Adults who are a part of sexually marginalized groups (individuals whose sexual preferences are outside of the mainstream) find connection via online communities. For example furries, individuals who like dressing up as animals, partake in online communities in addition to the face-to-fact connection they get when attending their annual Furry convention, which takes place in Pittsburgh. When I was a teenager catching the bus to high school, I always wondered why a bunch of adults were walking around in animal costumes until one day a classmate jokingly explained that they were “furries”. Quite a few Google searches later, I had my first introduction to alternative sexualities and the communities they need to feel the acceptance that most people receive regularly.

Online communities for sexually marginalized groups create a sense of belonging for people in whose real world communities do not have a lot of individuals with similar unique interests. In most cases, online communities cannot replace the real world, face-to-face connection needed by most people, but if you are a member of a marginalized community that is very rare, it can be hard to find the acceptance one needs to feel fully whole and connected, especially if there’s a constant need to hide your identity.

Being members of stigmatized groups is incredibly isolating and lonely. Per Goffman’s research “a stigmatizing characteristic would often function as a master status, that is , a dominant prism through which other people judge the individual, discarding or ignoring other statuses or roles the individual might have.(Gruman et all, 2016)” The fear of being stigmatized in ones face-to-face community means that like social exchange theory posits, individuals from marginalized sexual groups can easily calculate the costs of publicly sharing their fetishes with the world and often choose to hide them within their community to avoid the negative reactions of, and further isolation from, their face-to-face community.

One element I’m curious about, is the rate at which people find long term relationship partners through these groups. It’s logical that those with very specific sexual interests find a partner who is also willing to engage in those activities, so the likelihood of finding a partner, thus minimizing loneliness and isolation, must be quite high.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.) [E-book]. SAGE Publications, Inc.

Online Communities is an easy way for people to keep in contact. Online work spaces provide a virtual space for people who work together to meet, share files and work collaboratively. They include features such as virtual meetings using online conferencing and VoIP including virtual whiteboards, email, chat, shared folders and files, and online applications. 

VLE’s provide information to help students learn, for example access to additional notes and homework in school or remotely from home as long as they have an internet connection. They also allow teachers to work collaboratively to create high quality learning material. They include features such as: timetable/news for staff and students, marking tools for teachers, email and chat communication, progress tracking features, personalization for individuals, interactive polls and questionnaires, facility for students to contribute to blogs and personalize their own space.

Social Networking is an online community where members can come together and communicate. Users may create a profile, add friends and talk to other members in a variety of ways. Examples may include LinkedIn, which is aimed at business people with advice given by industry experts. Another example is Bebo, which is aimed at younger teens with areas for gaming and music videos. Another example is Instagram, which is aimed at people who want to share images to an audience. Last example is Facebook, which is aimed at all ages and genders, enables people to share things and like things and write posts.

Teleworking is working at home, but staying in touch with others with the help of technology. There are many advantages to teleworking. It saves money and reduces pollution, since there is no need to travel for work. The work is flexible and people can work when and where they like. There is increased productivity, because there is less time lost traveling.

Gruman, J.A.,Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

The internet can be a wonderful place to make friends, meet new people, sell goods and clothing, get ideas for new projects, and even form communities of like-minded people. While the internet can provide many positives for people, especially those who are more secluded in their daily lives and wish to make more friends, it can also be a dangerous place.

First, the loosened social norms that follow along with the internet because of its anonymity can allow individuals the space to bully others, partake in groupthink, and create false worldviews. Often individuals online forget that they’re not entirely anonymous and that they can be traced and found especially by those that are experienced with the internet.  People often use their own addresses, names, e-mails, all of which can be traced back to reveal the identity of the person which can cause many issues such as having your identity stolen, having your money taken, and even more physical issues if you happened to upset the wrong person.

Not only can individuals become subjected to those kinds of issues, but online communities also allow individuals to partake in groupthink and participate in many confirmation-bias types of research. As we have all seen, Covid-19 and the 2020 election have caused a lot of political issues and have polarized many people. While there have been political issues on both sides, authors, Bliuc et. al., 2020, discussed the significant increase in far-right extremists. The authors stated that these individuals with similar ideologies form online communities of like-minded people to validate and support one another which can be particularly dangerous. Bliuc et. al., 2020, also stated that “From a psychological point of view, these communities can become central to people’s self-definition and further shape their behaviours in significant ways beyond the online domain. According to social psychological theory, group membership is particularly important in relation to radicalization and the perpetration of political violence, because the group provides individuals with a framework of meaning that is aligned to violent action on behalf of a collective group goal.”

There are many reasons why one would want to use the internet. From meeting new people to online shopping the internet provides individuals with many opportunities. However, access to the internet should also come with responsibility and maturity. Literacy in the news is essential now as there are so many conflicting reports out there about what’s going on and it’s important that people are able to dissect those reports and judge what they feel is important and truthful.

Bliuc, A.-M., Betts, J., Vergani, M., Iqbal, M., & Dunn, K. (2020, May 14). The growing power of online communities of the extreme-right: Deriving strength, meaning, and direction from significant socio-political events ‘in real life’. ICCT. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://icct.nl/publication/the-growing-power-of-online-communities-of-the-extreme-right-deriving-strength-meaning-and-direction-from-significant-socio-political-events-in-real-life/

I still live in the community that I grew up in.  Being here for over 40 years, I have seen things change, some for the better, some for the worse.

Growing up, a large part of my membership in the community was centered around Church.  Church was extremely important to me; we’d attend every Sunday.  As I got older, I began to participate in youth group and sing in the choir – something I did until I was about 40 years old.  I became involved with many volunteer groups, some of which I still participate in today.  The Church community was almost like a second family, everyone was made to feel welcome, and every effort was made to help and encourage those who needed it.  Although religion is still very important to me, several years ago I became seriously disenchanted with the community aspect.

There are two aspects of the Church community that were very important to me.  The first was a “sense of emotional safety” (Gruman et. al 2017).  When I was in church, or participating in a church activity, or just interacting with the community it felt safe and I had an overwhelming sense of “belonging”.  The second was a “shared emotional connection” which I could attribute to the bonds formed through shared experiences and beliefs (Gruman et. al 2017).  Unfortunately, as I got older, many of these bonds disintegrated.

I feel that the “sense of community” that once existed in my small town (and potentially everywhere) has significantly declined in the past several years.  We used to have large community events that everyone attended.  Money for these events was never a problem because everyone was happy to donate time or treasure to ensure community involvement.  Today, many of these events no longer exist, primarily due to lack of interest.  Instead of a cohesive community, there are splits, divisions and cliques that keep to themselves and sometimes look down upon others.  It’s extremely disheartening.

Although I had not really though about it before, politics has been a major cause of this.  The political climate in the country has been mirrored in my town.  For many years, we had a Republican controlled town council that started many positive projects, but also had serious budget overruns and failed to complete many tasks that were started.  A grassroots movement in town became tired of this and we now have a Democrat controlled council.  Although fundamentally this is a normal change, politics and the divisions created have seeped into every aspect of the community, further dividing people.

What I will refer to as self-absorption has also played a role in the decline of my community.  One positive thing I will say is that there are many volunteer groups in town that do help a number of people and causes.  Unfortunately, many of these groups seem to be doing this for the sake of “likes” on social media or the enrichment of a group of volunteers.  This “grandstanding” is looked down upon by many, making them reluctant to volunteer lest they be associated with that culture.

It is unfortunate that my children have not been able to experience the sense of community that I had when growing up.  As a global community of human beings, we need to get back to basics and think about more about community success than individual achievement.

Gruman, J.A.,Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Communities provide us with a sense of belonging to a group, that group can be exclusive or open. They bring us different views of life, fulfill us temporary and lifetime necessities, provide us with different forms of education, many more internal and external needs, and provides influence on the community and society about the wellbeing of individuals (Gruman et al, 2017).

Communities are similar to the families we choose to be in, for example many of individuals have friends that have became family, communities are similar to that.  Additionally, communities provide us with a huge platform of support with people from various backgrounds. I remember watching an older movie that was made in the late 80s of a single mother who’s child had disappeared and each person from the community wrapped their arms around her in various ways. Many of them used their jobs that was located in various parts of town to spread the word of the missing child. Another community member gathered a group of people to search the known areas of where the child would hangout. A few others made enough food that would last the mom and her other children many days, so that she could focus on finding her child. A neighbor helped get the other children to and from school. This was a prime example of how communities can fulfill temporary necessities and both internal and external needs.

