of control adopted children, “a dysregulated child regulates in the presence of a regulated adult.”  That calmness on the part of the adult creates safety.  After fifteen minutes, the child under the desk said in a small voice, “Are you mad at me?”  Mark answered, “Why would I be mad at you?”  The child answered, “Because of the room.”  Mark looked around and said nonchalantly, “Oh, doesn’t look too bad to me.  Are you hungry?”  The child timidly came out and said yes.  He desperately wanted to trust Mark but didn’t know if he could.  Would this big adult turn on him and punish him harshly now?  Mark asked if he wanted to get something to eat in the cafeteria and the boy nodded.  Outside the classroom, Mark frantically but subtly motioned to the waiting principal, psychologist and parents to get out of there, as he gently took the boy by the hand.  He didn’t need punitive treatment right now; he needed care and understanding.  Watching the boy wolf down his lunch, Mark asked him when he’d last eaten.  The reply was that he’d eaten something yesterday but no breakfast for three days.  Slowly the boy talked about his home life.  His mother had been screaming at him just before dropping him off at school.  “Tell me about the classroom,” Mark said now.  “One of the boys was making fun of my mother,” the boy said, “that made me angry.”  Mark started talking about how the other kids might have felt during the rampage and how the teacher now had a mess to clean up.  The student was able to see that his behavior had hurt others and willingly made amends.  He had first been shown care and love and his basic needs had been met; then he was able to think logically.

Aside from the violence and the risk to others, this child had been in no place to learn.  He did not have the basic needs of food and safety met and yet he was expected to sit still and listen, process information, and understand how to function well in a classroom full of other noisy, disruptive children.  An adult would have had the ability to speak up and say they needed to eat first or they needed a quiet place, but this child was just forced to comply without thought for what he needed until he made it known all too aggressively that something was awry.

There are plenty of examples of children who are unable to learn well when their attention is elsewhere or they feel stressed.  Jane Elliott’s children had a harder time focusing when they were being discriminated against because they were constantly worried about their lower class status, what the other kids thought, and how they might be treated (A Class Divided, 1985).  My own adopted daughter has a hard time focusing in class and her therapist has theorized that her deficit in attention is likely due to the trauma she’s experienced.  Much like Jane Elliott’s kids, thoughts race through her mind of stressful events she’s encountered, hypervigilance to keep herself safe and feelings of low self-esteem related to being adopted and treated roughly.

One study found that trauma results in four key themes of distress that relate to learning.  Anxiety, fear, difficulty with time management, and the challenging level of material present are factors that significantly add to the stress a traumatized student feels in a learning environment (Washington, 2018).  Another study showed that compared to normal children, a high percentage of traumatized children have brain abnormalities on the left side of the brain, as shown by electroencephalography (Washington, 2018).  This side of the brain is primarily responsible for functions like reasoning, numbers skills, language processing and logic, all necessary aspects of typical school-based learning.  Contrarily the creative functions of the right brain such as artistic ability, imagination and intuition are often unhindered in traumatized children.  Executive functioning is impaired in the network of the brain encompassing the prefrontal cortex, and so memory, planning and processing are all affected.  Learning and understanding are believed to originate in the hippocampus and this structure too has been shown to be underdeveloped in traumatized children (Washington, 2018).  Neuronal activity in the hippocampus shows activation during the learning state which is repeated during sleep when memories are consolidated (Sapolsky, 2004).  In children who live in perpetual fear and trauma, even this consolidation of patterns is compromised since sleep is often disrupted by nightmares or screaming.  Trauma creates increased levels of cortisol which hinders the development of many of these brain regions, leaving children with compromised learning ability.  At the same time, increased cortisol increases the functioning of the amygdala leading to an overly functioning fight or flight system, always alert and ready to react to any threat (Cacciaglia, Nees, Grimm, Ridder, Pohlack, Diener, Liebscher & Flor, 2017).

These neurological differences in traumatized children create a situation where paying attention to modeling stimuli is difficult at best, impossible at worst.  Understanding stress and trauma and how they relate to attention and learning is crucial to being able to provide a safe educational environment where children can relax and focus.

References

A Class Divided.  (1985).  Frontline.  Retrieved on Mar. 19, 2019 from: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/.

Cacciaglia, R., Nees, F., Grimm, O., Ridder, S., Pohlack, S., Diener, S., Liebscher, C. & Flor, H. (2017). Trauma exposure relates to heightened stress, altered amygdala morphology and deficient extinction learning: Implications for psychopathology. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 76, 19-28.

Sapolsky, R.  (2004).  Why zebras don’t get ulcers.  New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Social Learning Theory (Bandura).  (n.d.).  Learning Theories.  Retrieved on March 21, 2019 from: https://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html.

Washington, D. (2018). Exploring the learning experience of higher education students in a midwestern university who suffered childhood trauma (Doctoral dissertation)Retrieved from ProQuest Information & Learning. 


18
Mar 19

Gender-Inclusive Dorms

When you first go away to college, your living situation is important. Many colleges create extensive questionnaires for accepted students in order to match them with the best, most compatible roommate(s). As colleges become more impacted, this becomes even more important as many dorm rooms that used to be doubles are now triples. Getting along with your roommate is important as it can have a huge effect on your success in adjusting to college life. There are even whole books devoted to what to expect the first time you have a roommate and how to get along with them. One aspect of housing that has more recently come into play is gender inclusive housing. With the LGBTQ+ movement gaining power, it makes sense that colleges around the United States are being pushed to be inclusive, especially in their housing options.

In May 2016, the U.S. Department of Education and Justice invoked Title IX, the law which prohibits gender discrimination at schools who receive federal funding, to make it clear to colleges that students have the right to live in housing that reflects their gender identity (Malone, 2016). Colleges have been moving in this direction for some time, but with this announcement that federal funds could be withheld from schools who discriminated against individuals due to their gender identity, schools started moving up plans for gender inclusive housing on their campuses (Malone, 2016).

There were a handful of schools already implementing gender-inclusive housing, even before this announcement was made about the legal ramifications of not having housing equality on campus (Malone, 2016). Many of these campuses were in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Universities in the South and religiously affiliated schools have been slower to adopt these policies, if they are adopting them at all (Malone, 2016).

One reason that this movement for gender-inclusive housing has been less controversial than other social movements is that the younger population found on college campuses are typically more comfortable with the issue of gender identity (Malone, 2016). However, despite this higher level of comfort with the issue, not that many students are taking advantage of the gender-inclusive housing being offered (Malone, 2016). According to Georgia Tech, only 42 out of 4,100 students on their Atlanta Campus sought out gender-inclusive housing (Malone, 2016).

Gender-inclusive housing is a way for universities to support and show their acceptance of individuals belonging to a minority community. Gender-inclusive housing is also the best way to integrate this community into the college campus while ensuring their safety. One of the alternative suggestions was to build separate LGBTQ+ housing on campuses, but that would just create segregation of the LGBTQ+ community from the rest of the college campus (Rosaria, 2018). Gender-inclusive housing has the same benefits as separate housing, but without the negative effects (Rosario, 2018). It creates a safe environment for LGBTQ+ youth while promoting the idea of inclusion on campus (Rosario, 2018). The LGBTQ+ community should not have to be separated from the larger community to ensure their safety, they should be accepted for who they are, and gender-inclusive housing does this (Rosaria, 2018).

 

References:

Malone, S. (2016, June 10). College Dorms a New Front in U.S. Battle Over Transgender Rights. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-education-idUSKCN0YW15P

Rosario, I. (2018, May 21). Student Housing Inclusion. Retrieved from https://www.multihousingnews.com/post/student-housing-inclusion/


18
Mar 19

Priming pros-social behaviors

Imagine that you are working at the Division of Psychology at the University of Newcastle in England. You share a coffee room with your fellow coworkers. Coffee, tea and milk are provided, but you must pay your consumption using an honesty box. Would you be more likely to pay your drink if an image of eyes is staring at you from above the price list?  I guess your response is no. You will argue that you are an honest person and nothing will impact your behavior. Certainly not a fake glance! Bateson, nettle and Roberts (2006) conducted this study. They examined the effect of an image of a pair of eyes on contributions to an honesty box used to collect money for drinks in a university coffee room. People paid nearly three times as much for their drinks when eyes were displayed rather than an image of flowers.

In a study conducted by Josephson (1987) the effect of television violence on boys’ aggression was investigated. Participants in the study, a group of young boys,watched violent or nonviolent TV, and half the groups were later exposed to a cue associated with the violent TV program. They were frustrated either before or after TV viewing. Aggression was measured by naturalistic observation during a game of floor hockey. Prior to the study teachers rated the boys’ aggressiveness. Groups containing more characteristically high-aggressive boys showed higher aggression following violent TV plus the cue than following violent TV alone, which in turn produced more aggression than did the nonviolent TV condition.

Thesetwo studies illustrated two very different types of priming. Priming refers to the effect of a preceding stimulus or event on how we react to a subsequent stimulus. Priming procedures were first used in cognitive psychology to explore the structure and representation of information within network models of memory. Network models of memory assume that information is stored in memory in the form of nodes, and that each node represents a concept.  Furthermore, these nodes are connected to related nodes in memory by associative pathways. An additional assumption of network models of memory is that each node has an activation threshold. The node fires if the levels of activation exceed its threshold. When a node fires, it can influence the activation levels of other related nodes. A final assumption of network models of memory is that the activation level of a node will go away over time, making it a short time effect. Research by cognitive and social psychologist has demonstrated that a prime’s effect on a target behavior or thought is related to the intensity of the prime (Gruman, Schneider, &Coutts, 2012).

Cues in our environment are priming our behaviors. This finding can have a practical interest for those designing honesty based system, or wishing to maximize cooperative behaviors. We can also prime our own behavior. Stop reading, and take a look around you. What kind of behaviors is your surrounding priming?

Bateson, M., Nettle, D., & Roberts, G. (2006). Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting. Biology Letters, 2(3), 412-414. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0509

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles ; London ; New Dehli ; Singapore ; Washington DC ; Melbourne: SAGE.

Josephson, W. L. (1987). Television violence and childrens aggression: Testing the priming, social script, and disinhibition predictions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(5), 882-890. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.53.5.882


18
Mar 19

Cultural Stereotyping

Cultural Stereotyping

It’s impossible to deny that each country in the world is made up of a groups of people who tend to be defined by a certain culture. While different countries can include a mixture of cultures, especially today, we normally have a general idea of the key factors of cultures. If you stop and think about it, you could probably list a few things about the cultures of certain countries even though you have not necessarily been there to see it first hand! A list you might come up with could look something like this:

German culture: Very strict and punctual people. Enjoy drinking beer. Somewhat of a cold culture in the sense that the people are not extremely friendly. Very strong accent when speaking English.

Spanish culture: Lazy people who like to take naps and drink beer. Bull fighting and dancing is super common.

Russian culture: Drink a lot of vodka. Not the nicest people. Very cold country calls for cold culture.

Australian culture: Loads of expressions having to do with animals. They hang out with kangaroos and do a lot of water sports. Crazy individuals.

British culture: Very posh and formal. They have tea time every day. Always rainy, never sunny and they are very white.

Italian culture: They talk with their hands and eat a lot of pizza and pasta. The Italian mafia.

French culture: French boys are the most romantic. French woman are extremely delicate and formal. The language sounds beautiful. The people are a little stuck-up.

American culture: They eat a lot of fast food and love hamburgers. They think they are the best and are very patriotic.

I’m sure that, even if you don’t necessarily think of the exact things that are on this list, that your general thoughts on these cultures are similar. This is because a lot of our knowledge of these cultures comes from movies, music and social networks that we are all connected to. It is not until we go to the country and experience the culture first hand that we can see how it is in reality. The issue is that, at that point, we already have an idea in our head of how the culture is and instead of walking in with an open mind and allowing a new image to form, we try to fit our experiences into the cultural box we have already created in our mind.

All the factors we consider when thinking of cultures are not just ways of defining a culture, they are stereotypes and we are creating and using them all the time without realizing it. It is important to realize that these stereotypes do have to come from somewhere, that is to say that there is absolutely some truth in them, but normally they are extremely exaggerated. While in many situations these types of stereotypes can be harmless, it is important to be careful when using them so that they do not get out of hand.  

 

Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2019, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1973019/modules/items/25635726

 


18
Mar 19

Social Media and What We Know

Social media is a relatively more recent phenomena and upon further research, there appears to be many pros and cons to the use of such programs. Some of the more popular social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. One pro of social media is that it connects people who might have a harder time connecting; whether that be due to physical proximity or something more daunting such as social anxiety. People, and more specifically teens, are “hardwired for socialization, and social media makes socializing easy and immediate. Teens who struggle with social skills, social anxiety, or who don’t have easy access to face-to-face socializing with other teens might benefit from connecting with other teens through social media” (Hurley, 2019). This can in turn reduce feelings of loneliness and help them to build stronger kinships with friends online so that when they come across them offline they feel more comfortable in engaging with said friend.

 

Use of such platforms can have positive effects and be used to connect and create friendships with others, but it can also be a way to fight negativity and hate by providing an avenue to confront cyberbullying, trolls, and toxic comparisons (Hurley, 2019). For clarification purposes, trolls are persons whose goal is to attack other people strictly for the sake of making them feel bad about themselves.