An example of an exclusive membership within a community could be my friend. He is a part of a car club for exotic Dodge Challenger drivers. This community is only open to those drivers that fit the groups criteria and have be referred by a member who has been apart of the group for a certain amount of time. Although, the group was created to bring together people who enjoyed similar cars, liked to take rides or race, and was more focused on cars. The group has recently created a biweekly event where they discuss their problems, these could be problems of the day or ongoing life issues. The purpose was to create a space where the group members could open up, ask for guidance and receive help all while building trust and bringing the group close together.

These are just a few examples but it provides context on how important communities are and the different resources that could be potentially available to those who are a part of them. However, like with anything in life, communities are what you make of them.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.

Communities can be described as groups of people who associate with each other (PSU WC, L11 p. 1). Communities evolved from hunter-gather groups in which our ancestors where apart of (PSU WC, L11 p. 1). Communities come in different sizes such as small, large, local, national, or international (PSU WC, L11 p. 1). Today, communities can be either face-to-face or virtual (PSU WC, L11 p. 1).

Community psychology is a discipline that emerged from both mental health and community itself (Gruman et al., 2017). There is not a single universal definitions of community psychology, however, Dalton, Elias, and Wandersman (2007) provided the most accepted definition (Gruman et al., 2017). “Community psychology concerns the relationships of individuals with communities and society. By integrating research with action, it seeks to understand and enhance quality of life for individuals, communities and societies” (Dalton et al., 2007, p. 15 as cited in Gruman et al., CH 12 p. 4). Community psychology revolves around core values such as: individual and family wellness, sense of community, respect for human diversity, social justice, citizen participation, collaboration and community struggles, and empirical grounding (Dalton et al., 2007, p. 15 as cited in Gruman et al., CH 12 p. 4).

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Towards-a-code-of-ethics-for-community-psychology-Ela-Mohamed/511082f9ebbaa7c4b1b3249ba52314e619bf296e

The internet as a community can be utilized as a source of help (Gruman et al., 2017). The push towards mental health treatment being administered in the community as opposed to hospitalization can be seen in various online communities (Gruman et al., 2017). Online communities provide both factual information and emotional support for people dealing with mental health disorders (Gruman et al., 2017). A study conducted by Winzelberg (1997) emphasizes the benefits of online support groups particularly for women suffering from eating disorders (Gruman et al., 2017).

A study conducted by Richards (2009) analyzes the benefits of internet delivered counselling. His study focuses on counselling services at Trinity College Dublin and the benefits of online counseling and whether or not students are satisfied with their service (Richards, 2009). One benefit that Richards (2009) highlighted was the fact that online counselling can facilitate community and allow interventions to act therapeutically for an online community of users.

To conclude, online communities are helpful when utilized correctly. Some of the most beneficial forms of online communities are support groups and online counselling. Seeking help through online communities offer various benefits: fast access, flexibility, and a sense of community. Because of this, more people are turning to the internet as a source of community.

References 

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2022). Lesson 11: Community. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2177148/modules/items/33983560

Richards, D. (2009). Features and benefits of online counselling: Trinity college online mental health community. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 37(3), 231-242. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069880902956975

Today in our crime system we often hear about a phenomenon called the bystander effect, which is something that we see a lot in court cases. The bystander effect often occurs in emergency situations and it happens when there’s a large amount of people present during an emergency situation, however there seems to be a diffusion of responsibility, and in the end no one helps the victim of the emergency (Gruman, 2016).  In this blog post, I’m going to talk a little bit about my personal experiences dealing with the bystander effect. 

 A few months ago it was my friend’s 21st birthday so we decided to go to New Orleans for a special birthday trip. During this trip one night we decided to take a ghost tour of the City of New Orleans at night which I thought would be super fun considering me and my friends all love supernatural things and ghost stories. We had so much fun this night and as it was wrapping to an end our tour guide took us to the final spooky house and was telling us all about the ghost child that still lives in the house and when we were walking there,  me and my friend spotted a man seizing on the ground.

This was a scary situation because I’ve never seen anyone in a complete seizure before and I had no idea what was going on.  What I thought was strange about the situation was that absolutely no one stopped to help. Picture this, in the busy City of New Orleans at nighttime when people are exploring the city and there’s a man laying on the ground and seizing not a single person stop to check if he was okay. My friend’s birthday party had to stop to make sure that this man was okay. He seemed to be a homeless man on the street and we thought that maybe he was seizing due to a negative reaction to a certain drug or maybe due to the lack of the drug that he was dependent on. We hated to make these assumptions about a man just about how he looks, however it was necessary to assess the situation at the moment. We noticed that he had a super rapid heart rate and his pupils were not dilating when exposed to light. The only thing that we could think to do in the situation was to call 911 so while our ghost  tour left us to take the group to the next haunted place . We stayed behind and waited for the Emergency responders to respond. 

When the First Responders got to the scene we felt as though we did our job to the best of our abilities and parted with the man. The firefighters told us that he was a homeless man who was often seizing due to drug use and that they would give him something to make him feel better and make sure that he was safe for the time being.

This is a classic case of the bystander effect because while there was emergency with a bunch of people around in one of the busiest cities at night no one stop twice to see if this man needed care and attention because most people probably assume that someone else already called 911 or assume that somebody else was taking care of it and that it wasn’t their problem to deal with.   My takeaway message is to always offer help in an emergency situation because you never know if no one is doing anything to help and if you could be that person to  save that person’s life.

Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Jamie A. Gruman, Frank W. Schneider, and Larry M. Coutts . SAGE Publications . 2016

            Before 2020 widespread views on isolation and the negative impacts at a community level weren’t commonly discussed.  We would have to look in the various remote locations of the world to locate data on the subject.  With those data points and more recent studies coming out from the widespread lockdowns we are able to connect some interesting points.

First off in the historical link people we find data from medical professionals tending to workers at remote job sites.  Mostly this are rig works and nearly universally male.  However, some of these locations become small towns with a much more diverse population.  Two interesting points are the increase in problems from women as well as the excessive drinking.  The later is not entirely unforeseen as other places see increased abuse of alcohol and drugs. (1)

Jumping to studies from the last two years shows very similar data.  Even with an increased toolkit to stay in touch with family & friends we see issues with mental health.  Depression and substance abuse are the most common.  Seems as though technology has given us more tools to communicate that the end results are same when exposed to isolation.

Overall, there are more questions that answers with this data set.  We see the same problems, but do they occur on the same timeline or are they delayed by the ability to not be as isolated as in the past?  Can we avoid serious issues by addressing the minor ones?  What is the breakdown by gender?  By age? By race?  This blog is more of an introduction to studies that I’m sure are in the works and will be reviews/discussed for years to come.

References:

• The psychosocial effects of living in an isolated community. A M Michalowsky , C L Wicht, A T Möller https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2727842/
• Psychological Impact of COVID-19, Isolation, and Quarantine: A Cross-Sectional Study Ghufran Jassim , Mariam Jameel , Edwina Brennan , Manaf Yusuf , Nebras Hasan , Yusuf Alwatani https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34007180/#:~:text=Conclusion%3A%20Isolated%20and%20quarantined%20individuals,burdens%20are%20in%20urgent%20need.

With the increase in technology creation and use over the years, there has been both pros and cons to its use. As with most things in life, it can be overused. It has been used to replace having face-to-face interpersonal relationships. As a society, we have lost some social skills that we learn through those face-to-face interactions.

Face-to-face interactions are something we are hard wired for as human beings. We were not meant to sit behind a phone or compute and not have interactions with humans in the flesh. The lack of interaction has to play a role on an individual’s mental health and social abilities. There is evidence that “virtual living and social disengagement have personal consequences” (Gruman, 2016).

Disengagement can be the act of becoming withdrawn from things like social groups or situations. I think that when someone spends a lot of time online they can experience this. Some people can find a balance between online social communities and face-to-face interactions. Other people cannot and end up becoming disengaged from people outside of that online environment.

I think there can be benefits to having online communities to engage with in addition to face-to-face communities. There are plenty of support groups for people who have survived various experiences. Some of those support groups have saved people’s lives and continue to do so. At the end of the day, I think it is primarily about finding that balance.

Gruman, Jamie, A. et al. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Available from: MBS Direct, (3rd Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US), 2016.

The sitcom show developed by Dan Harmon called, Community, is one of my favorite shows and I believe I have seen it through five times now. For those who have not seen the show, it follows a group of seven strangers who wind up in the same class on their first day of community college. These strangers end up forming a study group and in turn, life-long friends and become a so-called ‘family.’ In our lesson this week, we learned that one of the core values of community psychology is respect for diversity (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). This refers to respecting and recognizing those who are different from us in certain aspects of life. In community psychology, diversity and cultural differences are seen as a strength instead of a weakness (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). When a group is high in diversity, it opens the group to different perspectives, lifestyles, and opinions.
In this show, the group is highly diverse when it comes to race, gender, social class, age, and religion. The age of the group ranges from college freshman to a 60 year old man. Throughout the show, the group’s diversity and teamwork make it clear that when working with those who are different from you, one can learn new points of view and realize that everyone is fighting their own battle. One of the members is played by Chevy Chase and he is the oldest member in the group. He is constantly making inappropriate and discriminatory remarks or jokes. Although the group always sets him straight and makes him better towards the end of the show, Chase also gets discriminated against throughout the show due to his old age.
As discussed in our textbook, “Intersectionality recognizes that people occupy multiple identity categories, that there is diversity within these categories, and that inequality, privilege, and power all play a role in influencing life experiences of individuals in different categories” (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). Everyone has their unique experiences when it comes to discrimination and this should be taken into consideration before we label someone based on a specific characteristic (age, gender, race). The single members in the show all have their own background story that includes their stories and how they ended up at this community college and what they face alone and together as a ‘community.’
The show does a good job of representing various types of people and how people who would never have interacted, end up becoming life-long friends who help one another whenever they need. Because the members are so different, for example, a Christian Black mother of two and a Muslim Arab young adult on the autism spectrum, it may seem difficult how within their group they can have strong bonds, but that is exactly what makes their ‘community’ so strong. Throughout the show, yes the group works collectively most of the time, but the strength of the group is best portrayed when two members of the group who you would think would have nothing to do with each other, end up being the ones to team up and help the overall theme.
For those who have never seen this show, I would definitely recommend it because it is very funny and a good show with an admirable cast. The show was created by the same guy who created Rick and Morty (2013), which was another reason why I continue to watch this show.

References
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology :
Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

For many years now, I have discussed how pleasant it would be to live in a commune, preferably a self-sustaining, vegan, all-femme commune. My friends and I have fantasized about it and I often think about how simple it would be to go off-grid, live off of the land, and create a small community of beloved friends and trustworthy neighbors. As you can tell I’ve put a lot of thought into this, but it will never happen for me because I fell in love with a statistics major who is far too practical for all of that, so a wildflower and produce garden, as many cats as I want, and maybe a few chickens will suffice.

I say all of this to relate it to this week’s lesson because it finally clicked for me once I read “small-group hunter-gatherer brains” I realized that my desire for that lifestyle isn’t too far fetched and I understand why many of my femme friends specifically are attracted to the idea of a small self-sustaining community. In terms of gender, women are designed to tend-and-befriend which is why women often seek comfort from their social groups when something stressful happens in their lives. (Klein,2002) Therefore it would make sense that being a part of a small supportive social community would be beneficial to most individuals, regardless of their gender because our “small-group” brains thrive in those environments.

Of course, not everyone will want to join a commune which is why even small towns that have multiple mom-and-pop stores, local businesses, and farmer’s markets can thrive when they are in support of one another both economically and socially.

Klein, L. C., & Corwin, E. J. (2002). Seeing the unexpected: How sex differences in stress responses may provide a new perspective on the manifestation of psychiatric disorders. Current Psychiatry Reports, 4(6), 441–448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-002-0072-z

There are about 1.85 million children in the United States that have at least one parent in the service. One community I commonly forget that I am a part of is the military community. My father has served in the Air Force for all my life, and it was not until I was older that I realized how important that community is.

Growing up, my mom was alone a lot of the time. My dad was constantly deployed for months on end, and my mom was left back to take care of three kids on her own. We lived in Florida for a large portion of my life because that is where my dad’s base was, so we had no family around as my parents both were born and grew up in Pennsylvania. Even when we moved back to Pennsylvania, it was very difficult for family to come and help my mom. I remember sometimes as a kid; random people would be over our house or babysitting us. It was not until recently that we were talking about our childhoods as a family and my mom mentioned how important the military community was. Apparently, there are thousands of military family support groups out there. For spouses, children, or even grandchildren of military members. It is all over social media on how to reach out. You can post your situation and people come and give advice or recommendations or even physically come to help. My mom was telling my siblings and I that people used to bring food to us all the time to help and offer to babysit so my mom could go to work different hours or take one of us to our sports practice. It was insane to hear how important that was to our childhood.

With the class discussion of how online versus face-to-face communities, it would be difficult in this scenario to replace the in person aspect to online. We had people coming to being us food and babysit us, I don’t think a computer can replace that aspect.  My dad was deployed once, for almost two years. I was not born yet, but my mom and brother shared how hard it was going so long without seeing him. People set up a surprise virtual visit for them that was broadcasted on a local news station. It is insane to see and hear how important communities can be. The online portion of this community still helps people every day. I remember when the Obamas were in office, they launched huge campaigns to do the same thing and try to help families in the service.

I look back and think that if it were not for the combination of in person and online aspects of this community, my childhood would have been a lot different. I think that communities work well when blended together with both aspects of online and in person.

The link posted below is where I got the number for how many children, but it is also a site for people to help children, teenagers, or families of military members.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2019/05/01/how-support-children-teens-military-families/3644831002/

After reading the textbook, I took some time to look over at how many Discord servers I am in currently. For people that don’t know what Discord is, Discord is a social media service mainly for gamers (that was what they said initially, now it doesn’t look like it), which allows users to create special servers pretty easily. I found that I am currently in part of 17 servers, with 12 of them having over 100 members. However, I only found 8 of them that I have talked in at least once in the past year, and 5 of them I have never even posted a single reply or message in the entire time I have been part of that server. So the question I have now is, am I still a member of these communities I play no role in? The argument can go either way, and for the reasons as well.

The answer to if whether I am still part of all of these communities probably depends on the sense of community. From McMillan and Chavis’s theory of sense of community, this can be answered by determining the boundary of membership. The textbook cites the definition of membership as “the idea that a community has geographical or social boundaries, and we can determine who belongs in the community and who does not” (Gruman et al. 327). But such boundaries are hard to identify. Reich’s study on adolescents in social media community membership showed that the boundaries of the community were difficult to distinguish, for there wasn’t a clear cohesive group all members belonged to. With this in mind, I can look back to my past posts in the server (if any), and the recognition of my existence in those servers.

After checking the 9 servers I am not actively participating in the past year, I found mixed results. Out of the 9 inactive servers, the 5 I have not even posted a single post obviously didn’t recognize me, except for those that shoot a welcome message when they see a new member has popped in. That happened in only 2 out of the 5, so for the other 3, I am not recognized as a member, and I do not have a sense of membership as well (obviously for I have never gave an introduction). I just stay in that server to get information about game updates and seeing the status of errors in the game server. The other 4 servers that I was once active, 1 just exists without any activity, and 1 was like the 3 servers that don’t recognize me as a member and vice versa. However, the remaining two differs from the examples I am giving. The views of membership were contrary in terms of myself and the people in that server.

Both servers involve the schools I used to go in the past, one is a server with people from my high school, and the other server is for a club I was in during my time at my previous college. Since I decided to transfer colleges, I literally ditched them and been staying silent ever since. Since I wasn’t that active in the server already, I thought they will be forgetting my existence quite easily. But since last April (the time I disappeared from the server), I have received over 30 DMs, mentions, or tags from members in the two servers, wondering where I am and why I am not giving any reaction in the servers. I do recall a DM I received earlier this month, but I didn’t remember that I was muting that many mentions and DMs. I did feel bad about not giving any response to them, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like responding. It isn’t that they were hostile to me and vice versa. It’s just that I don’t see being in the community anymore while the others still see me as a member.

There is a contradiction in how myself and my former schoolmates see my status as a member of the two Discord communities. For the rest of the communities, it was either that I saw myself as a member and so did others, or I didn’t see myself as a member and others too. But for the specific two communities, I was still seen as a member while I didn’t. Regarding these opposite perspectives of my membership, am I still a member of these communities in terms of McMillan and Chavis’s theory? Is it up to the self, group, or a third person to determine if a person is part of a community? It’s sort of like arguing if a person that is socially loafing in a group project is still part of a group; definition wise yes, the loafer’s term is yes as well, while the others might see it as a no. The answer depends on who’s perspective is right in that given circumstance.

Reading this chapter and sorting my unread messages in Discord allowed me to think about my memberships deeply. And at the same time, I found out that there were contrary perspectives of my membership status between myself and others. They still see me as a member, while I don’t; I don’t know what an outsider will say but I guess there might be no answers. After this, I might decide to respond to some of the DMs. I am certain that none of the people in the two contrary opinioned servers know that I transferred schools, so I think I should be informing them as a reason for my disappearance. But I can also say that’s too early, I want to enjoy my college life I restarted in Penn without being tangled with my past. I’ll just say here that if someone from the two servers finds this blog some way with the magic of the internet, know that I am alive and well.