 

In some cases, it is hard to decipher if social media is to blame for proposed negative side effects. Studies have shown that “Facebook and self-esteem may be related in terms of Facebook usage, causing lower self-esteem, but this may also mean that people with low self-esteem use Facebook more often. In other words, it is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to conclude which variable is the cause and which is the effect” (Pantic, 2014). This can complicate the process of determining whether social media is the “cause” or rather the “facilitator” in demonstrating a person’s already present struggle with their mental health or behavioral state. However, data can be said to link a person’s frequency of viewing his or her profile, including one’s own pictures, biographical data, relationship status, friend count, etc. could “lead to either a short-term or a long-term reduction in self-esteem” (Pantic, 2014). This more clearly demonstrates that at the very least, a correlation is present.

Another positive to the modern age of socialization is the ability for the younger generations to “build on social communication and friendships taking place at school or during sports and other activities and extend it to the online world. They are not necessarily meeting new people so much as enriching their currently existing friendships. Because of this, barring teens from social media use could potentially deprive them of valuable learning experiences and limits their social lives” (Mir & Novas, 2018). These platforms are at this point a staple in American society and restricting access to these forums can have damaging effects on a person’s capacity to participate with the larger collective; causing possible feelings of social seclusion and dejection. “A study from Nottingham Trent University revealed typical addictive behavior including neglect of personal life, escapism, and mood-modifying experiences appeared to be present in some people who used social media networks excessively” (Knudson, 2017).

 

Posting in social media forums has been reported to generate feelings of satisfaction with one’s self, which can subsequently become habitual, and consequently become time consuming. “An individual may spend increasing amounts of time online to generate the same pleasurable effect as before, taking over the majority of their attention and time” (Knudson, 2017). This takes time away from other, perhaps more healthy activities that an individual could be participating in.

 

“Social media has also been found to be associated with self-image. A study found that greater Instagram use was associated with greater self-objection and concern about body image” (Mir & Novas, 2018). This is one of the more heated topics as body dysmorphia has recently hit mainstream awareness. Most people (especially women) who are active in social media would quickly be able to confirm that they are regularly inundated with posts regarding what “beautiful” women look like. These societal pressures can play an active role in distorting self-perception and formation of toxic behaviors related to poor self-esteem; including but not limited to development of eating disorders.

 

It would appear that there is much more research to be done surrounding the effects of social media involvement; and it looks to be clear that a main factor that demands much of the focus would be activity participation and time spent on the sites in question.

 

Resources:

Hurley, K. (2019, March 7). Social Media and Teens: How Does Social Media Affect Mental Health? Retrieved March 17, 2019, from https://www.psycom.net/social-media-teen-mental-health

 

Pantic, I. (2014, October 01). Online social networking and mental health. Retrieved March 17, 2019, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4183915/

 

Mir, E., & Novas, C. (2018, October 17). Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Mental Health. Retrieved March 17, 2019, from http://www.center4research.org/social-media-affects-mental-health/

 

Knudson, L. (2017, September 07). How Social Media Addiction Affects Your Health and Well-Being? Retrieved March 17, 2019, from https://www.psychreg.org/social-media-addiction-health-wellbeing/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


18
Mar 19

Three sources of Media Monitoring

Nowadays, when you are in public you may constantly see teenagers, college students, and adolescents on their phones more than anything. What exactly are they on? What is occupying their time? Social media and dating apps seems to be the current social craze. Researchers found that about 80 percent of social media posts are self-focused, while around 30 to 40 percent of one’s speech is comprised of self-disclosing information about oneself to others (Mahamid & Berte, 2019).

Authors found that if someone is responding or talking about one’s own opinions, it promotes an increase in neural activity (Mahamid & Berte, 2019). Although social media is only growing, there truly is not a lot of professional assistance on how to correctly use it in a healthy or positive manner (Mahamid & Berte, 2019). Parents should monitor and time their children’s screen time on their devices because many times over the parents don’t know what websites or social media apps their children are even on. A nonprofit resource that was founded in 2003 for parents to read about reviews, different games, age-appropriate apps, books, movies, and television shows for their kids is called Common Sense Media. A link to this website can be found here: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

The founder of Common Sense is named Jim Steyer, who is also an author of the book titled The other parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effect on our Children. The main message of that book to parents is that the media, television, and movies all have detrimental effects on adolescents. What’s interesting is that Jim recommended in the book that parents should put their children on health media diets, but this book was published back in 2003, before Facebook or any of the big social medias were launched except for Myspace. Jim’s main goal of Common Sense is to empower parents with the proper resources and information they need about technology and the media in order for them to advocate for their children (Our Impact, n.d.). Only three years after the launch of Common Sense, it instantly became the “largest independent source for media and technology reviews” back in 2006 (Our Impact, n.d.).There are many links on the Common Sense site, this link contains a parent blog https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog and there even is a parent concerns webpage found here https://www.commonsensemedia.org/parent-concerns as a source for adults to ask questions about anything related to the media or internet as a way of helping others to understand more through this digital age (Our Mission, n.d.). A few examples of some past-asked questions on the parent concerns webpage include asking about cyberbullying, questions on Youtube monitoring, and how much screen time is the right amount for their child.

The media is making more and more parental challenges. MySpace started back in 2003, where Youtube launched in 2005, Twitter started in 2006, and even Facebook changed its law into allowing 13 year olds to join in 2006 (Our Impact, n.d.). There is a drastic increase of adolescent’s time spent on their mobile devices because of these social media platforms. A study that tested the frequency of social media usage among 13 to 17 year olds found that 27% of teens are checking their social media hourly, while only 19% of teens do not use social media at all (Knutson, 2018). More statistics from this study can be seen in Figure 1 below.

Image source: https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/education/sites/default/files/tlr-blog/frequency.png

 

Adolescents see more positive effects than negative effects regarding social media (Knutson, 2018). Researchers have found some common characteristics of addicted social media users such as poor impulse control, low self-esteem, depression, and feelings of social isolation (Mahamid & Berte, 2019). However, about 57% of teens do believe that social media distracts them from other tasks such as homework. This may be why texting is now considered the most favorable means of communication amongst teens even more than communicating in person (Knutson, 2018). A 2012 vs 2018 study compared the ways teens preferred way of communication, which found that the least preferred way is through video chatting at 10%. Additional information about the study can be found in the diagram below.

Image source: https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/education/sites/default/files/tlr-blog/face-to-face-title.png

More research is being conducted to see what the correct amount of screen time is for adolescents. The American Academy of Pediatrics created the “Family Media Use Plan tool” that can be used for children of the ages of 18-24 months, 2-5 years, 6-12 years, and 13 to 18 year olds. The “Family Media Use Plan tool” creates a personalized media plan for your family. First you enter the name of your family, and your children’s names, and ages using the drop down menu. After that you are prompted to a page that allows the parent to decide what the device curfews are, what rooms the devices will charge in, what rooms are screen-free zones, what hours are screen free times such as before bedtime, while crossing the street, or during dinnertime, when it is appropriate to have recreational screen time, digital safety rules, and so much more. The tool allows you to selected predetermined options or you have the ability to type in your own responses to any of the categories. After the parent selects the appropriate categories and checks off the categories, the site will generate a personalized family media plan based off the results.If you want to create your own family media plan, please do so here.

Something else was created called the Media Time Calculator, which allows the parent to add their children’s media use into a personalized scale that tells you how much time is used for screen time, for chores, for reading, homework, family time, for sleep, and more. This calculator can help the child to see truly how much of their day is taken by their media use. To access the Media Time Calculator, feel free to find it here. There are also more media use recommendations provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) which involve setting the appropriate screen time of high quality programs for young children who are of ages two to five to only one hour a day (American, 2016). But for children who are a bit older than the age of six, their media screen time should be strictly limited in order to make sure media use does not deter their children’s physical activity or sleep schedule (American, 2016). The AAP recommends on having different media-free times throughout the day, as well as media-free locations in your house (American, 2016). The discussion of cutting out excess periods of the media from your daily life is considered a “media diet”. There are even sites out there who provide media diet pyramids as a way to help people to see the main problem of their daily media consumption. The underlying question here is, how will you consume your media and not let it consume your life?

References

American Academy of Pediatrics announces new recommendations for children’s media use. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-Announces-New-Recommendations-for-Childrens-Media-Use.aspx

Knutson, J. (2018, September 10). What new research on teens and social media means for teachers. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/what-new-research-on-teens-and-social-media-means-for-teachers

Mahamid, F. A., & Berte, D. Z. (2019). Social media addiction in geopolitically at-risk youth. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 17(1), 102-111. doi:10.1007/s11469-017-9870-8

Our Impact. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/our-impact/

Our Mission. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission


17
Mar 19

Facebook Causing Depression?

In today’s world, social media is everywhere. No matter where we go, we observe people browsing or posting to some form of it, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or others. People everywhere share information and photos about their personal relationships, their careers, their current locations, and more. This sharing and observation of information has become a fascination, as the use of social media has drastically increased from 7% of the American adult population in 2005 to 65% in 2015 (Perrin, 2015). With how popular it’s become, it raises the question of whether or not it’s also potentially harmful.

I have read briefly about the possibility of a connection between social media use, particularly Facebook, and its connection to depression and mood. Yuen et al. (2018) attempted to unravel this mystery by examining how the moods of “emerging adults”, specifically undergraduate students at a private university, were impacted by their use of Facebook (Yuen et al., 2018). The researchers chose to focus on undergraduate students as it is known that 90% of these emerging adults use social media, thus making them a reliable sample (Perrin, 2015). Upon beginning the study, the researchers hypothesized that Facebook use would be associated with a lower mood.

The researchers initially surveyed the participants to uncover their pre-experiment moods before using Facebook. They then implemented Facebook usage into the study by allowing  one group of participants to engage in various Facebook activities for a period of 20 minutes, while another group engaged in general, non-social media related Internet usage for the same period of time (Yuen et al., 2018).  Immediately afterwards, the researchers administered another mood-based survey in order to obtain the participants’ moods after using Facebook and the Internet. The pre- and post-experiment mood evaluations were then compared in order to determine the impact of Facebook and the Internet upon participants’ moods. The results showed that Facebook use led to a significantly lower mood than did browsing the internet, supporting their hypothesis. The authors gathered that, with how heavily Facebook is used, especially by emerging adults, continued negative impact on mood over time could be detrimental to psychological well-being (Yuen et al., 2018).

This was eye-opening for me because I know that the majority of my friends (emerging adult age) are incredibly involved in social media. I have witnessed first hand the effects that certain posts or information sent or received through social media sites has had on friends and it is overwhelming at times. I have witnessed amongst my friends break ups, fights, losses of friends, losses of jobs, the onset of therapy, onset of depression and/or anxiety and more all related to social media usage. As the aforementioned research supports, I find it extremely important to continue research into the impact of social media usage on our mental health and well-being. Is this connection to lower moods after Facebook usage a sign that Facebook is, over time, leading to depression? If so, the more we discover pertaining to the connection, the better we will be able to prevent such effects from being as detrimental.

References

Perrin, A. (2015). Social networking usage: 2005– 2015. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-networking-usage-2005-2015/

Yuen, E. K., Koterba, E. A., Stasio, M. J., Patrick, R. B., Gangi, C., Ash, P., Barakat, K., Greene, V., Hamilton, W., & Mansour, B. (2018, January 18). The Effects of Facebook on Mood in Emerging Adults. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000178


17
Mar 19

WYA

“Sup”

“Hey baby. What are you doing?”

“Nothing. Wya?”

“?”

“It means where you at”.

The above dialogue is a typical conversation I have with my 14-year-old son. Our conversations mostly consist of him texting me in text slang and me trying to decipher it and feeling old. I feel like limiting TV screen time is a thing of the past since an average teen has a smart one and spends more time socializing through social media or instant messaging. When I hear parents bragging about their strict parenting styles and not letting their kids have smart phones, I try to admire it, but in reality, I’m rolling my eyes. I will lie if I said I’m constantly monitoring my son’s phone usage. I mean, between juggling a full-time job, going to school and writing blog posts, the easiest choice is to let him entertain himself in his room and leave me alone for a moment.

Most parents I know feel more at peace that their adolescent kids have cell phones since they can be in contact throughout the day. Adolescents kids gain more freedom in their middle/high school years and spend more time away from parents. Ever since my son started walking home from school, I made sure he has a cell phone with him at all times. Unfortunately, the cell phone is not being used just for communication. Although parents like the idea of being in contact with their kids, they also raise concerns of negative consequences of cell phone use. Parents and school staff have voiced their concerns about cyberbullying and other conflicts connected to text messaging and social media (Tulane, Vaterlaus, Beckert, 2014).

It’s been reported that parents prefer to oversee their kids’ cell phone use rather than having school administrators or teachers have that control. However, studies show that cell phone use is more under control with adolescents who attend schools with strict cell phone rules. With schools enforcing strict cell phone rules, many teachers acknowledge the advantages of smart phones in classrooms as they can be used for research and class projects. Teaching students the resourcefulness of smartphones as opposed to their disruptive use, teachers play catch-22 trying to advocate for balanced use of cell phones (Tulane, et al., 2014).