References:

Gruman, Jamie A., et al. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. SAGE, 2017.

Reading this week’s assigned readings on education and the application of social psychological theories to education was both illuminating and triggering. For someone who had a learning disability all of my life, but was only diagnosed six-months ago, the feelings of regret and lost time are overwhelming at times. As I learn to re-build my self-esteem after believing that I was deficient for so many years, I’m beginning to feel empowered knowing that the current academic system was not set up for brains that are neurodivergent, but I can learn the skills necessary to not only navigate it, but succeed.

Spending time learning about my ADHD diagnosis, I realized that the self-handicapping behavior I have (and still do) struggle with is incredibly common among people with the same differences as me. The items listed in the self-handicapping checklist sound like a list of some common ADHD symptoms. I was surprised however, that one of the best remedies for self-handicapping is self affirmation. Part of having ADHD is having a poor working memory and struggles with intrinsic motivation. As someone who’s very ambitious, this contradiction has being incredibly frustrating. I often forget my long term goals and get “stuck” in the present. It’s been even more frustrating that a diagnosis doesn’t mean that I can now easily over come these challenges. I’ve often been called out for “not applying myself” — as if I understood what that statement meant — so when I read the values statements listed in the text, it was an “Ah ha” moment.

“Siegel, Sillitoe, and Parks-Yancy (2005) found that students who engaged in a high self-affirming task (writing about values important to them) were less likely to engage in self-handicapping on a subsequent test than students who engaged in a low self-affirming task (writing about an unimportant value). Thus, as students prepare for exams, they should bring to mind their high value for education and valued career goals — intentionally thinking about how important school and academic achievement are might help stop a student from making that late-night pizza run before an exam (Gruman et all, 2016).” The text also goes on to recommend that students surround themselves with other conscientious and achievement focused classmates (this one wouldn’t work for me because I tend to feel judged by highly conscientious people but that most definitely could be projection).

In conclusion, there are some ways to trick your brain into remembering why you should be motivated and inspiring that motivation when you need it most. As someone who is in the process of experimenting what would work best for me, I do see this as a great start. Early this evening when I finally forced myself to put away my phone and put on soothing music, I reminded myself that doing well in all of my classes this semester will reflect well on my ability to succeed when I apply to doctoral programs. So even thought I couldn’t muster the “Umph” to get started, that was enough of a kick in the rear to keep me from not doing the assignments at all. Im now going to incorporate these self-affirmations into my daily routined and took a screenshot of the page in the textbook to reference when I ultimately forget my new plan.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.) [E-book]. SAGE Publications, Inc.

Taking accountability for one’s actions is more difficult than it sounds.  Although I would like to think that most people strive to be genuine and not blame others for their own misfortune, in practice it can be difficult.  At one time or another we have all tripped over something that was not put back where it belonged.  Of course, our first instinct is to blame the person who did not put away the object, but is it not our fault for not watching where we were going?  This is an example of self-serving bias.

The principle of self-serving bias states that we have “a tendency to attribute our positive outcomes to internal causes (e.g. our traits or characteristics) but to attribute our negative outcomes to external causes (e.g. chance, difficulty of a task)” (Gruman et al. 2016).  Although there are many situations in life where this principle applies, it’s very common in education.

Today, the attitude towards educators and curriculum has shifted 180 degrees.  In the past, educators were not as heavily questioned as to their methods and effectiveness.  If a student came home with a poor grade, their parents automatically assumed that they did not grasp the material, did not do their assignments, or generally did not work hard enough.  Unfortunately, today, there is more of a trend towards blaming the teacher for being ineffective or the curriculum for being flawed.  Conversely, when students do well, the teachers are given little to no attribution.

The question is, why do we do this?  Most of it is based on our need to elevate our self-esteem.  Although shifting blame away from ourselves (or our children) might make us feel better, it keeps us from learning from our mistakes or developing the ability to accept negative feedback (Ruhl 2021).  I believe that this behavior starts with the example our parents set for us during our formative years.  As previously mentioned, there is a trend towards blaming the educator or the test when a student performs poorly.  This tends to come from the parents.  What kind of example are they setting?  Instead of the student working harder, they instead are taught that the system is slanted against them, and their failure is directly attributable to a poor teacher or curriculum.  With this attitude, they will never learn that self-serving bias can be detrimental to success.

Parents should instead examine the situation more carefully and encourage the student to converse with the teacher regarding their performance.  In doing so, the teacher may come to realize that they are at fault, or the student may learn how to be more effective in the course.  Without this interaction, self-serving bias will continue to increase, and the student will not have the tools to be successful later in life.

References

Ruhl, C. (2021, April 19). Self-Serving Bias: Definition and Examples. Retrieved from Simply Psychology: https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-serving-bias.html

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

Too often does society equate procrastination and self-handicapping with laziness. They are often seen as synonymous with one another. If you are putting off your assignments or your chores or your responsibilities at work until the last minute, you must be lazy, right? Society is quick to call individuals lazy when they do not live up to social norm standards. I believe that procrastination and self-handicapping are cries for help and should be treated as such instead of being treated as a sign of laziness.

In the vast majority of classes I have taken since childhood up until now, my teachers have addressed procrastination when referring to the assignments and projects in their classes. They all had the same thing to say about it: “Don’t do it.” Some have even included the word “lazy” while addressing the subject. This line of thinking was instilled in me since childhood. If this line of thinking could affect the way I looked at procrastination and self-handicapping, it could easily have affected other children my age as well. What does that message say to those who suffer from executive dysfunction or issues with impulse control? It can produce feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness in children or adolescents who do not understand why they procrastinate or self-handicap.

Gruman et al. (2016) explains that the causes of procrastination and self-handicapping include a reduction in motivation which can stem from feelings of stress and overwhelm the students feel about the assignment that they are avoiding. If students are made to feel that they are lazy, inadequate, or worthless, the stress they feel toward assignments will increase and their procrastination and self-handicapping behaviors will worsen. Equating procrastination and self-handicapping with laziness is the fuel that feeds the fire. If a student is so overwhelmed by a task that they would rather hurt their grades than handle the stress they are feeling while doing the task, that should be cause for concern instead of judgement of their character. It is a fundamental attribution error to assume a student is lazy for procrastinating or self-handicapping.

Instead of making assumptions about students that procrastinate, we should be concerned about the causes of procrastination. If this is a common behavior amongst students, then we should be looking into why so many students are so overwhelmed. It could be a result of their mental health, their physical health, their home life, the school structure, etc. There are many possible causes. Since children and adolescent brains are still developing, it is important to address widespread issues amongst them with the intent to help them. We must nurture young minds since we have the knowledge and means to do so.

Reference:

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

Students are excited about being able to use technology and therefore are more apt to learn. Integrating technology in education everyday helps students stay engaged. Today’s students love technology so they are sure to be interested in learning if they can use the tools they love. If used correctly, will help prepare students for their future careers, which will inevitably include the use of wireless technology. Technology helps the teachers prepare students for the real world environment. As our nation becomes increasingly more technology-dependent, it becomes even more necessary that to be successful citizens, students must learn to be tech-savvy.

 When mobile technology is readily available in the classroom, students are able to access the most up-to-date information quicker and easier than ever before. Students can have access to digital textbooks that are constantly updated and often more vivid, helpful, creative, and a lot cheaper than those old heavy books. Technology can be defined as any tool that can be used to help promote human learning, including, but not limited to, calculators, tablets (such as an iPad), Smart Boards, video cameras, digital cameras, MP3 players, Portable Digital Assistants (PDAs), and, of course, the computer. These are all innovations that have helped countless people during regular daily activities, but they can also have a profound impact on classroom learning. 

It can keep students focused for longer periods of time.  The use of computers to look up information/data is a tremendous time saver, especially when used to access a comprehensive resource like the Internet to conduct research. This time-saving aspect can keep students focused on a project much longer than they would with books and paper resources, and it helps them develop better learning through exploration and research. It makes students more excited to learn. When technology is integrated into school lessons, learners are more likely to be interested in, focused on, and excited about the subjects they are studying. Subjects that might be monotonous for some – like math and science – can be much more engaging with virtual lessons, tutoring, and the streaming of educational videos. It enables students to learn at their own pace. With the integration of technology, students are able to get direct, individualized instruction from the computer. This form of supplemental teaching allows them to engage with the information at times that are most convenient for them and helps them become more self-directed in the learning process

Gruman, J.A.,Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

A study conducted in 2010, showed that 20% of girls and 25% of boys were bullied or bullied someone within the past month (CHOP, 2020). Bullying throughout school is extremely prevalent and I know that when I was in school (K-12) I had witnessed bullying. Not only does bullying in school impact a child’s education, but it can also play a major role in how they view themselves as they get older. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Violence Prevention (2020) discussed a study conducted in 2011 where it showed that “bullying at age 14 predicted violent convictions between ages 15 and 20, self-reported violence at age 15 to 18, low job status at age 18, and drug use at 27 to 32 years of age.” This shows that the impact of bullying can last throughout a lifetime.

Continuously, when it comes to bullying and its impact on one’s education, a study conducted by UCLA (2010) shows that bullying has a direct link with one’s low academic achievement. This study also discussed that students that are bullied are less likely to participate in class discussions out of fear of judgment and then those students do poorer in school and that students that do poor and are labeled as dumb are more likely to be bullied. This could easily be seen as a perpetuating issue that could be incredibly hard for one to break and would explain the lack of academic achievement and the lifelong issues that bullying can cause.

Not only does bullying impact one’s educational experience, but it can also take a major toll on their physical and mental health. Bullying can cause stomach pains, headaches, trouble sleeping, and cause low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and even violent outbursts. Surprisingly, bullying can have an impact on the bully. Public School Review (2022) stated that the bully is “more likely to engage in violent behavior, to steal or vandalize property, to smoke, to drink, to report poor grades, and to carry a gun.” And that bullies are much more likely to engage in violent behavior as an adult and get into significantly more trouble.

What can be done to eliminate bullying in schools? Bullying would be near impossible to eradicate but in order to try and reduce prevalence, schools can increase awareness and show what bullying looks like as it can be displayed in various ways. Also, a setlist of rules needs to be in place AND enforced. If a school has antibullying policies but no one enforces them, students won’t take it seriously and continue with the problem behavior.

Overall, bullying is a huge issue within the school systems that can cause detrimental consequences on all parties involved and it’s essential that schools do all they can to try and fix the problem behavior before it follows children into adulthood.

Bullying in schools. Center for Violence Prevention. (2022, February 15). Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://violence.chop.edu/bullying-schools

I think that it is safe to say mostly everyone has experienced some sort of bullying in the past. Some may even be experiencing it in the present. Bullying as evolved with humans and technology which is why we now have terms such as cyberbullying. “Cyberbullying is carried out in an electronic context through e-mail, text messaging, or social media venues like Facebook. It is distinctive from traditional bullying in that victims can be subjected to an attack almost anywhere and anytime, and without knowing the identity of the perpetrator—making it a particularly insidious type of bullying” (Gruman, 2016)

I think social media platforms have facilitated cyberbullying in many ways in recent years. It is easy for someone to hide behind their phone or computer screen and bully someone through the internet. This prevents them from engaging in face-to-face interactions that traditional bullying would have. They feel “more comfortable” using technology to carry out their bullying techniques.

Traditional bullying typically involved behaviors such as shoving, punching, kicking etc. Some people may find it easier to cyberbully because they simply cannot fight or lack some sort of physical dominance over most people. Also, with cyberbullying, I think it is much easier to get into someone’s head and hurt them worse than if you had just punched them. Cyberbullying tends to address more of the psychology of the victim/s.

Revenge, groupthink, and lack of empathy are a few reasons someone would bully or cyberbully another. Particularly, groupthink is a phenomenon where the mindset is “but everyone else is doing it too” and that can be more dangerous. Groupthink can lead to larger groups of bullies attacking an individual or much smaller group. There is also very little accountability in behaviors adopting groupthink because everyone in the group has the same mindset and accepts the behavior.

Gruman, Jamie, A. et al. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Available from: MBS Direct, (3rd Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US), 2016.

For most education is viewed as a tiered process starting at kindergarten and going until the end of High School or College.  The focus is on academics and studies rather than experiences.  I feel like something is lost in such a sterile environment.

My personal perspective is that while the traditional studies are important it is equally valid to integrate real life lessons into education.  Examples can be as simple growing plants in a classroom to semesters of studying abroad.  Engaging students at any level can spark interest in topics or fields of study not considered previously. Awakening an interest in a student can cause a complete change of their life by having them focus on passions rather than staying within a mold. (1)

This onward progression of education that is the staple society broadly reflects Erik Erikson’s epigenetic principle.  That is to say we all develop via certain and predictable stages of life experience.  As a father I can already see the first three stages from my raising on my daughter.  While she will start her formal schooling next year, I can already see how daycare has impacted her.  For some her current day would just be an easy out so the parents could work and wouldn’t consider anything this early in life to be education.  However, I refute that and am glad to encourage her to experience as many opportunities as possible. (2)

Looking over the above I hope those reading can understand my goal of equating education with more than just formal studies.  We tend to focus on a very strict outlook rather than a flexible approach that varies between the individual.  Psychology has shown how & when we start learning as well as the different ways that we can.  Maybe this blog post is more of a catalyst to promote a different way of looking at what we all experience.

References:

• https://www.scientificworldinfo.com/2019/10/how-does-educational-psychology-help-teachers.html
• https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

We were all fourteen once. Hormones, attitudes, and lofty goals filled our days. As the Geometry teacher of fourteen-year-old humans, my mother has it all. Every cycle, a new crop of teenagers stumbles into her classroom. There are several types of students mom encounters regularly. Most students study, get good or decent grades, are attentive in class, and are regular students. Then there are the few, or maybe just a couple of kids, who buck the system and demonstrate social psychological theories through negative behaviors. My mother’s fourteen-year-old students regularly employ the concept of self-handicapping.

Have you ever encountered a fellow student who doesn’t seem to study for tests but always has an excuse for their poor performance? Self-handicapping involves actions that set the stage for poor performance and provide the perfect excuse for failures (Gruman, 2016). Mom has heard a myriad of justifications for bad exam grades that have ranged from blaming attending church the night before, having to cook dinner, mood-related issues, physical symptoms, or any number of other excuses (like staying up to play a video game). Self-handicapping for these kids involved doing anything but studying and then blaming the bad grade on their actions, which in their eyes, are external circumstances. This behavior is often driven by fear of failure and a low drive for achievement (Gruman, 2016). Self-esteem is damaged without the excuse for failure, so self-handicapping is an attractive idea. Studies have shown that self-handicapping can reduce failure anxiety by lowering expectations, thus maintaining self-esteem (Török, Szabó & Tóth, 2018).

Fear of failure can also affect students with self-handicapping behaviors and their education goals. There are two categories of goals: mastery and performance. Mastery goals relate to learning and competence, whereas performance goals relate to comparison. Two subcategories of each mastery and performance are approach and avoidance. Mastery-approach deals with learning and improvement (getting better at a skill), and Mastery-avoidance deals with trying to avoid the decline of skills or competence (maintenance). Performance-approach deals with trying to do better than the competition, while performance-avoidance deals with avoiding failure or losing face compared to others. A research study on self-handicapping and physical education found that the fear of failure was correlated to the adoption of goals that diminished their performance, so they did not look worse than their peers. Self-handicapping subjects used Master-avoidance and Performance-avoidance goals. The very possibility of failure is so stressful that these students set goals that set them up for failure (Chen et al., 2009). If fear of failure is driving self-handicapping, what are the ways that teachers and others involved in education can reduce or prevent its use?

Building a classroom environment that focuses on the individual and isn’t competitive can help. Research has shown that students in a learning environment that emphasizes individual mastery of subjects, effort, and overall learning versus the competition and ability-focused classroom fair better and have better learning outcomes (Gruman, 2016). Protection of self-esteem and self-concept is a driving force for self-handicapping, and by reducing the need to do so, students are more supported and are free to focus on learning. Self-affirmation techniques are also a positive tool that educators can use to foster self-esteem. Researchers suggest writing about positive personal traits might reduce self-handicapping tendencies. In addition, the healthy formation of goals in an implementation and intention format also helps students avoid self-handicapping behaviors (Török, Szabó & Tóth, 2018). Focusing on the individual student, reducing the focus on mistakes, and eliminating competition in classrooms can foster higher self-esteem and self-concept for students at risk of self-handicapping. These are techniques my mom uses with her students. They have a positive, affirming classroom that focuses not on competition or mistakes but the entire learning process.

As we have seen, the social-psychological concept of self-handicapping can be applied to many situations, including the classroom. Young adults are especially prone to using this technique due to the fear of failure, which damages their self-esteem. By using self-affirmation, positive goal setting, individual focus, and reducing time spent comparing students’ performance, educators can help prevent harmful self-handicapping behaviors.