Going back to the beginning of this post where I made myself sound like a terrible mom, yes, parents are not perfect, and yes, we do educate our kids to be responsible cell phone users. Before becoming parents, we have this ideal parent in our heads that we try to look up to, but then reality comes, and we’re not that strong anymore. I have always been outspoken about teaching and educating children as young as possible. We warn them about drugs and unsafe sex, we teach them to see the difference between right and wrong, we educate them to be responsible for their actions. Cell phones are just another addition to the list of things we want to make them aware of. And even if they spend a little more time on their smart phones while mom is getting things done, then that’s just the reality we have to live with, at least for the time being.

References

Tulane, S., Vaterlaus, J.M., Beckert, T.E. (2014). An A in their social lives, but an F in school: Adolescent perceptions of texting in school. Sage Journals, 49.


17
Mar 19

Information Overload

It’s everywhere!  The bells and whistles on your phone sending you notifications.  The endless signs, flashing billboards, politicians up for election.  Hey!  It’s tax season, I just waved at someone dressed up as the Statue of Liberty trying to tug at my patriotic heart strings to hand over my personal information so this company can do my taxes.  You can’t stand in line at a grocery store without looking over and seeing the latest gossip all over magazine covers.  You listen to random conversations around you and hear people chiming in on all the latest news topics.  Kids have become mini-marketers posting video ads for toys that collect thousands of views and make thousands of dollars.  It’s hard to avoid.  Media is everywhere, and it influences our daily lives from the things we buy to the things we try to the things we think about daily.

We are living in a world of information overload as we are continuously inundated with information everywhere we turn, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  On the one hand, it’s impressive and inspirational to see people turn into designers, architects and celebrity chefs through clever social media marketing.  On the other hand, there is no off button to reduce the constant influx of horrifying news stories, the fixation on the dangers of humanity and the harmful effects of misinformation.  We live in a world where our days are filled with impressive home hacks and quick recipes to horrifying scenes of mass shootings and endless propaganda aimed at dehumanizing humanity.  Between all that chaos we are inundated with ads that distinctly target our desires.  It can be unnerving to know that every click we make is monitored and tracked for companies to present us with money saving deals and headlines.

Our minds race between wanting to create something great for dinner to thinking about the latest technological wizardry available for purchase to wanting to build a bomb shelter for our family to hide in until the persistent threats broadcast on the news no longer haunt us.  It’s a horrible play on our emotions.  With so much coming at us at such a fast pace it’s easy to feel like everything is out of our control.  I can understand why many people want to disconnect and close their eyes to the constant influx of information.  But are we truly helpless in a society inundated with media frenzy and rapid-fire information?    Absolutely not.

It’s important for members of society to recognize that our eyes are valuable to media outlets.  We are the targeted audience.  We must not allow our time and attention to be devalued.  By having a better understanding of media in all forms we can better prepare ourselves and our families to be wise consumers and efficient users of media. Critical viewing skill and media literacy skills should be viewed as being important for the safety and benefit of society.  Media in all forms has helped movements, created a world where we can connect with each other, but it has also promoted wars and hatred through repeated coverage with poor framing.

It’s imperative that our society, as audience members of media outlets, advocate for media literacy and critical viewing skills across the board for all ages.  In doing so, we can give society members the tools needed to protect ourselves from being inundated with unnecessary information, incorrect information and harmful information.  By promoting media literacy and critical viewing skills, we can begin to re-shape the way information is relayed and consumed to encourage a healthier media dynamic.

Arke (2005), showed a positive relationship between media literacy skills and critical thinking skills with quantitative data.  This study shows a correlation that many textbooks have previously only assumed.  Given this information, it’s important to work on expanding such studies to create effective interventions aimed at increasing media literacy skills throughout the lifespan.  With the reality of an ever-expanding age of information upon us, we can no longer choose to just disconnect from media outlets.  We must take proactive steps to ensure that society members are able to work through the information being spun daily.  As a society, whose attention is valuable to many media outlets, our increased media literacy skills can help shape the way media sources produce information.

Mingoia, Hutchinson, Gleaves & Wilson (2019), created a pilot study on the effects of media literacy on female university students.  They wanted to see if media literacy training would affect their opinion on tanning.  After providing media literacy training to participants for two weeks, the study showed that participants who received media literacy training experienced less internalization of tanning as being ideal for appearances.  Participants were less likely to become influenced by the allure of tanning which could have harmful effects such as skin cancer.  This study reflects the way media literacy skills increase critical thinking skills which in turn can help media audiences become more cautious consumers of media.  Media literacy skills can help prompt people to stop and really think about what is being seen, read or heard on media outlets before internalizing any negative or incorrect messages.  It’s a very important skill to have in our times.

It’s important to recognize that as members of a media loaded society, we are all responsible for media literacy and critical viewing skills.  We must remain vigilant in our own actions and avoid the bystander effect by choosing to be part of solutions that can change the system of media that many of us feel overwhelmed by.  Aside from advocating for media literacy in institutions through legislation, we must embrace our own responsibility of increasing media literacy around us.  We must be vigilant in our own actions and not diffuse responsibility to other people or institutions.  We all have a hand in this together.

The first thing we need to do is to encourage communication with each other.  When a person references a topic, they’ve seen broadcast on the news or something they saw on social media, we can encourage critical thinking by asking questions about it.  Encourage our friends, family and children to ask questions about the topic, the outlet that presented the topic, discuss the prospective of this topic and whether it’s positive or negative.  Use these moments as teachable moments with everyone.  Relate the topic to everyday life and everyday people.  Discuss implications of what was presented and how it was presented to offer a different perspective.  Model critical thinking skills by using critical thinking skills when talking about topics that tend to be hyper-propagandized.  When someone is exhibiting bias because of something on social media or on the news, don’t be afraid to call it out.  Encourage people to look for multiple sources of information to try to verify information.  We all play a role in influencing each other and by modeling critical thinking during conversations about things seen in various media outlets we can encourage media literacy skills in those around us.

It is well within our power and our right to be proactive in creating a solution to the information overload we all experience.  It’s part of our responsibility as a society to advocate for media literacy education to give society members the necessary tools needed to be critical consumers of media in all forms.  As more people in our society become critical consumers of the information provided by media outlets, it can change the dynamic of the media outlets themselves.  If we arm ourselves with the media literacy and critical thinking skills necessary to thrive in a world of information overload, we can reject misinformation and deter media sources that can be harmful.  In doing so, we could proactively change the way media sources are vying for our attention and shift it in a healthier pattern for everyone.

 

 

References:

Arke, E. (2005). Media Literacy and Critical Thinking: Is There a Connection? (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/9

Media Literacy Now. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://medialiteracynow.org/your-state-legislation/

Mingoia, J., Hutchinson, A. D., Gleaves, D. H., & Wilson, C. (2019). The impact of a social media literacy intervention on positive attitudes to tanning: A pilot study. Computers in Human Behavior,90, 188-195. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2018.09.004

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019).  PSYCH 424 Lesson 9: Media/Communications Technology  Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1973019/modules/items/25635718

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Los Angeles: Sage.


16
Mar 19

Mindless Scrolling

It’s undeniable that media is a large part of our daily lives, in fact it would most likely take a calculated effort to seclude oneself from the plethora of media that one encounters in a day.  The hyper accessibility of the media has many benefits, you can tune in to see what’s going on in the world thousands of miles away, watch a how-to video on YouTube, communicate with a friend in another time zone…the list goes on and on.  Despite the many benefits that we reap from media, there are some negative aspects that stem from media use.  A type of media in particular that is tied to some detrimental findings is social media, specifically in the form of social networking.  Social networking websites (SNS) include Facebook, Twitter, dating applications, etc.  There have been concerns over it’s addictive potential and negative psychological effects within a minority population of its users.

Kuss & Griffiths (2011) conducted one of the first scientific literature reviews on the topic and have since updated their findings several years later.  In the updated literature review it was noted that there is conclusive evidence that social networking site (SNS) addiction does exist (Kuss & Griffiths, 2017).  The previous review could not conclude such findings because research on this topic was in its early stages.  It is important to note that while SNS addiction has been recognized, very few are clinically diagnosed.  For others it’s clearly a habitual behavior that may be perceived as annoying or rude to others.  Furthermore, it can cross the line and become problematic when it impedes driving performance by creating a distraction (Kuss & Griffiths, 2017).

So, what facilitates excessive social media use?

Kuss & Griffiths (2017) states that people access SNS mainly through their smartphones which gives users the ability to constantly check their smartphone. The behavior that is associated with the need to constantly stay connected is explained by the concept Fear of Missing Out or FoMO.  It is defined as “pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent, FoMO is characterized by the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing” (Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan & Gladwell, 2013, p. 1841).  Empirical results regarding FoMO conducted by Przybylski et al. (2013) showed that FoMo was negatively associated with mood and life satisfaction.  These results parallel with Kuss & Griffiths’ (2017) findings that there are negative psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, in a minority population that excessively uses social media.

Dr. Mark Griffith suggest implementing what he calls “digital detox strategies” if you are spending too much time on social media.  In a Washington Post article, Kuss & Griffith listed six questions that helped evaluate if you could benefit from a digital detox or if you are teetering on the line of potential addiction.  Besides evaluating your own personal social media use, I think that our society could benefit from rules being put in place to minimize our usage, such as workplaces and schools.  At the end of the day, it’s more fulfilling to be present in your own life, rather than mindlessly scrolling.

References

Kuss, D.J. & Griffiths, M.D. (2011). Online social networking and addiction: A literature review of empirical research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8, 3528-3552.

Kuss, D. J. & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Social networking sites and addiction: Ten lessons learned. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health14(3), 311; doi:10.3390/ijerph14030311

Kuss, D. & Griffiths, M. (2018) 6 questions help reveal if you’re addicted to social media. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/04/25/social-media-addiction/?utm_term=.fcb7ca018554

Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., & Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), 1841-1848. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.014

Walton, A. (2017). 6 ways social media affects our mental health. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/06/30/a-run-down-of-social-medias-effects-on-our-mental-health/#7c4c20c92e5a

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels


16
Mar 19

The Mortifying Truth

Smile and nod, perhaps fake a laugh so they think you know what they are talking about. I became a master of reading the situation so that I would not have to reveal the mortifying truth of how disconnected I was from those around me. I was raised in a cult (and homeschooled) from a young age and was prohibited from the forms of media that other kids my age spent most of their free time consuming. I was not allowed to watch television or movies; even listening to the radio was forbidden. Most books (other than the bible) were taboo as was reading news articles and magazines. These rules were strictly enforced and refusal to abide by them was swiftly punished in a way you would feel for weeks. In an almost outlandish question, Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts (2012) ask “Can you think of anyone who does not listen to the radio, read newspapers or magazines, or go to see movies?” (p. 136). If you are reading this blog, you can now answer that question in the affirmative.

When I tell people about the way I was raised, some initially think it must have been great to have avoided the negative influences associated with the media, but I view the situation very differently. When I finally mustered up the courage to separate myself from the situation at the age of 23 (which resulted in being disowned by my family), I had so much to catch up on. I found that I was unaware of an embarrassingly large number of world events, was woefully uneducated on many topics, and had only seen a handful of movies. Most social communication is based on movie references, television shows, music, or recent news events. It is hard for most people I meet to imagine how truly disconnected I was from society. (For example, imagine someone making a reference to “not being in Kansas anymore” and having no idea what they are talking about.) It has been 10 years now and I am still trying to catch up on everything I missed growing up.

While it is easy to condemn the media and view its influence on children as negative, I believe it is a powerful tool that just needs to be utilized properly. According to Strasburger, Jordan, and Donnerstein (2010) media can foster empathy, increase acceptance of diversity, provide prosocial benefits, enhance children’s literacy skills and “foster social connectedness” (p. 756). It can also deepen their views of self, enhance their understanding of their community and the world around them (O’Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). I believe that we need to be more focused on encouraging the right types of media that can improve the overall wellbeing of children and adolescents in addition to limiting their exposure to harmful media. I believe the most effective way to accomplish the goals of decreasing children’s exposure to the negative influences of the media and increasing their exposure to the media’s prosocial benefits is two-fold.

First, parents must be educated on how media can affect their children. Proper education for parents will help them understand that exposure to many forms of pro-social media (in moderation) is good for children. They also need to be educated about the detrimental effects on children of violence, pornography, drugs, alcohol, negative body image, etc. in the media. Importantly, because parents cannot control everything their children see, they need to understand how beneficial discussing these issues with their children can be. One of the most successful ways to mitigate the harmful effects of negative media exposure is to inform the viewer about the negative effects in advance (Schneider et al. 2012). If parents are taught to discuss these issues with their children, then we will see an increase in those individual’s ability to cope with the toxic side of the media.

The second way to help change the manner in which young people consume media is to educate them directly. I think it would be beneficial to introduce media literacy classes in our public school systems, starting at a young age, about how easily people are influenced by all forms of media. These classes should be ongoing, building on and deepening their understanding of the effects of media, throughout the entirety of a child’s school years. Young people need to be taught that what they read, watch, listen to, and participate in will influence their action and lives. They should be taught how to identify the nature of the media they are interacting with and how to either avoid it or use it to their advantage. Most adolescents will admit that others are strongly influenced by the media but underestimate their own susceptibility to being influenced (Strasburger, 2004).  This type of education will enable young people to voluntarily abstain from harmful influences and encourage them to seek out helpful, pro-social, and healthy forms of media.