Works Cited

Chen, L. H., Wu, C., Kee, Y. H., Lin, M., & Shui, S. (2009). Fear of failure, 2 × 2 achievement goal, and self-handicapping. An examination of the hierarchical model of achievement motivation in physical education. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(4), 298–305.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

Török, L., Szabó, Z.P. & Tóth, L. A critical review of the literature on academic self-handicapping: theory, manifestations, prevention and measurement. Soc Psychol Educ 21, 1175–1202 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-018-9460-z

Nature versus nurture is a theme I have remembered since high school and is prevalent in most undergraduate psychology courses in college, or at least most of the ones I have taken.

In this week’s lesson, especially after watching the video on Albert Bandura’s bobo doll experiment, I am reminded that children and adults can be fairly aggressive at times, but we especially characterize men as being aggressive even when they are young boys. I found myself watching the little girl beat the bobo doll aggressively, and the stereotypical thought crossed my mind that she was “aggressive for a girl” even though I am a woman who experiences a wide range of emotions including anger.

What I normally think of when I think of a person being aggressive is the sex hormone testosterone. No matter how much I learn from college-level courses, that belief has been pretty deeply engrained in me and I believe as our society as a whole. And I found a scientific study that supports the claim that societal norms have influenced our view on the relation between testosterone and aggression.

Although it is only one study, I still find it interesting that aggression seems to be more so a learned or observed behavior like in Bandura’s experiment than anything else. This study found that among a group who were given 0.5mg of testosterone, and a group that were given a placebo, the placebo group behaved more unfairly, unfavorably, and aggressively. And the group given the testosterone actually behaved fairly and more favorably. The study does note that testosterone plays a role in behavior, but that social and biological factors are obviously at play.

Zurich, U. of (Ed.). (2009, December 9). Testosterone does not induce aggression, study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091208132241.htm

I was 17 years old when I got my first job as an ice cream server.  I worked the town next to mine and was excited to finally have my driver’s license and be able to drive myself to work a few times a week.  Earning minimum wage, which was very low in New Jersey at the time, was a humbling experience because I had never had any responsibilities or work relationships similar to that.  The work was not as easy as it seemed, and actually brought a decent amount of stress into my 17-year old life.  I learned how to be a motivated worker and the different skills and growth I would need to maintain the position.

The only thing motivating me to work at the time was extra spending money, and eventually I bought everything that I wanted to buy so my motivation for working was slacking.  I didn’t quit my job because I wanted to have more work experience in case I wanted to get another job, or put this work experience on my college application.  Most of my friends also had part-time jobs so I thought it would be normal to keep working, despite not having any real end goal.

Because the work was very mentally and physically challenging, I had to find some way to stay motivated so that I would enjoy the work better and because it’s always fun to have a goal.  The new goal that I set out for myself was to learn how to be the best employee worker ever.  I wanted to learn how to do everything and run everything because I eventually wanted to work more shifts and that meant sometimes working alone.  I wanted to have a high growth need strength (GNS) and be able to enjoy my job while also improving in other areas (Gruman, 2016).

Eventually, I became proficient in every area of the job and was trusted with my own key of the shop.  I became a leader to shop and began to train other employee that would come through the doors.  My leadership style was very relaxed and supportive.  It was a friendly environment to work in by nature, so we were always encouraged to smile and have fun conversations with the customers whenever we could.

My motivation for having the job shifted dramatically from when I first entered the position to when I had to leave for college.  I was happy that I was able to grow and develop as an efficient worker and I still hold with me many of the skills that I acquired as an ice cream scooper.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

The social learning theory was proposed by Albert Bandura and emphasizes the value of observing, modelling, and imitating the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional responses of others (McLeod, 2016). Social learning theory considers both environmental and cognitive factors in the influence of human learning and behavior (McLeod, 2016). Badura’s (1986) work on learning of behavior suggests that learning is a cognitive and active process, unlike what behaviorism and psychoanalysis suggests (PSU WC, L 10 p.3). His theory was based on the idea that people learn behavior by observing others, processing what they observed, and then producing their own model of that behavior (PSU WC, L 10 p.3). This process is described as observational learning and is the backbone of his social learning theory (PSU WC, L 10 p.3). Observational learning consists of four main components: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation/opportunity (PSU WC, L10 p. 3).

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Process-of-observational-learning-Source-Solomon-et-al-1999_fig2_246546934

School-related aggression is a heavily researched topic which continues its presence in modern education (Gruman et al., 2017). Bullying is a main form of school-related aggression and “involves a disparity of power between the bully and victim(s), occurs repeatedly, can take a direct form, such as hitting, kicking, or name-calling, or can be more indirect, such as spreading rumors about another person or ostracizing someone” (Kowalski & Limber, 2007; Wang et al., 2009 as cited in Gruman et al., 2017). Because of today’s technological advances, education systems must be concerned with a new form of bullying, known as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying occurs in an electronic context such as e-mail, text messaging, or social media websites (Gruman et al., 2017). This is different from traditional bullying in the sense that victims can be subjected to an attack anywhere at anytime and the perpetrator can remain anonymous (Gruman et al., 2017).

Kayla S. Shafer and Michael J. Silverman (2013) suggests music therapy as a prevention and intervention for bullies and victims of bullying. In this scholarly article, Shafer and Silverman applied social learning theory as a framework to conceptualize the behaviors and cognitions of bullies and victims (2013). In doing this, authors reviewed various literature that determines the characteristics and behaviors of bullies and victims (Shafer & Silverman, 2013). As a results, authors proposed a social learning theory approach to music therapy interventions (Shafer & Silverman, 2013).

To conclude, bullying is not the only form of school-related aggression, another form can be labeled as school shooting. However, Bandura’s social learning theory provides a better understanding as to why individuals behave aggressively. If a child observes aggressive behavior and it is not punished or maybe even rewarded, then that behavior will be seen as desirable to that child (Bandura, 1983 as cited in Gruman et al., 2017). And the social learning theory acts as a framework when creating interventions to reduce school-related aggression.

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.

Mcleod, S. (2016). Albert Bandura’s social learning theory. Simply Psychology. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2022). Lesson 10: Education

Shafer, K. S., & Silverman, M. J. (2013). Applying a social learning theoretical framework to music therapy as a prevention and intervention for bullies and victims of bullying. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 40(5), 495-500. doi:10.1016/j.aip.2013.07.004

Education is one of the biggest parts of our lives. The majority of the world has this in common, most individuals go to school from the ripe age of 5 to 22 years old, and then some even go off to get a higher degree. Education does not only teach us about topics such as math, social studies, and English, but this is how most people learned to form interactions and relationships. I have been surrounded by education my entire life as my mother is a teacher, my father is an assistant principal, my grandmother was a paraprofessional, and my grandfather was a dean. Some may say it runs in the family. Over the years there have been many debates on whether the school system gets too involved when dealing with students’ social problems and if they should continue with these approaches. Since the school system has such a large impact on our lives, I believe it is beneficial for them to get involved.

In this week’s lesson, we learned about stereotyping and prejudice that we see in the education system, and how the fundamental attribution error and the social learning theory play a role for peers and teachers. I have made the majority of my lifelong best friends from school, besides learning, I have had social interaction time during lunch, group workshops, and many other opportunities. Following the fundamental attribution error, once I was exposed to a situation where my teacher came in every day dressed poorly with her hair not done. My peers immediately started to talk about her stating she must not care about her health and well-being which means she probably does not care about being a good teacher. While this assumption may not be true, it started to circulate and this was the only bias many students had about this teacher, and there was not much that was going to be done to change their minds. According to Gruman, “Thus, if you wish to avoid making the fundamental attribution error about people, try to find out more about their situations, or try to think of reasons why they might behave the way they do.” (2017) expressing that rather than my peers make this assumption of this teacher there could have been factors as to why she did not do her hair and her appearance does not make her a bad teacher.

Going back to what I stated in my opening paragraph, the social learning theory discusses how behavior is learned and observation-based. Going to school from the age of 5, individuals can easily start to learn off of each other’s actions, mainly in the form of misbehaving. Gruman discusses how “In essence, then, a child’s behavior in school may be influenced by what he or she perceives to be not only rewarding, but typical, expected, and “normal.” (2017) where if nothing is being done about a negative behavior there will not be any change. The school system watches over children the majority of their day, and sometimes knows even more about a student’s life than the people they are living with. According to Beckham, ” Some states are considering legislation that would allow educators to regulate and punish bullying or harassment – even if it doesn’t take place at school, but on a site like Facebook or Twitter.” (2013) where this is even becoming a legal matter because of the aggression that has been accumulated between the students. It is necessary for teachers to take action in correction these learned behaviors and using group workshops can help the students learn how to properly work coheisvely and be kinder to one another.

Students and teachers have not only a relationship as educators, but sometimes students look up to their teachers and admire their opinions and ideas. Teachers’ expectations and their beliefs can impact the way students behave; students can be less prone to acting out if they believe their teacher cares about them and their well-being. Overall, as we learned, behavior is taught and learned from observation, so handling these situations in the school system is not only necessary but efficient. It is also important for teachers to engage in workshops just as students would about behavior to learn about discrimination and prejudice and how that is not tolerable. The education system is responsible for a lot more than just educating students on the core topics, but life lessons.

References

Beckham, P. B. K. (2017, March 20). Should schools be involved in cyberbullying policies? Faronics. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.faronics.com/news/blog/cyberbullying-should-schools-get-involved

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., Coutts, L., Krieger, M. A., Chun-Yan, G. A., & Towson, S. M. J. (2017). Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. In Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (pp. 51–73). essay, SAGE.

My parents sometimes ask me of why I think so cynically. I admit that I do, I just do that naturally out of some reason. Reading through the textbook this week, the cynical side of me found something interesting to think about, which is about motivation of students in school. Studying academic effects of the self-determination theory, Richard Ryan and Edward Deci studied the relationship of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation in terms to education. And this got me thinking, does genuine intrinsic motivation truly exist, especially in older students (meaning high school, college, grad school)? My cynical thinking wants me to say no. But leaving the possibility that it does exist, I will say it may exist, but very few.

First, we must find where people start losing intrinsic motivation to learn things in school. Intrinsic motivation refers to the belief that people are inherently motivated to engage in an activity, whether it is a hobby, and exercise, or something new to be learned (Gruman et al. 230). Education wise, children are excited to learn new things in their early years, for they have little to no pressure in life to succeed, and they are purer in nature generally. Most kids in elementary school start off with no expectations from adults to get a good score on a test. The early years of education are more closely related to entertaining activities and methods of learning, mainly trying to increase the intrinsic motivation of young learners to want to learn more. There are little to no tests on the content learned, and grades are not that important yet. The only aspect that can decrease the amount of intrinsic motivation in this stage is rewards. A study by Ryan and Desi in 1985 showed that giving external rewards to students doing tasks can decrease the intrinsic motivation levels of students, for they input that they are getting rewards for doing a task, for the task is not what people do purely because of interest. Maybe this is the start of the decline in intrinsic motivation, as people get older and as a long-term consequence. But rewards are not just the reason for the decline in intrinsic motivation, especially in the teen and college years.

As students advance to higher levels of education in the public education system, external motivation increases. Such extrinsic motivations include being evaluated with test scores, career choice, and thinking about life in general. Most high school students study because they want to go to college. The main reasons can be clearly explained through regulations of extrinsic motivations. A student tries hard to get into a college because:

1. To get a high paying job in the future (external regulation)
2. Expectations from parents, friends, the school etc. (introjected regulation)
3. Planning for a career (identified regulation)
4. Concerns in doing well in life in general (integrated regulation)

Of course, there are students that don’t have a specific reason (amotivation), but most high schoolers fit in one of the four extrinsic motivation regulations. An argument that intrinsic motivation exists in high schoolers can be that there are high schoolers that attempt to go to college because they genuinely love to learn. But I have a question about this claim. To go to college, most universities require taking a standardized test, and getting certain grades. Do people take the SAT or ACT because they love taking tests? I have not heard of anyone like that in my life. And taking the SAT/ACT to go to college will result in the motivation being an identified regulation, losing its status as an intrinsic motivation. And if a person genuinely loves learning new things, there are other choices they can make to learn. College isn’t the only option to learn new things, for the internet allowed almost everyone to gain access to educational material. If the person is solely interested in learning, why not read online scholar articles about their desired topic, or go take free courses online like Khan Academy? It may sound too cynical, but logically thinking, I think there is no such thing as purely intrinsic motivation in the topic of going to college; if they exist, that percentage is very little.

As a child becomes an adult, their purity in character decreases over time. Just as how classic literature such as “Lord of the Flies” portrays, events in life results in the loss of purity in a child’s soul. In education, the loss of purity in the intrinsic motivation towards education are life events such as tests, college, and career plans. It is hard and rare to keep the pure intrinsic motivation as a learner, for life doesn’t work that way. I guess the only way to preserving intrinsic learning as people get older is to accept that you are not 100% intrinsic in your learning, but keep the attitude that you are voluntarily learning the content for your interests, like in your pathway to your desired career.

Reference:

Gruman, Jamie A., et al. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. SAGE, 2017.

The topic of learning came up this week. As someone who works in education, I love being able to take what I learn in class and apply to work or vice versa. This week, specifically, the so ever-known Albert Bandura and his bobo doll experiment was shown. This has always been one of my favorite experiments because it shows how important our actions can be perceived to others. I love to apply it to what I do in my job.

I am a paraprofessional. For anyone that does not know that fancy word, I am basically an aid. More specifically, a 1:1 aid. I stick with one student that majority of the day and help him try to get through the day. He is 8 years old, so a little past the ages studied in Bandura’s experiment, but I see that learning through observation still occurs. I also sometimes work with kindergarteners, and it is so fascinating to see the difference.

Today, my 3^rd grade student had a major meltdown. He threw things, yelled, screamed, cried, hit the teachers, and so on. As you would think, some kids get scared and feel afraid to approach him afterward, when he is calmed and de-escalated. It takes one student to be brave and go up to him and then you can almost see the weight shift off the kids and most follow suit. The children are learning by their peers that there is nothing to be afraid of. Comparatively however, when the kindergartener has the same sort of meltdown, the other students remain away from him for most of the day. I find it extremely fascinating as to the age difference and actions of the children.

I bring this up as it relates to education because of how important learning off peers is. A lot of younger school age children form who they are and how they behave based off who they are around. I have seen students that are gifted, intelligent, but pretend to not be just because of the friends they are around. The bobo doll experiment was a beginning step in showing how observed actions can have a domino effect on those around us. In school settings, students are around the same kids, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 180 days of the year. How the children act and behave around each other can have huge consequences to how they learn in school. From simple acts of kindness to following the rules or understanding a lesson.

Gruman, J.A.,Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

You’re not on Facebook?  This is a question I was asked for the better part of a year when the social media platform was becoming popular.  Although I had looked at it, I really did not see the point and had no desire to join.  I’ve always been a private person and the thought of putting my life (photos, thoughts, etc.) online for all to see was borderline horrifying.  As time went on and I gained a better understanding of social media, I finally caved and created a Facebook account.  At first I found myself logging on infrequently, but, after a time I almost became addicted, mainly seeing what others were up to.  Today, it’s almost become instinctive to scroll through my feed many times per day.

In previous blog posts, I’ve discussed my feelings on the mental health issues created by social media.  Today, I would like to discuss how social media influences our thoughts, specifically relating to world issues.  In recent years, we have all become familiar with the infamous hashtag #FakeNews. Although this term was born through deflection and controversy, it’s not 100% incorrect.  People have become extremely susceptible to the things they see on social media.  Here is a fictitious, yet relatable example:

The New York Times puts a sidebar story on-line highlighting a single medical study suggesting that a chemical used in certain vaccines MAY cause excessive sneezing in individuals between 25 and 45 years old.  This story is re-posted on various social media sites and read by millions of people.  Since these people clicked on the story, it also comes up in their “friends” new feed – millions more read it.  Then, because it involves sneezing, people who searched for or texted about cold remedies are presented with the article based on various algorithms, you get the point.  You then start seeing posts from people who claim they have experienced sneezing for years and have “done their research” and are now protesting against the firm that manufactures the vaccine.  You see coalitions formed and the manufacturer eventually bankrupted.

Although the example above is over-simplified and potentially extreme, in the world of social media such situations are common.  Before the advent of social media, the number of people seeing this article and uninformed commentary would have been much less.

In today’s environment, the framing of a story by the writer has become much more important.  Framing refers to the way a story is presented and is important because certain important aspects may be significantly de-emphasized or worse completely ignored (Gruman et. al 2017).  In the past, framing was important, however because the news outlets/platforms/audiences were limited, news stories did not take on a “life of their own” in the same way they do now.

Those who proliferate such stories have a great deal of power.  For every person who questions the validity of a story, there are 10 who take it as gospel.  Those who control the algorithms used by social media also have a great deal of power as they seem to ensure that improperly framed or controversial articles are presented to the most impressionable audiences.  The often used quote “With great power comes great responsibility” is even more relevant in the age of social media.