 

References:

O’Keeffe, G., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011). The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. Pediatrics127(4), 800-804. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-0054

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 Publications.

Strasburger, V., Jordan, A., & Donnerstein, E. (2010). Health Effects of Media on Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics125(4), 756-767. doi: 10.1542/peds.2009-2563

Strasburger, V. (2004). Children, adolescents, and the media. Current Problems In Pediatric And Adolescent Health Care34(2), 54-113. doi: 10.1016/j.cppeds.2003.08.001


15
Mar 19

Dangers of Texting While Driving

Could you imagine driving the length of a school football field at 60 mph with a bl.ind fold on? If you think about it, whenever you are texting and driving that is exactly what you are doing. Texting behind the wheel can take the driver’s eye off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Do you think that is pretty dangerous? Of course! The leading cause of death among teenage drivers used to be drinking and driving however now it has been replaced with texting and driving. Teenagers are not the only ones to blame though, 49 percent of American adult drivers admitted that they text while driving. This has become a big problem in the United States. Being on our phones has become such a habit for us that we even will risk our lives to check our phones.

Texting while driving if you get caught can be very expensive. In Wisconsin their inattentive driving law does not allow drivers to text behind the wheel. Your first penalty the fine is as high as 400$ and also 4 points on your license. If you get caught the second time it is going to cost you 800$. In Minnesota their texting law does not allow drivers texting behind the wheel either the penalty is 300$. If you do get pulled over and tell the police officer that you were not texting they are able to obtain a subpoena for your cell phone company and check to see if you were texting. Crazy right? Also, fines like this may also make your car insurance premium go up!

So how can you help? A very important way of helping would be to lead by example. Never send or respond to a text message while driving or even when you are at a red light! If you do so, it can not only put you at risk, but others as well and is against the law. If you feel like you can not contain yourself and control yourself maybe you should turn off your phone or put it in your pocket or purse and only use it when the car is in park. Always stay focused on the road as well, keep your eyes on the road. If you are in the car with someone who is texting please say something. Also, it is good to make people in your community aware of the dangers of texting while driving too!

In conclusion, texting while driving is very dangerous and can not only get you or someone else seriously hurt but it can also cost you and another person’s life. It is a no win situation. However, you are able to prevent this from happening on your part. It is simple, hide your phone when you are driving so that way you can not feel tempted to use it behind the wheel. It is also important to only use your phone when you are parked. Never use your phone even if you are at a red light.

References:

Insurance, I. (n.d.). Dangers of texting while driving. Retrieved from https://www.integrityinsurance.com/tips/dangerstexting

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2012). Applied Social Psychology. Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.


15
Mar 19

An influencer?

I have to admit, when I first heard the term “influencer”, I thought what is that? Most influencers have amassed a massive social media following by creating content that promotes brands, with the aim of gaining attention from those brands (Glucksman, 2017). They’re usually posting about products such as make-up, handbags, or clothing and providing their followers with reviews. If a brand likes what they see, the individual can potentially become a paid spokesperson for the brand.

Marketing experts know that if they want to reach the most people possible, they must have a strong social media presence. The popularity of social media has certainly presented a new avenue for brands to advertise (Glucksman, 2017). Ads on Facebook are not the only way brands are attempting to reach and influence individuals; they are paying people to promote their brands on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter…did I get them all? That’s where an influencer fits in all of thisInfluencer marketing has taken off  and it has proven to be widely successful (Glucksman, 2017). A top executive for Estee Lauder, hinted to the fact that they use approximately 50% of their marketing budget on influencers (Cho, 2018). That’s a big deal. As it appears, there is money to be made as an influencer, so what am I doing here!?

Influencers can be great for business. Alex Bolen, chief executive for Oscar De La Renta, said that influencers have had a positive impact in the brand’s handbag division (Cho, 2018). Their production has nearly doubled, all thanks to influencers.

But is it all good news?

The answer is no! In case you missed it, there were two documentaries on the doomed Fyre Festival on Netflix and Hulu.  Top influencers were enlisted by McFarland to promote this festival that was supposed to take place in the Bahamas (Pampell, 2019). It was supposed to be an awesome music festival with with A-list performers and luxury villas-none of it came to fruition. Along with influencers, promotional videos with well-recognized models were also used to drive ticket sales (Pampell, 2019). If not for influencers, they may not have sold as many tickets. But they did, and people were duped into spending thousands of dollars.

Buyer, beware!

 

References

Cho, A. (2018). The rise of social-media influencers. CBS News. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-rise-of-social-media-influencers/

Glucksman, M. (2017). The rise of social-media influencer marketing on lifestyle branding: A case study of Luci Fink. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 8(2), 77-87

Pampell, J. (2019).Three truths the Fyre Festival documentary proved about influencer marketing. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/03/08/three-truths-the-fyre-festival-documentary-proved-about-influencer-marketing/#5afc772619b3


13
Mar 19

Smartphones in the Classroom

I’m certainly not anti-technology. My laptop, which has outlasted two different best friends, is one of my most stalwart companions and has, therefore, secured its place as one of my most beloved possessions. I hate writing by hand, always preferring to type, and I pity the poor saps who had to write entire novels in such a plebeian fashion. Playing video games is one of my favorite pastimes, and someday, I hope that AI technology becomes advanced enough for me to have a robot dog and a robot butler, who — if we’re talking about sentience level advancement — I pledge to pay a fair wage. At this point, some might question the purpose of a robot butler, to which I would respond, “You just don’t get it. It’s a robot butler. It’s the best thing ever.”

Moving on. 

Given my personal preferences, it might seem strange that I can’t stand smartphones, but it’s true. They’re the worst. Sure, I use my laptop every day and feel somewhat hobbled when Apple’s terrible power cord gives out once a year, but you don’t see me plunking it down on the dinner table or pulling it out of my backpack to browse Instagram while in line for coffee. (Also, I don’t get Instagram, but that’s off topic.) The fact is, I don’t enjoy being sucked into the smartphone’s seductive vortex of constant connection, 24/7 entertainment, and instant gratification. Laptops, computers, and cellphones all have limitations for when or how you can use them, but smartphones, as the name suggests, are highly sophisticated devices that have the ability to perform most, if not all, of the previous devices’ capabilities —anytime, anywhere. For one thing, this feeling of being constantly reachable is exhausting. (Please leave me alone.) Furthermore, studies performed by Ward, Duke, Gneezy, and Bos (2017) have found that the mere presence of an individual’s smartphone has a negative impact on their cognitive capacity, impacting the “the attentional resources that reside at the core of both working memory capacity and fluid intelligence” (p. 150). This effect is positively correlated with smartphone dependence, indicating that the negative impact of smartphone usage continues even when we abstain from checking our messages or scrolling through social media (Ward et al., 2017).

There used to be one place where you were, relatively, safe from your pocket overlords — the classroom. That, sadly, is no longer the case. My sister is currently in high school, and she, like the rest of my family, does not have a smartphone. Unfortunately, more and more of her teachers seem to be relying on them in the classroom, a fact which is sometimes problematic for her. To be fair, the teachers always come up with an alternative solution, but they are not always very elegant and usually entail making her share with another student. (I had to share computers with another student for the first half of my Computers/Careers class in high school, and I still only type with four fingers.) Instead of using graphing calculators, they use an app called Desmos. Instead of normal test prep activities, they use their phones to access a website called Cahoots, which is just an electronic quiz game. In what I think is the weirdest example, her history teacher had them make Tik Tok videos as an assignment and then made fun of her when she said she didn’t have a smartphone. None of these activities or tasks are drastically improved by the involvement of smartphones and only serves to further increase smartphone dependence and penalize students whose parents are making a stand against it. 

Furst, Evans, and Roderick (2018) found that, on average, students who checked their phones more than 39 times per day were significantly more likely to state that they interfered with their ability to complete their homework. Similar to Ward et al.’s (2017) findings, those who were more dependent on their phones found them to be a greater distraction (Furst et al., 2018). While the intentions behind smartphone use in the classroom are, undoubtedly, good, it still habituates students to smartphone use, and that’s if you assume that every single student is using their phone exactly as they’ve been instructed. (I’ll give you a hint, they’re not.) 

As my sister can attest to, students often use their smartphones to text, watch YouTube videos, and, somehow, get away with playing Fortnite in class. When I was in high school, texting in class was a cardinal sin. Today, more and more teachers have embraced the use of smartphones, and this, unfortunately, has the side effect of increasing the number of distractions that go unchecked in the classroom. As Grinols and Rajesh (2014) point out “students alternating their attention between the reading material and their texting [are] likely [to] impede their comprehension of the material” (p. 94). One obvious solution to these distractions is to not allow students to use smartphones in class and to avoid relying on them for things that can be easily achieved through normal means. Ultimately, technology is not something that I wish to demonize. I do think there are ways that technology can assist learning in the classroom, but at this time, smartphones are not the answer.

References

Furst, R. T., Evans, D. N., & Roderick, N. M. (2018). Frequency of college student smartphone use: Impact on classroom homework assignments. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 3(2), 49-57. doi:10.1007/s41347-017-0034-2

Grinols, A. B., & Rajesh, R. (2014). Multitasking with smartphones in the college classroom. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 77(1), 89–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329490613515300

Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one’s own smartphone reduces availability in cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research,2(2), 140-154. doi:10.1086/691462


12
Mar 19

Pornography & Juvenile Sex Offenders

Pornography is defined as sexually explicit material meant to sexually arouse the viewer via the media (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). During this week’s assigned readings in Applied Social Psychology, Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems, by Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, we learned about the effects of long-term exposure of nonviolent pornography (nonaggressive, casual, nonromantic) and the effects of any exposure of violent pornography (male-dominated, degrading). According to Schneider et al. (2012), research studies have shown that the long-term exposure of nonviolent pornography can increase negative attitudes towards women, can influence changes in family values, increases interests in other types of pornography, and can occasionally result in sexual callousness. Furthermore, research studies regarding any amount of exposure of violent pornography in men have shown an increase in sexual arousal, an increase of rape fantasies, desensitization of embedded sexual violence, acceptance of violence towards women, and desensitization towards rape and rapists (Schneider et al., 2012). Applied Social Psychology, Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems, by Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts dabbles in the effects of different types of pornography, but I wanted to know how pornography effects the population I am most interested in: adolescents. After applying knowledge from my personal experience and the information I found through research, I have come to the conclusion that pornography can influence adolescents to sexually offend others.

Personal experience: During the summer I was lucky enough to have an internship at an adolescent residential treatment facility. The facility was comprised of boys and girls from the ages 12 to17 on three different floors:

  • First floor: Boys with severe behavioral and psychological disorders.
  • Second floor: Girls with severe behavioral and psychological disorders.
  • Third floor: Juvenile sex offenders (boys).

Many people read “juvenile sex offenders” and think “CRIMINALS! SEND THEM TO JAIL!” I was actually one of those people before I began my internship. However, I quickly learned that adolescents do not randomly become sexually aggressive. During my internship I took a training class regarding the treatment of adolescent sex offenders and learned a few factors that can contribute to a child becoming a sex offender:

  1. They have been sexually abused themselves
  2. They have been exposed to sexual content at a young age: pornography and/or parents are not maintaining age-appropriate boundaries

It makes sense to me that exposure to pornography could be a factor that influences juvenile sex offending because of social learning theory. For example, a ten-year-old boy sees a man receiving oral sex in a nonviolent pornography video and in turn, this ten-year-old boy wants to give or receive oral sex.

Research: Even though I was taught by clinicians that pornography can contribute to adolescents sexually offending other children, and I can make connections between theories from my psychology courses, I have never done outside research regarding pornography and juvenile sex offenders. According to Dr. Sharron Cooper, pornography makes adolescents believe the sexual situations (violent, nonconsensual, unprotected, emotionless) they are watching are normal and acceptable in their own lives (Baxter, 2018). Dr. Cooper also believes that adolescents are more likely to replicate the explicit sexual acts they are watching via pornography because they feel like they are experiencing what they are watching due to mirror neurons (Baxter, 2018). Another study on juvenile sex offenders yielded significant results that watching pornography before and after the age of 10 was correlated with sexual offending in adolescents, compared to nonoffender adolescents who had not watched pornography before the age of 10 (Burton, Leibowitz, Booxbaum, & Howard, 2011).

After reading Applied Social Psychology, Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems, by Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, it is obvious that long-term exposure to nonviolent pornography and any amount of exposure to violent pornography has negative effects to the viewer. However, because the effects of pornography on adolescents were not explored, I examined my personal experience at my internship and did outside research to conclude that pornography can influence adolescents to sexually offend others.

References:

Baxter, A. (2018). How Pornography Harms Children: The Advocate’s Role. ABA. Retrieved from: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/child_law/resources/child_law_practiceonline/child_law_practice/vol-33/may-2014/how-pornography-harms-children–the-advocate-s-role/

Burton, D. L., Leibowitz, G. S., Booxbaum, A., & Howard, A. (2011). Comparison by crime type of juvenile delinquents on pornography exposure: The absence of relationships between exposure to pornography and sexual offense characteristics. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 7(1), 54. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/867317020?accountid=13158

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2012). Applied Social Psychology. Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.


09
Mar 19

Humanizing incarcerate settings

“It is quite relaxing to be here. We have bunnies and few sheep. Today, we are potting seedlings in preparation for a big spring sale” says Hannu Kallio.  Hannu Kallio is not a farmer. He is a convicted drug smuggler at Kerava’s open prison in Finland. He isn’t locked. He doesn’t wear uniform. He works every day at a greenhouse, and earns about $8 an hour. He has a cell phone, does his grocery shopping in town and gets three days of vacation every couple of months. He pays a rent to the prison; and if he chooses to study for a university degree in town instead of working, he gets a subsidy for it. He sometimes takes supervised camping and fishing trips.

Being incarcerated in Finland wasn’t always a sinecure. In the 60’s, the country had one of the highest imprisonment rates  in Europe. Prisons were overcrowded and detention conditions were deplorable. At the same period, researchers across Nordic countries started investigating how much punishment really helps reducing crime. They concluded that it doesn’t. As a consequence, Finland rethought all its penal policy. Fifteen years later, results were compelling.  Finland have one of the lowest rates of imprisonment on the continent with 55 inmates for 100 000 inhabitant. As a comparison, the rate in the US in 2018 is 655 prisoners per 100 000 inhabitant.  Prisoners in Finland are gradually reintroduced into normal life through open prisons. Almost  third of Finnish inmates are housed in open prison, and inmates who go through open prisons are less likely to be arrested again.

Finland had it right. As you may already know, prison sentences serve several purposes. It removes criminal from the streets, it serves as a form of punishment, but it also helps to  correct or modify the criminal behavior and prepares the offender for reintegration into society. “Conventional” prisons may have succeed in the two first goals, but have failed the last one. Research suggests that incarceration has a limited value in preventing future crime and it may contribute to increase the risk of recidivism (Griffiths & Cunningham, 2000). Although by changing the prison environment to match the needs of the offender, Finland obtains better outcomes. The recidivism rate for open prisons in Finland is 17% lower than in “conventional” prisons.

Some countries may not be ready to implement open prisons. The shift from an emphasis on punishment and a “get tough on crime” perspective (Benson, 2003) will be too strong to bear.  An alternative could be to bring more humanity in prison setting through building therapeutic communities. A therapeutic community is a holistic residential environment that is designed to promote residents’ personal growth and development. The primary aim is to bring about changes in attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that lead to a healthier and more adaptive lifestyle on return to the community than the lifestyle that lead the person to be admitted into the facility in the first place. The core concept is living-learning. The therapeutic community embodies principles like honesty, openness, self-governance, and learning from individuals’ effort to live together (Grant, 1980).

Extending the therapeutic community concept to the correctional setting may seem as first quite challenging. Some additional principles have to be included like building relationship with one another, attending to antisocial attitudes, values and beliefs, victim awareness, and developing strategies for avoiding reoffending (Lipton, 1998). Therapeutic communities can provide opportunities for offenders to live in a highly structured setting that models a cooperative prosocial environment. Living in a nurturing environment can change their attitudes witch will lead to change in their behaviors. Prison based therapeutic communities have been implemented in many states, like New York, California, Oregon and Texas.

Stay’n Out Program is an example of a prison based therapeutic community. It was developed in 1977 in New York. It is a 12-months program for male and female prisoners with substance abuse problems (Lipton, 1998). Participants are phased into the program over three stages: induction, treatment and consolidation of treatment and reentry into the community. The first stage involves orientation, assessment, and assimilation into the therapeutic community model. The second stage is aimed at personal growth. The final stage involves strengthening and reinforcing the treatment gains that have been made and developing a discharge plan. The Stay’n Out program worked pretty well. Participants recidivated less often and were less likely to violate their parole. Moreover, the longer the individuals participated in the program the better were the outcome.

Therapeutic communities and Open prisons show us that alternatives exist to the “Prison break” like incarcerate settings. One must not neglect the power of the situation in shaping peoples behaviors. Besides, countries can obtain great outcomes when, like in Finland, their policy are based on the work of experts and not only on politician hunches.

Bichell, R. (2015, April 15). In Finland’s ‘open prisons,’ inmates have the keys. Retrieved March 9, 2019, from https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-15/finlands-open-prisons-inmates-have-keys

Griffiths, C. T., & Cunningham, A. C. (2000). Canadian corrections. Scarborough, ON: Nelson.

Grant, J. D. (1980). From “living learning” to “learning to live”: An extension of social therapy. In H. Toch (Ed.), Therapeutic communities in corrections (pp. 41–49). Westport, CT: Praeger.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles ; London ; New Dehli ; Singapore ; Washington DC ; Melbourne: SAGE.

Lipton, D. S. (1998). Therapeutic community: Treatment programming in corrections. Psychology, Crime and Law, 4, 213–263


06
Mar 19

CYA L8r SmRtphone!

Complete shock is the only way I could describe my reaction when he pulled out his brand new, slick, orange phone. It wasn’t the modern features that caught me off guard nor the petite size. It was the tiny, little screen about the size of a quarter and the buttons with three or four letters of the alphabet printed out on them along with numbers and symbols. He had traded in his smart phone for a new, yet very much old-style phone. I looked at him questioningly, waiting to hear the explanation.

My friend calmly sat down in the chair, placed his new device on the table and looked me in the eye. “I’ve decided to make a change.” he stated. He continued by explaining to me that he felt that his life was too centered around his phone and that he was losing precious time by having access to so many things in the palm of his hand. He wanted this to change so that he could be more productive and appreciate the world around him. He assured me that he still had access to all of his social media sites through his computer, but that he would only allow himself to access these things in the evenings when he got home. Those who needed to contact him had been informed that the best way to do so was to call him, but only if it was something that needed direct attention. Everything else could be texted to him as he had this connected to his computer as well.

The more he explained, the more I began to understand his reasoning behind it. Being such a busy person he always complained about having to be in constant contact with people, always replying to messages and emails. However, this was not completely true as the need he felt to always be available was not actually a need and more of something he wanted.

I pondered about his decisions and wondered if it was something that I myself would even be capable of doing. There were definitely situations in which I needed to be in contact with people while outside my house, but would it not work for them to simply call me? There’s no doubt that I spend a good amount of time on social media, whether it be sitting down to scroll through Instagram or naturally opening up Facebook on my walk home from work. Obviously this isn’t a necessary thing. I can update myself on the world once a day, or even once every few days. Although it seemed quite difficult to wrap my mind around, the truth of the matter was that I could make it work, just as my friend had found a way to do.

A few weeks after he made this change, I met up with him again to hear about how his life was going. He seemed extremely free and joyful, it seemed like a load of stress had been lifted off of his shoulders. I wondered if this had some type of connection with the loss of his smartphone and he assured me that it definitely was a large factor on his mood. He said that even though he was more disconnected from the world, he felt like he was truly able to be part of it. In person interactions felt a lot more real to him because he was solely focused on the present and his situation in that precise moment. He was not forced to multitask between what he was doing and people trying to communicate with him on his phone. He said that he was extremely pleased that he had made the decision to get rid of his smartphone. An interesting thing that he mentioned was that he had no experiences any form of miscommunications since changing phones. While most of his contact was done in person or on the phone, there was no possibility of someone misinterpreting a text message or he himself misinterpreting one.

Although I have no intention of making such a drastic change in my life, and I don’t think it is likely for many people to do so, I do think it is important to realize how much of an impact being in constant contact with our phones can have. There are people who have a smartphone and use it purely for necessary communication purpose; this is quite impressive in my mind. However, the majority of people, especially the younger population, seem to have an entire life behind the screen of their phone. Many of them have grown up with it and do not even realize that difference there is between having access to so much of the world through a phone and simply living completely in the moment.

My friend made quite a change and I do believe that, even if it is not permanent, that it will last for a while. The concept of a “phone fast” is something that we should all consider because I do believe it would give us a little perspective on how much more involved we could be with the world around us in a physical and spiritual way as opposed to try living a large part of our lives through social media. One month of using your phone only during certain hours, or purchasing a cheap, simple phone during the summer months could be a healthy experiment.

I don’t doubt that people think this idea is good but, on hearing about it, think to themselves that it is not something they could ever do. I would encourage people to take the risk, there really isn’t much that can be lost!

 


04
Mar 19

Police Interrogation Practices Involving Children

Social psychologists have identified the language used in interviews and interrogations as problematic. Consequently, those subject to police interrogations are susceptible to coercive tactics and demanding language that causes a recollection of modified memories in response to leading dialect. Sadly, there is a group that is particularly vulnerable to interrogative language. Compared to adults, children are particularly vulnerable to the demanding nature of the interview context. This is due to the fact that if a previously asked question is asked again, a young child or adolescent is likely to change his or her answer even if the first response was correct (Schneider et al., 2012). This poses a variety of implications for the processes of the criminal justice system, as, coercing a child into a false confession is easily done and may result in false testimony that could put an innocent person behind bars, or exonerate guilty parties.

As previously mentioned, compared to older children and adults, young children are particularly susceptible to suggestive influences when it related to recalling events related to trauma or stressful events (Brackmann et al., 2016). In a courtroom setting, when children must testify and are the sole witnesses in cases, namely sexual assault cases, the validity of the child’s testimony is especially important to determine a proper and just verdict for the accused. In past research, children’s susceptibility to the injection of false memories has been evaluated and consistently verified. In fact, there is extensive evidence to substantiate that negative and traumatic events are preserved in a child’s memory when no suggestive pressure is involved (Backmann, 2016). Hence, researcher’s Brackmann, Otgarr, Saurland, and Jelicic (2016) reported that young children are at greater risk of conformity to suggestive pressure and are more likely to change their accounts and report false details when given repeated questioning than older children and young adults.

On the other hand, it is important to identify the age-related patterns of children when it comes to the formation of false memories due to the testimony and suggestions of others. According to Ronford, Chen, and Harris (2018), two and three-year-olds will likely display a strong bias in trusting the information that others relay to them. Even, if the adult has misled or gave them false information in the past. Though, this phenomenon of blind-trust decreases with age. From elementary aged children and beyond, children have demonstrated a higher incidence of questioning the testimony of others and counterintuitive claims. In turn, with increased age, he or she is less likely to rely on the claims of others made verbatim (Ronford et al., 2018).

Furthermore, other means of children giving false testimony exist and have to do with a child that may engage in lie-telling and eliciting a false-confession when reporting the transgressive behavior of an adult to protect them from exposure of wrongdoings (Saykaly et al., 2016). By age eight, children are able to maintain their lies and provide plausible information in support of them. This ability for children to cognitively evolve requires that interview process rely on more than a series of interview and follow up questions to expose false statements and testimonies in children. More specifically, a strategy of questioning children that forces them to maintain their true and false reports in chronological and reverse orders are better methods at exposing their truths and falsities (Saykaly et al., 2016).

Finally, age prevails as one of the most pertinent implications that interfere with a child’s ability to appropriately recall memories- whether it be linguistic barriers or an increased trust in adults and susceptibility to their influence. With age, this susceptibility will likely decrease. However, during police interrogations, it is vital that the age and developmental trajectory of the child be taken into account. Overall, questioning strategies should be adapted to appropriately fit the cognitive capacity of the child in order to receive accurate testimony. Oftentimes in sexual abuse cases, young children display linguistic barriers, and will not immediately provide detail on the traumatic event. In such cases, nonverbal aids may be helpful to elicit accurate information from the child (Otgaar et al., 2016). Therefore, it becomes essential that police interrogations adopt more dynamic methods for questioning children to avoid influencing and eliciting false confessions that have repercussions for the accused, the child, the integrity of the justice system, and society as a whole.

References

Brackmann, N., Otgaar, H., Sauerland, M., & Jelicic, M. (2016). When children are the least vulnerable to false memories: A true report or a case of autosuggestion? Journal of Forensic Sciences, 61, S271-S275. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1111/1556-4029.12926

Otgaar, H., van Ansem, R., Pauw, C., & Horselenberg, R. (2016). Improving children’s interviewing methods? the effects of drawing and practice on children’s memories for an event. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 31(4), 279-287. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1007/s11896-016-9190-0

Ronfard, S., Chen, E. E., & Harris, P. L. (2018). The emergence of the empirical stance: Children’s testing of counterintuitive claims. Developmental Psychology, 54(3), 482-493. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1037/dev0000455

Saykaly, C., Crossman, A., Morris, M., & Talwar, V. (2016). Question type and its effect on children ‘ s maintenance and accuracy during courtroom testimony.Journal of Forensic Practice, 18(2), 104-117. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1108/JFP-01-2015-0010

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2012). Applied Social Psychology. Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.


04
Mar 19

America’s Prison System is Flawed

Every country has a unique prison system that differs from others in some ways. Every culture has its own way of punishing criminals. In America, we put people in prison which are unfit to live in. The United States is 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prisoners (Lichtenberg, 2016). Some people might think that since someone committed a crime the conditions in the prison don’t matter. However, these people are still human and not all of them are violent offenders. Some people haven’t even been convicted yet, some are innocent, and others are put there because of racial bias. America’s prison system is inhumane, ineffective, and overall flawed.

One requirement of a just system is that punishments should be proportional to the crimes. Our prisons are inhumane and don’t meet this requirement because after someone’s incarcerated we don’t treat them like humans anymore. Just recently in Brooklyn prisoners were without heat and electricity for days in the winter weather. What we need to understand is that the sentence is the punishment and denying prisoners the right to freedom is ok. However, it is not ok when we deny them their human rights and fundamental freedoms. Prison conditions should not be an additional punishment.

Prisons are ineffective at stopping crime. Which is unfortunate because another requirement of a good justice system is that the punishment should not do more harm than good. More than two-thirds of criminals released in 2005 were arrested by the end of their third year (Lichtenberg, 2016). Each extra year in prison raises the risk of reoffending by 6% (2017. Meaning going to prison does not do criminals good because they end up going right back. Another harmful effect of our prison system is its effect on the poverty rate. Mass incarceration breaks up families and causes former convicts to become unemployed. This has raised the American poverty rate by 20%. (2017).

Overall, Prisons in America are flawed in many ways. One flaw that plagues our system of punishment is racial bias. Black men are incarcerated more than white men even though they make up less of the population. Also, five times as many white people use drugs as African-Americans, but black people are imprisoned 10 times more (Lichtenberg, 2016). The third requirement of a good prison system is that similar crimes should be treated similarly, which is clearly not the case in our prisons. Colored people who commit the same crimes are not treated the same way as white people would be.

Our prison system has many problems and is in desperate need of reform. Some of these problems include inhumane living conditions, racial bias, and increased risk of reincarceration. We can solve these problems if we meet three requirements of an effective system. Firstly, the punishment has to fit the crime. Secondly, it has to do more harm than good. And, thirdly similar crimes should be sentenced in the same way.

References:

Lichtenberg, J. (2016, September 30). America’s prison system is inhumane. Here’s why. Retrieved from https://theweek.com/articles/651722/americas-prison-system-inhumane-heres-why

America’s prisons are failing. Here’s how to make them work. (2017, May 27). Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/05/27/americas-prisons-are-failing-heres-how-to-make-them-work


04
Mar 19

Stop the Origins of Criminal Behaviour

As an employment counsellor for people in recovery, I hear many stories.  And while often people arrive in my office and they just want to get a job, my investment is in the person that they are.  As I learn about their values, hopes and dreams, they begin to open up and share some of the most tender moments about their life growing up.  Many of my clients are from socioeconomically disadvantaged, inadequately educated, first nations communities who become mired in addiction, sometimes as early as age seven or eight.   More than 50% of my clients have a criminal record but this does not define who they are.  According to the strain theory, Schneider, Gruman and Coutts (2012) these attributes, poor, uneducated and social inequality prevent this group from achieving a place in the middle class offering some sense of stability.  The strain of poverty, addiction and sexual abuse in their families and their life are what positions them on the path towards deviant behaviours.

The challenges are vast for these people.  The social learning theory identifies that one’s social environment dictates how one learns to behave.  That includes behaviour around drug and alcohol use, abuse and violence.  If there they see no way out of this circumstance, the drug use seems like a reasonable escape.  According to Gabor Maté from his book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, (2009) heroin is like a warm hug, it is the only thing that takes the pain of their existence away.  If it is not heroin, it is crack or crystal meth and at this point, they are always working towards their next fix.  Deviant behaviour is motivated by their need to escape.  The criminal behaviour is rampant in their neighbourhood on Vancouver’s Downtown East Side.  Once a person becomes an addict, their behaviours become antisocial.  They will steal and manipulate to find access to the drugs that relieve the pain again and again.  And, with very few positive peer role models the hope of something different is elusive.

There are social programs established to begin to address the multigenerational trauma and abuse of the first nations people, should they be fortunate enough to access them. The treatment centre where I work is one of them.  Once they arrive in my office they have usually been in clean for approximately 90 days.  My part in this is to see the resilient, skilled, capable and creative person sitting across from me.  I do my part, one client, at a time to help them find themselves in their purpose and meaning.  I ground them in the possibility of their success and at the end of the day, when they get a job or, go to school, they find the opportunity to believe in themselves.  You see, I have a vested interest in the First Nations people.  My grandsons were born to a father who has suffered this unimaginable abuse.  I want the cycle to stop with them.

References

Kirkup, K., & Ubelacker, S. (2016, November 06). Open secret: Sexual abuse haunts children in indigenous communities. Retrieved March 03, 2019, from https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/11/06/open-secret-sexual-abuse-haunts-children-in-indigenous-communities.html

Maté, G. (2009). In the realm of hungry ghosts: Close encounters with addiction. Toronto: Vintage Canada.

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

 


03
Mar 19

The Racialization of Arrests

Have you ever done anything illegal? Have you ever thought you would be arrested for doing something illegal? What about being arrested for “just looking suspicious”? If you are a white individual in America, especially if you are male, you have probably never worried about being arrested and view the police as protectors who keep your city safe. Change the color of your skin and suddenly you have to worry about being arrested for doing nothing more than standing on a street corner in a high crime neighborhood. Police are now no longer the saviors of the city, keeping you safe at night; they are your worst nightmare, brought to life in the bright light of day. “Blacks are far more likely to be arrested than any other racial group in the USA. In some places, dramatically so” (Heath, 2014).

There is no telling exactly why there is such a dramatic disparate in arrest rates, it could be racial discrimination, it could be socio-economic factors, the neighborhood you live in, or the amount of education you have received (Heath, 2014). Whatever factor you place the blame on, or if you place blame on all the factors, the fact remains the same: the United States’ Criminal Justice System has a problem, a big one.

The U.S. prison population looks very different from the country’s actual demographics. According to the Pew Research Center (2018), blacks represent 12% of U.S. adults, but 33% of the sentenced prison population whereas whites represent 64% of adults in the U.S., but only 30% of prisoners. This discrepancy is astounding, but imprisonment rates themselves are not the only bad news for African Americans. Criminal records have a huge impact on future success, and the negative impact created by a criminal record is twice as large for African Americans (NAACP, 2019).

The outcry from the communities about this injustice has caused many police departments to implement anti-bias training, but is this an effective way to reduce the rates of African American incarceration? There are studies out there that suggest that training someone to not show racial bias could potentially actually increase racial bias (Kaste, 2015). Also, there has not been much research on the long-term effects of anti-bias training on police, so there is no guarantee that these trainings are actually effective (Kaste, 2015). Besides, police bias may not be the main cause of African American incarceration.

African Americans make up a large percentage of the low-income population, which decreases the opportunities available to them. The percentage of young black men not working or enrolled in school is twice as high as it is for young white men (Comey, 2015). Many minority communities are struggling with lack of adequate education and decent employment opportunities (Comey, 2015). Not only that, but these low-income neighborhoods have a legacy of crime and the minority individuals growing up in these neighborhoods inherit that legacy and become involved in crime (Comey, 2015).

Police bias is part of the problem, but the way our society is structured is the main culprit in this mess. In addition to changing our policing policies, we need to work together to help the disadvantaged groups in our society gain more opportunities so that they can break out of the cycle of crime and poverty.

 

References:

Comey, J. (2015, February 12). Hard Truths: Law Enforcement and Race. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/hard-truths-law-enforcement-and-race

Gramlich, J. (2018, January 12). Gap between number of blacks, whites in prison narrows. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/12/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/

Heath, B. (2014, November 19). Racial gap in U.S. arrest rates: ‘Staggering disparity’. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/18/ferguson-black-arrest-rates/19043207/

Kaste, M. (2015, April 06). Police Officers Debate Effectiveness Of Anti-Bias Training. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2015/04/06/397891177/police-officers-debate-effectiveness-of-anti-bias-training

NAACP. (2019). Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/

 

 


03
Mar 19

Self-Defense

Imagine yourself scared for your life as your best friend is acting irrational and a little aggressive because of all the alcohol pulsing through his veins. One minute he is your friend and the next he wants to kill you, literally. At this moment you have no transportation, it’s winter, you do not have heavy clothes,it is 2 a.m. and your house is 3 towns over. Your friend won’t let you leave either. He is acting mentally crazy. You are so fearful that you can’t even call the cops because if he finds out you know he can overpower you. What do you do?
All of a sudden he lunges at you and tries to choke you out. You get away and run but he gets you once again. Now what is next? There are a lot of emotions racing through your head and you decide to use fight instead of the flight response. “The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a physiological reaction that occurs in the presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically”(Cherry, K., & Gans, S.2018). “The term ‘fight-or-flight’ represents the choices that our ancient ancestors had when faced with a danger in their environment. They could either fight or flee”(Cherry, K., & Gans, S.2018). You decide to use a weapon to fight so you can get away. As the police come to arrest you, you are cooperative and you even made sure to hold pressure on the wounds of your attacker because he was your friend. You don’t want him to die. The police even say that you used self defense and that you are in the right, but they arrest you and not him. “Police officers have a duty to arrest anyone suspected of committing a criminal violation. If police officers see two people fighting, both of them could be arrested for assault and battery, even if one person was acting in self-defense”(Law, B. B, 2018). “If you reasonably believed that you were in imminent risk of death or serious injury, you have the absolute right to use force, including deadly force, to save yourself(Law, B. B, 2018). Our judicial system has turned into you are guilty until proven innocent. No matter what someone has to get arrested if the police need to attend a scene this critical.
After this tragic and frightening event with someone who was supposed to be your friend just happened, you are thrown into the judicial system. An emotional state of a person being arrested for a crime when they have been wrongfully accused can be very damaging. When someone is being thrown into jail and has to go through all of the other procedures of the other inmates, it can be very traumatizing. For example, they arrested you but not your attacker because he needed medical attention. “If immediate release is not obtained, the false arrest victim who is often utterly confused and terrified must face the dangers of jail, some of which can be lethal. For example, the risk of suicide within the first 24 hours of incarceration is well known”(Simon, R. I., M.D., 1993,p.523).
We as a society promote self defense. There are self defense classes available to everyone of all ages. One of the more common classes of self defense is martial arts. They even have classes for women on how to defend themselves if they were being attacked. If people get arrested for defending themselves, wouldn’t this factor influence the victims decision if the moment arose?
One self defense case that changed a 26 year old’s life forever was because she defended herself. She had an older boyfriend who was an alcoholic, did drugs and was very abusive. One night they were arguing and he was beating her up in their apartment. She grabbed a knife and stabbed him. She ran to a neighbors house to call for help and her boyfriends mother to let her know about what happened to him. Of course she was arrested and jailed for 19 months. The court set her at $1 million bond. She was crying because she did not know if he was alive or dead, didn’t know what was going to happen to her children, etc… Finally after trial she was freed due to the courts ruling of self defense. “Childress said, adding that authorities rushed to judgment in arresting and charging Martin. I should never have a case this good because somebody’s been to jail that shouldn’t have (been put there)” (Hitzeman, H. 2012). Unfortunately this happens quite often because even though police have the authority to arrest they were not there for the crime. Also they have to follow the rules no matter their judgement.

Works Cited

Cherry, K., & Gans, S. (2018, September 21). How the Fight-or-Flight Response Prepares Your Body to Take Action. Retrieved March 2, 2019, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-fight-or-flight-response-2795194
Hitzeman, H. (2012, June 26). Woman freed after self-defense verdict in 2010 Aurora murder. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120625/news/706259597/
Law, B. B. (2018, April 10). Can You Be Arrested for Self-Defense? Retrieved March 2, 2019, from https://www.bradbaileylaw.com/legal-blog/2018/april/can-you-be-arrested-for-self-defense-/
Simon, R. I., M.D. (1993). The Psychological and Legal Aftermath of False Arrest and Imprisonment. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law, 21, 523-528. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/26c5/51bbceded450ee840030e1f61c9dad40fbad.pdf.


03
Mar 19

The Bystander Effect: Would You Help?

If you have taken even an introductory psychology class, there is a fair chance that you will be familiar with the name Kitty Genovese or the term, “the bystander effect”.

Kitty Genovese

Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old woman who was brutally murdered outside of her apartment complex in 1964 while some of her neighbors witnessed parts of the attack, heard her cries for help, and did not intervene. Although some controversy exists surrounding the original facts reported about this case, it was enough to spur more research into why people (specifically those part of a larger group) who witness an emergency situation do not intervene or help and led to the forming of the bystander effect. Formally, the bystander effect states that people are less likely to help in an emergency situation when there are other bystanders present (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2012).

There are a few different explanations that are believed to drive the bystander effect. One of them is called the diffusion of responsibility. This means that when in a larger group, each individual experiences a lowered sense of personal responsibility for what they witness happening (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2012). In other words, people who witness an emergency event in the presence (or even perceived presence) of others will often fail to help because they think that someone else is sure to help. When everyone thinks this, then no one ends up intervening. The bystander effect is also more likely to happen when the bystander can remain anonymous, such as witnessing an event from a window or driving by in a car (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2012). This is in stark contrast to the finding that if there is only one witness to an emergency, that person will almost always help because there is the perception that there is no one else to take on the burden of responsibility (Hortensius & de Gelder, 2018).

There are some other factors that play into a person’s willingness to help in an emergency situation as well. A person is less likely to intervene if they perceive the situation as rather ambiguous or do not immediately recognize it for an emergency (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2012). Maybe you’re walking down a crowded street and you see what you think is someone’s purse being stolen. You might second-guess what it is that you’re seeing or perhaps you think you’re misunderstanding and are reticent to insert yourself into someone else’s business. By the time you realize that it was, in fact, a mugging or a robbery, the perpetrator is gone and the window to help has passed.

Two more factors are evaluation apprehension and pluralistic ignorance. Evaluation apprehension happens when someone fears unfavorable public judgment while helping (Hortensius & de Gelder, 2018). Pluralistic ignorance happens when witnesses believe that because no one else is helping, it must not really be an emergency.

But perhaps the most disturbing or disheartening reason that people fail to intervene is the perceived similarity (or dissimilarity) between the victim and the witness or potential helper (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2012). People are more likely to intervene if they see themselves in the victim, which perhaps does not bode well for someone that belongs to a minority demographic experiencing an emergency situation surrounded by people who are not part of the same demographic. It is an uncomfortable thing to think about because none of us want to believe that we would only help someone who “looks like us”, but the fact of the matter is that it happens and we might not even realize that it’s happening at the time.

Although there is strong evidence that situational and environmental factors may play the biggest roles in bystander intervention, there is some recent research that suggests there are certain dispositional characteristics that could also help to explain bystander apathy. There are two systems that work together to help decide whether a person will display bystander apathy or helping behavior: sympathy and personal distress (Hortensius & de Gelder, 2018). Sympathy is described by the researchers as “an other-oriented response that encompasses feelings of compassion and care for another person” (Hortensius & de Gelder, 2018). Personal distress refers to the observer’s more automatic response of self-oriented feelings of distress and discomfort (Hortensius & de Gelder, 2018). The research found that while a combination of sympathy and personal distress were related to faster response in the face of an emergency when the observer was the only one present, only personal distress was found to be related to bystander apathy when others were present (Hortensius & de Gelder, 2018).

People who are more prone to experiencing personal distress in the face of an emergency situation are more likely to display bystander apathy and fall prey to the bystander effect. On the other hand, those who are better able to keep calm and compartmentalize during an emergency situation are more likely to display helping behavior. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a bad person for not helping, because the research again shows that personal distress triggers a reflexive aversion to the suffering of another person which means you really can’t help reacting that way (Hortensius & de Gelder, 2018).

So put yourself in the shoes of one of Kitty Genovese’s neighbors, watching her being stabbed from behind your comfortable, anonymous window. Would you rush to her aid? Put yourself between her and her attacker? Call the police right away? Or would you watch, feeling paralyzed by the horror of what you’re seeing? Would you pull the curtains tight and try to forget, fearing that helping or putting yourself into that situation would only harm you, or worse, cause others to judge you for attempting to help and failing?

There are so many factors that are in play when it comes to bystander intervention, but you can sigh in relief just a bit in knowing that you might not have control over exactly how you react or respond in the face of someone else’s emergency, despite how you think or wish that you would.

References

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

Hortensius, R., & Gelder, B. de. (2018). From Empathy to Apathy: The Bystander Effect Revisited. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(4), 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417749653


02
Mar 19

Eye Witnesses Make Errors

Although our intent is usually good, as a society we know humans can misjudge and make errors at times. In fact, there are times we may provide invalid eyewitness testimony on an innocent person. Discrimination and ones’ ethnicity and race play a role in the cross-race effect phenomenon. This phenomenon is based on the idea that eye witnesses tend to display better recall and recognition of faces that are like their own race than those that are not (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012).

A study that was conducted found that the cross-cultural race effect also known as CRE specifies that cross-race faces are instantly categorized within our minds as an out-group and different encoding processes are applied and used to the same-race faces which then provide individuals with better recognition and memory of the same-race faces (Pezdek, Ozery & Marsh, 2013). With that said, when individuals are asked to look at a lineup and identify the criminals, there are many errors that can take place. Especially when foils are used. Foils are people in the lineup whom are innocent and have nothing to do with the criminal act. Wells and Turtle have found that when a lineup consists of just suspects alone rather than a suspect and foils, witnesses are more likely to identify innocent people as criminals. The use of foils has shown that eye witness accounts can have known error (Schneider et al, 2012).

Several types of eye witness lineups have been conducted. There are simulated eyewitness identifications studies conducted the use of a single-lineup paradigm and a dual-lineup paradigm. This is where all the witnesses observe the same perpetrators and receive one of two lineups. One of the lineups has the perpetrator in it and the other has an innocent suspect while the rest of the individuals are matched up to look like the expected perpetrator. The differences between the two lineups are composition and guilt. Interestingly, when fillers were matched to look like the perpetrator it reduced the innocent people from being misidentified (Oriet & Fitzgerald, 2018).

References
Oriet, C., & Fitzgerald, R. J. (2018). The single lineup paradigm: A new way to manipulate target presence in eyewitness identification experiments. Law and Human Behavior, 42(1), 1-12. doi:10.1037/lhb0000272

Pezdek, K., Ozery, D., & Marsh, B. (2013). The Cross-Race Effect in Face Recognition Memory for Bicultural Individuals. PsycEXTRA Dataset. doi:10.1037/e571212013-074

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 Publications.


02
Mar 19

Wrongfully convicted

We’re all familiar with this story: wrongfully convicted individual is freed after spending decades behind bars. Now that they’re free, they hope to seek compensation from the government. While they wait on compensation, they must somehow assimilate back into society. We might think that once they have been exonerated, how hard can it be? Well, it isn’t as easy as we may all think. Innocents still face obstacles long after they have been released (Sholsberg, Mandery, & West, 2012; as cited in Scherr, Normile, & Putney, 2018).

Some exonerees face difficulties after having their convictions overturned. The general public’s perception of the exonerees is the problem. A lot of the times they view the exonerees as negatively as they see parolees (Scherr, et al., 2018). The stigma associated with a conviction haunts them long after they’ve had their convictions reversed.  The public perceptions of exonerees is dependent on the crime, and of whether or not they confessed. For violent crimes they’re viewed as being uneducated, unskilled, and immature, while nonviolent criminals are viewed as more educated, intelligent, and smart (O’Connor, 1984; as cited in Scherr, et al., 2018).

Let’s look at Huwe Burton (Maule, 2019). He served 19 years for a crime he did not commit.  He was accused of killing his mother in their Bronx apartment in 1989 (Bronx man’s name cleared, 2019). The police used “psychologically coercive techniques” which led to a false confession (Maule, 2019). Research by Scherr and colleagues (2018) found that people were more likely to perceive those whom had falsely confessed as less intelligent, and likely suffering from mental health issues. The issue with those judgments is that they prompt people to believe the exonerees were not entirely innocent and undeserving of reintegration services (Scherr, et al., 2018).

The exonerees deserve a second chance, and as a society, we should not stand in the way of someone’s successful reintegration. We should be building awareness of the factors that may lead to false confessions, educate the public of the challenges exonerees face upon release, and implement policies that will ease an exoneree’s reintegration back into society (Scherr, et al., 2018).

 

References

ABC News. (2019) Bronx man’s name cleared decades after wrongful conviction in mother’s murder. Retrieved from https://abc7ny.com/bronx-mans-name-cleared-decades-after-wrongful-conviction/5104871/

Maule, A. (2019, February 13). Huwe Burton speaks out on Today Show for the first time since his exoneration. Innocent Project. Retrieved from https://www.innocenceproject.org/huwe-burton-speaks-out-on-today-show-for-the-first-time-since-his-exoneration/

Scherr, K.C., Normile, C.J., & Putney, H. (2018). Perpetually stigmatized: False confessions prompt underlying mechanisms that motivate negative perceptions of exonerees. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 24(3), pp.341-352. DOI:10.1037/law0000163

 


02
Mar 19

Why Rehabilitation Does Not Work in America

Rehabilitation in prison plays a major role in the people who will be rejoining society after they finish their sentence, but are the rehabilitation programs effective? It should be effective for both the individual that is in prison, as well as the society; however, this is not the case and result in bad consequences for both parties.

Rehabilitation In German and the Netherlands vs. America.

Now back to the original question–are the rehabilitation programs they are receiving effective? The short answer is no. When comparing prison reform to other countries around the world, America falls short and there are several reasons why. VERA: Institute of Justice’s report titled, “Sentencing and Prison Practices in Germany and the Netherlands; Implications for the United States” found that there were several issues with the approaches to prison reform in America. The first problem being the imprisonment of criminals. The American prison population has increased by 700 percent in the last 40 years, but not only that it has cost the state corrections expenditures about $53.5 billion in 2012 (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). It was furthermore found that mass incarceration and increased investment in corrections did not bring better safety in return. In other words, there is only about 20 percent reduction in crime since the early 1990’s. This is why rehabilitation programs should be a key factor in reducing crime and furthermore reduce crimes committed by individuals that have been in prison and are returning to society. But why are more Americans being sent to prison, but crime rate has not lowered drastically? Is it because Americans have become more violent over time or are there perhaps other reasons? There are several reasons to this; first being that Americans are being sentenced for “petty” crimes such as drug offenses or theft. They can even get imprisoned for life for such crimes, whereas German and Dutch systems use a different approach. For example, possession of drugs won’t get you imprisoned, but they focus on bigger crimes such as drug trafficking, and if the individual who is involved with drug trafficking is addicted to drug, they can access detoxification or substitution therapy or needle exchange programs, which are lacking in American prisons and should be implemented (Subramanian & Shames, 2013).

When looking further into the lives of prisoners in the three different countries, America stood out quite a lot. In German and Dutch prisons, they try to prepare the prisoners for life after jail. On the other hand, American prisons use dehumanizing methods and focus more on punishment rather than rehabilitation.

German and Dutch prisons have “the sole aim of incarceration to enable prisoners to lead a life of social responsibility free of crime upon release.” They do this by giving the prisoners a fair amount of control over their daily lives such as what they wear and making their own meals. Another example is that guards knock on the prisoners’ doors before entering, which gives the prisoners a sense of privacy, and their toilets are walled. German and Dutch prisons believe by implementing these factors, it will contribute to the prisoner’s success in life after prison. As one of the German prison stated, “if you treat inmates like humans, they will act like humans” (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). On the other hand, American prisons focus less on reform but rather on punishment, American prisoners have to follow strict rules such as daily schedule–when to wake up, what and when they eat, what they wear which is usually a uniform. It has been found that these factors lead American prisoners to not function in society after being released; they found that simple things like daily decision making is harder for them and making it hard for them to adjust to society (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). Another practice which is rarely used in German and Dutch prisons is solitary confinement. American human rights advocate states that the amount of times that prisoners spend in solitary can amount to torture, and in some cases American prisoners can spend up to years in solitary (Human Rights Watch, 2012). On the other hand, German and Dutch prisons when they do use solitary confinement it only amounts to a few hours or days (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). This is an inhumane practice and I cannot see how these individuals are expected to adjust to society after years in solitary.

Now the next question is what can we do? First, we have to rethink how we treat prisoners, as our lesson book teaches us. Therapeutic communities can promote the personal growth and development of the residents (Schneider, 2012). This approach can be seen in the German and Dutch prisons, but not so much in American prisons. If we want to help former criminals to be better citizens and not commit crimes again, we need to create and focus on rehabilitation program in prisons.

My experience in a European Prison

When I lived in Denmark, I had the opportunity to visit a prison during a school trip, because we were learning about rehabilitation and the Danish prison system. Just like Germany and the Netherlands, Danish prisons have a high rate of rehabilitation success. I did not know what a prison looked like, but I had some ideas, because I watched American movies and saw how it was “supposed to” look like. To my surprise, I found myself walking among prisoners–my classmates and I were shocked. I saw that the inmates were wearing normal clothes, walking in and out of their rooms, and in the kitchen cooking their own food. I remember thinking that it was crazy that a criminal was holding a knife, and worrying for my safety. I later found out that prisoners go to therapy regularly, get education, and have a great amount of personal responsibility leads to a higher successful rehabilitation rate. The prison was not a scary place with people behind bars screaming at us; rather, it looked like a college dormitory–they had their own rooms with private toilets, a shared kitchen for each floor where they can cook their own food. They even had a TV in their respective rooms. They can do several different types of work such as cleaning to earn points to use towards buying a TV, books, and other “luxury” items. This technique will also prepare them to work for their money and help them adjust to society after being released.

Conclusion

To increase the success rate of American rehabilitation prison programs, we might want to take some notes from countries that are successful. First, we should revisit our system, such as which crimes should be a life sentence. Furthermore, we need to revisit our approach to how we treat prisoners humanely and how we can assist them in becoming better citizens. Rehabilitation programs should be aimed at individuals who have been sentenced and are expecting or eligible for release. I am not saying that the Germans and Dutch have all the answers to our issue, but revisiting and thinking outside the box might help us succeed in increasing the rate of successful rehabilitation programs in America and furthermore help the individuals in a humane and correct manner.

 

References

Human Rights Watch (2012). US: Look Critically at Widespread Use of Solitary Confinement. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/18/us-look-critically-widespread-use-solitary-confinement

Schneider, F.W, Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012).  Applied Psychology (2nd ed.).  Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Subramanian, R., & Shames, A., (2013). Sentencing and Prison Practices in Germany and the Netherlands: Implications for the United States. Retrieved from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/vera/european-american-prison-report-v3%20.pdf


01
Mar 19

The False Confession of Peter Reilly

False confessions are, understandably, of great concern to the American legal system. A false confession can lead to the wrongful imprisonment of an innocent individual, ensure the freedom of the true criminal, and prevent the victims from receiving the justice they deserve. While reading the text’s section on the subject, I was reminded of the case of Peter Reilly, an 18 year old living in a small Connecticut town who, after returning home from the local youth center, found his mother dead on the floor, her throat cut and her legs broken (Barthel, 1976). Reilly, despite initially claiming that he was innocent and that he had no memory of committing the crime, eventually came to believe that he did, in fact, kill his own mother, giving a full confession and even going as far to explicitly detail how he committed the murder (Toglia, Read, Ross, & Lindsay, 2010). Consequently, he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to six to sixteen years in prison (Spelhaug, n.d.). 

From the outside, it seemed like an open and shut case. Just another psycho who snapped and killed someone. However, Reilly later recanted his confession, claiming that it was coerced, and two years later, independent evidence supported his claims, proving that he could not have committed the murder (Toglia et al., 2010). Reilly was eventually exonerated, but there was no way to undo what had already been done to him. This revelation is particularly concerning because not only did Reilly give a false confession which resulted in his conviction, but he also, at the time, truly believed that he had done it. 

How does something like that even happen?

Well, a number of factors went into the making of this particular false confession. First of all, Reilly lived in a small town. He already knew and liked a number of the officers involved in the investigation and had even previously considered a career in law enforcement (O’Donohue & Levensky, 2004). He trusted them to look after his best interests, and the interrogator regularly exploited this trust, claiming that he was trying to help him, even as he railroaded him into a false confession (Berthal, 1976). Reilly was also young. Youth, in particular, are at risk of giving false confessions because they tend to be “immature, naively trusting of authority, acquiescent, and eager to please” (Leo, 2009).

After being taken into custody, Reilly, “was held at the police station overnight, subjected to an interrogation, and took a voluntary polygraph test, all without the presence of an attorney” (Spelhaug, n.d., para. 3) in the hopes that his actions would help demonstrate his innocence. (They did not.) Mirroring Bradley Page’s case, the officer conducting the interrogation used minimization and false incriminating evidence to elicit a confession from Reilly (Berthal, 1976; Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Reilly was told that he had failed the lie detector test — untrue — and was, over the course of six hours, slowly convinced that he had committed the crime (Berthal, 1976). It would take quite a while to detail all of the manipulation and leading statements that went into making Reilly’s eventual confession, so I will let this excerpt from the interrogation (taken from Roesch, Zapf, and Hart’s (2009) discussion of the case) speak for itself:

Peter: The polygraph test is giving me some doubts right now. Disregarding the test, I don’t think I hurt my mother.

Det.: You’re so damned ashamed of last night that you’re trying to just block it out of your mind. […]

Peter:  Would it definitely be me? Could it be someone else? 

Det.: No way, not from these reactions [to the polygraph test].

The officers involved in the case were convinced that Reilly was guilty, and this presumption of guilt lead them to interrogate him in ways that confirmed their suspicions. As Hill, Memon, and McGeorge (2008) showed in their study, the confirmation bias can affect the questioning style of the interviewer, which can then lead to the suspect behaving and responding in ways that confirm their initial beliefs — a self-fulfilling prophecy. Lastly, Reilly was held at the station overnight, and prior to taking the polygraph test, he stated that he “hadn’t been to bed in almost thirty hours” (Barthel, 1976, p. 48). He amended this slightly, stating that he got an hour or two of sleep in the morning, but his later complaints of complete exhaustion emphasize the fact that he was suffering from sleep deprivation (Barthel, 1976; O’Donohue & Levensky, 2004). Physical exhaustion has been found to be a significant risk factor for police-induced false confessions, and sleep deprivation has been found to impair inhibitory control, reduce the individual’s ability to understand the consequence of their actions, and result in an increased susceptibility to coercion and the creation of false memories (Frenda, Berkowitz, Loftus, & Fenn, 2016; O’Donohue & Levensky, 2004). 

It was a nightmare situation. The transcript of Peter Reilly’s interrogation reads like a Kafka novel. A teenager, whose mother has just been brutally murdered, is manipulated into believing that he was one who killed her. We, of course, are able to read about the case with the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge that he is innocent, but the officers involved in this tragedy had no such advantage. They were small town cops conducting a murder investigation — a challenge that they were not quite prepared to face. However, by understanding the circumstances that contributed to Peter Reilly’s false confession, we can improve police procedures in the future. 

The best advice I can give to you personally, however, is to always, always get an attorney.

References

Barthel, J. (1976). A Death in Canaan. New York, NY: E.P. Dutton.

Frenda, S. J., Berkowitz, S. R., Loftus, E. F., & Fenn, K. M. (2016). Sleep deprivation and false confessions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,113(8), 2047-2050. doi:10.1073/pnas.1521518113

Hill, C., Memon, A., & McGeorge, P. (2008). The role of confirmation bias in suspect interviews: A systematic evaluation. Legal and Criminological Psychology,13(2), 357-371. doi:https://doi.org/10.1348/135532507X238682

Leo, R. A. (2009). False confessions: Causes, consequences, and implications. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law,37(3), 332-343.

O’Donohue, W., & Levensky, E. R. (2004). Handbook of forensic psychology: Resource for mental health and legal professionals. San Diego, CA: Elsevier.

Roesch, R., Zapf, P. A., & Hart, S. D. (2009). Forensic Psychology and Law. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

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

Spelhaug, C. (n.d.). Peter Reilly. Retrieved from https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetailpre1989.aspx?caseid=268

Toglia, M. P., Read, J. D., Ross, D. F., & Lindsay, R. (2010). The Handbook of Eyewitness Psychology(Vol. 1). New York, NY: Routledge.


01
Mar 19

Child Sexual Abuse Allegations and the Courts

Her toddler comes home from visits with dad and every time there are new symptoms.  Anal fissures, a child screaming in pain during diaper changes, even on rare occasions disclosures of what daddy did.  Along with evidence of coercion like, “daddy said say nobody and nothing.  Nobody and nothing.”  But this falls on deaf ears.  When a mother speaks up and says this is what my child did or said, she is viciously attacked, sometimes even by her own lawyer.

Child sexual abuse is one of the worst things I can imagine happening.  The victim is defenseless, has no power, and the tiny voice they do have is not listened to by those who should protect her.  She pleads at times, “Mommy, help me!”  But her mother is just as defenseless.  Subjugated to a system where money is power, maleness is power, whiteness is power.  Without these, she is reduced to depending on those in power and if they refuse to help, she has few options.  Many lawyers even counsel their female clients to be quiet about abuse.  The message mothers keep getting is, “Stop talking.  Be quiet.  Don’t bring it up.”

Some mothers flee.  Ireland has a no extradition policy.  As does the Netherlands.  One adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse described her terror and pain during childhood and praised her valiant mother for fleeing with her and her brother overseas to the Netherlands.  She’s come through it well, thanks to the healing balm of being in her mother’s safe care, and now speaks up on behalf of the thousands of child victims still in this plight.

It’s easy to think: this can’t really be accurate.  This doesn’t happen.  Not in America.  Stop and think: where do you think all the child porn comes from?  Certainly not from families where good parents are protecting their kids.  Statistics of adults reveal that up to 1/3 have been sexually abused, most as children.  Yes, these things are happening.  Many child sexual abuse allegations are substantiated, to the tune of one every 11 minutes, with 80% of perpetrators being a parent (Children and teens, n.d.).

The disconnect comes in when there is also domestic abuse.  Going through family court and custody litigation with an abusive partner has proven devastating and even fatal to many mothers and children.  Most divorces end up with a couple agreeing on terms including custody.  A small percentage end up litigating and most of those are called High Conflict Divorces.  But research has shown that 75% of high conflict divorce cases are of marriages in which there was abuse.  Which makes sense.  Separating from an abusive spouse does not make the abuse stop.  Abuse can be simply reactive, in which a spouse explodes in seemingly uncontrollable anger.  The question is, do they control that anger outside the home?  Does the abusive person go around exploding in anger at other people?  If not then he is actually very much in control of his anger; he chooses when and where to use it.  And it is frequently used in his home to control others.  The basis of domestic abuse or domestic violence or intimate partner violence, all synonyms, is power and control.  One spouse learned as a child that the way to treat people, especially women, is through domination and control tactics.  These tactics continue in court, and lead to a minority of men in custody disputes using the system to hurt the mother by hurting the children.  A sense of entitlement causes him to view his wife and children as his property.  Combine this with a man who is molesting his children and what you have is an entitled child molester who is very good at presenting a rational demeanor to a court that does not want to believe he is hurting children.  The saying goes like this: a woman can have 1000 pieces of evidence and all a man has to do is say “I didn’t do it” and the court says “ok then.”

There are two camps when it comes to child sexual abuse allegations in family court.  One group says we must investigate abuse claims and protect children.  The other camp says these claims are being fabricated in order to remove one parent’s rights to see the children.  Each of these stances has a different primary goal.

Child protection as the goal

If child protection and safety is the primary goal, then any claims of abuse from either parent will be taken seriously.  The court or child protection services will do an investigation into the abuse claims.  This investigation will be done in a manner consistent with current psychological standards and be done by experts in the field of abuse.  For example, in the case of claims of child sexual abuse or molestation, the standard best practice is to evaluate evidence including a history of any abuse toward the child or mother, a history of sexualized behaviors by child, alterations in other behaviors of child as well as physical evidence.  Forensic interviewing can be used with children over the age of three.  Children do not always disclose in the interviews but this does not mean that there was no abuse.  Children are more likely to disclose if they feel safe, which would include keeping them in the custody of the non-alleged abusive parent (the safe parent) and repeating interviews with the same interviewer so that the child feels safe with them.  If child abuse claims are validated, the court has a responsibility to keep the children safe.  One form of safety is supervised visitation to ensure safety while still allowing parental access.

Parental rights as the goal

If parental rights and parental access is the primary goal, then abuse claims tend to be minimized so that parents will continue to have access to their children.  In order to avoid investigating claims, many courts and many judges go the route of focusing on the accuser, typically the mother.  Several methods are routinely used to discredit a mother’s allegations of abuse, so that the claims are not fully investigated and the children can continue to see the father unsupervised.  Munchausen by proxy is used to claim that the mother is making up allegations because of her own traumatic past and projecting this on the child.  Mothers are said to be coaching the child to disclose abuse.  The most frequently used way to discredit abuse allegations is by using the term alienation.  Parental alienation syndrome was a term coined by Richard Gardner to describe a scenario in which one parent deliberately tries to turn a child against the other parent usually by using false abuse allegations.  This has become a standard argument to combat abuse allegations, effectually dismissing them without investigation (Meier & Dickson, 2017).  However, research shows that less than 4% of abuse claims are actually fabricated and when they are, it is usually by fathers (Trocmé & Bala, 2005).

Joan Meier, professor of law at George Washington University in Virginia ran an extensive study that researched thousands of child custody disputes.  They evaluated what happened when either gender parent brought up concerns of abuse as well as alienation.  Findings show a clear gender bias in courts.  Evidence overwhelmingly showed that when mothers brought up any abuse claims, a high percentage ended up losing custody completely.  Contrarily when fathers made abuse allegations, they tended to win custody.  Additionally, when mothers, but not fathers, claimed child sexual abuse (beyond physical abuse), they lost custody even more frequently.  On the other hand, fathers frequently brought up claims of alienation to combat abuse allegations and were overwhelmingly successful in winning custody (Meier & Dickson, 2017).  It seems courts would rather believe that a mother is making up abuse allegations than believe that a father could do those things.  It’s as though the judgment call is one of what a judge thinks rather than one of evaluating evidence.

Family courts are not set up to investigate criminal matters. When sexual abuse of children is alleged, that becomes a criminal matter and should really be examined by criminal investigators who have the resources to fully investigate. Forensic evidence such as DNA samples and systematic interrogations can be obtained by them in a way that the family court doesn’t have access to.

The adversarial model of court proceedings common in the United States is when there are two sets of lawyers arguing against each other and their clients (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).  Contrarily the inquisitorial model is when the judge heads up an investigation by questioning all parties involved (Adversarial system, n.d.).  This would be another option for courts to determine whether child sexual abuse is really taking place. Rather than allow high paid lawyers for one party (typically the father) to denigrate low paid lawyers for the other party (typically the mother), the entire court could work together to investigate whether the allegations are true.  Either way, experts should be involved.  Psychologists trained to recognize child sexual abuse should be consulted in the manner of how to investigate and what patterns constitute abuse.  Our children depend on the voices and courage of the adults our system places in power.

 

References

Adversarial system.  (n.d.).  APA dictionary of psychology.  Retrieved on Mar. 1, 2019 from: https://dictionary.apa.org/adversarial-system.

Children and teens: Statistics (n.d.).  Rainn.  Retrieved on Mar. 1, 2019 from: https://www.rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens.

Meier, J. S., & Dickson, S. (2017). Mapping gender: Shedding empirical light on family courts’ treatment of cases involving abuse and alienation. Law & Inequality, 35(2), 311.

Schneider, F., Gruman, J., & Coutts, L.  (2012).  Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Trocmé, N., & Bala, N. (2005). False allegations of abuse and neglect when parents separate. Child Abuse & Neglect, 29(12), 1333-1345.