References

Gruman, J.A.,Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Technology is seen as a mediated social force, whose particular impact is shaped by human actions. It focuses on how the impact of particular technology is influenced by the social world. Technology is viewed as an independent social force which influences and shapes society. Communication is a central aspect of almost every facet of our everyday lives, technology that affects our communication is likely to have a particularly meaningful and measurable effect. 

Advantages to electronic communications include how it facilitates the fast, convenient flow of information among the users at various locations. The postal service is too slow, phones are inconvenient and more expensive and permits constant communication any time on any day. It eliminates phone tag, eliminates phone distractions, reduces cost and paper waste. It can dramatically expand communication capabilities, is easy to modify, no time restraints, can be accessed via any number of tools, and preserves an entire discussion without having to rely on one’s memory. 

These advantages can lead to many new opportunities online communities, blogs, twitter, virtual meetings, ect. Video conferencing has been the newest thing, especially since COVID-19 hit. Disadvantages to video conferencing/ meetings is that there is a need for fast data connections and all users must have compatible software, and the images may be jerky, and confidentiality could be compromised. 

On the other hand there are many advantages to video conferences. On some systems data such as CAD, it can be transferred. Video conferencing/ meetings removes the need to travel to the location. It ensures education and training to be carried out more effectively, and expertise can be shared across the company more quickly. Problems can be solved more effectively with relevant experts meeting immediately to discuss problems. 

Gruman, J.A.,Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center determined that an average of 95.5 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 49 own a smartphone (2021).

Regrettably, I am among them.

Don’t get me wrong: I can appreciate the convenience of smartphones. There was a time when my phone was practically embedded in my hand (especially when the Blackberry was the old iPhone); I was constantly scrolling through social media, texting people, or checking emails. In fact, there was a time when I had two of them; I had one that was issued to me by my former employer and one that I bought for myself. It was almost reassuring to know that I had access to the world at large right at my fingertips. I could call, text, or message practically anyone at any time, and vice versa. Even after I moved on from that job, my dependence on my Blackberry was as strong as it ever was.

Then one day, a miracle happened.

I was in my car, driving to Target, when halfway there, it occurred to me that I’d forgotten my Blackberry at home. My initial reaction was a combination of shock and panic. I remember thinking to myself that I was completely out of touch with my friends and family, and that no one knew where I was. As I kept driving on what was a beautiful summer day, my panic soon turned to fascination and glee – no one knew where I was!

A proud Gen Xer, I can vividly recall a time when very few people had cellphones. They were impossibly expensive and were these gigantic, heavy monstrosities that were impractical to carry around all the time. So, if you weren’t fortunate enough to own one, people had to call you at home and hope you were there, or leave a message on your answering machine (if you were really fancy!). Obviously, we lived through that dark age unscathed, so the odds of my surviving a Target run without mine were indeed in my favor.

That was the best shopping trip I’d taken in YEARS.

It was so nice to be able to walk through the store without the Pavlovian ding of a phone interrupting my train of thought. For the first time in ages, I didn’t feel beholden to immediately respond to the whims of another; if someone was trying to get in touch with me, they had no choice but to wait for a response until I returned home. Finally, I was free to go wherever or do whatever I wanted, completely unencumbered! I was so caught up in the rapturous feeling of emancipation that what was supposed to be a quick trip ended up lasting a couple hours. The reawakened latchkey kid in me cheered as I decided to take advantage of my newfound self-determination and go to a few other stores before returning home.

When I got back to my Blackberry, I found that there were indeed a few messages waiting for me. I would have expected to feel guilty for having been out of touch, but strangely, I felt… practically nothing! There was a twinge of remorse for having missed them, but nothing akin to what I thought I would have felt about being unreachable for so long.

In the aftermath, I learned two things. First, my feelings of disloyalty were self-imposed. Yes, my friends were surprised that I didn’t respond right away, but no one gave me grief about it except ME. Second, the world will not end if I don’t have my phone with me 24/7; in fact, it just might be a more enjoyable place. I don’t have to be connected every minute of the day. I don’t have to respond to every message or text within five minutes. I don’t have to scroll through social media every hour to keep up with what the Joneses are doing; ultimately, I don’t really care.

Since then, my phone stays turned off at home about 95 percent of the time. I turn it on in the morning to check for messages and again once I am done with work. If I’m leaving the house I take it with me, but more than likely it’s turned off. The people in my life know that if they really need to contact me in an emergency, they should call my landline (GASP!) or my work number if it’s a literal matter of life or death. Otherwise, I’ll get back to you when I can… or feel like it.

I recognize that my method isn’t for everyone. For that matter, there have been situations where I have had to break my own policy and have my phone on during the day. Fortunately (for multiple reasons), those instances have been few and relatively far between. If you’re like me, though, and find yourself needing to break free of your electronic leash, I highly recommend giving my method a try. You just might be surprised by and enjoy your technological emancipation.

Pew Research Center. (2021, November 23). Demographics of mobile device ownership and adoption in the United States. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/

I found the lesson for this week to be really interesting. In our modules, it was discussed how the addition of cell phones has caused changes in social norms and behaviors and that cell phones have caused us to always be “on call” meaning that we can almost always be reached now by whoever may need to get in contact with us.

Qualtrics and Google (2021) partnered up and did a study and wrote about the work-life balance post-Covid-19 when many people are working from home. In this study, they asked 3000 employees from all over the world questions regarding their inability to disconnect from work after hours (or before hours) and how their cell phones have affected their employee experience and the separation between work and personal lives, especially during a time of post-Covid.

The study has found that FOMO, or fear of missing out, has been one of the biggest reasons as to why many people can’t disconnect after work. In relation to FOMO, the study found that 60% reported checking emails, texts, or calls, 44% reported planning for the next day, 40% were checking new notifications, 32% were writing down a task or a note, and 29% reported completing tasks for the next day. If people have access and are capable of working after hours, many will have a hard time not doing so, especially for important emails. Qualtrics and Google (2021) also noted that those who have more demanding jobs have a harder time disconnecting after work hours. They stated that compared to 28% of flexible workers, 36% of those who work demanding jobs find it difficult to resist the urge to check on work outside of work hours. Also, 50% of people that work at least 54 hours a week find it difficult to resist the urge to check on work compared to 31% of those that work 35-39 hours per week.

When it comes to creating work-life balance, Qualtrics and Google (2021) stated that 62% of people always or lost always use their phone for work while they are not at work. For those individuals that have one cell phone that they use for work and their personal lives, compared to those that have a separate phone for work, 35% say it hurts their fork-life balance, 26% describe a lack of privacy, and 22% describe a lack of security. Qualtrics and Google (2021) note that dividing work and personal lives into separate folders on their phones can help individuals find some work-life balance.

While it’s convenient and helpful to be able to work at home and can give the opportunity to have more of a work-life balance, it appears that people have a hard time separating work and home and take advantage of the opportunity to access work after hours or get ahead of their work for the next day.

Google, & Qualtrics. (2021, August 17). How our phones affect our work-life balance // Qualtrics. Qualtrics. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/phones-affect-work-life-balance/

One thing that we are constantly experiencing is change especially in Technology. Each generation has experienced some big change with technology during their lifetime. My parent’s generation which is Generation X, experienced the radios which at one point was the “in” thing to have become non-existent. Many people back then, added them to their bikes or used them as a means to know what was going in during major storms, power outages or if they did not have television. They also experienced the changes from phones being connected to a landline to them becoming mobile, cell phones which were these huge pieces of technology that many either had in their car or chose to carry a small pager evolved over time as well (The Pennsylvania State University, 2022).

In my generation, I have watched the cellphones become the most common piece of technology. When I was growing up, having a cell phone was common for young adults to have, some of my cousins had them but it was usually those cousins whose parents could afford the extra bill. Now a days, kids have cellphones at the age of ten.  In addition to that, the internet/web browsing portion was seldomly used and you could forget about an “app”.

Nowadays, everything that was done on a computer can easily be accessed and completed within minutes on a cell phone, from signing documents, checking emails, accessing bank records, watching the news/television, and what we have now experienced with the pandemic, working from home. Technology has transformed in many major aspects and this can be both a good and bad thing. Since, a lot of personal business that used to be stored in paper files or businesses electronic data which was protected, are now stored in data on phones, systems used by businesses and sent over unsecured networks it makes it easier for security breaches to happen.

Change is inevitable, we can’t control it and it is something that is going to happen, something that needs to happen. However, at this rate personal security should be at a high concern as well.

The Pennsylvania State University. (2022). Applied Social Psychology: PSYCH 424 [Online course lesson]. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2177148/modules/items/33983541

As a current student, I can understand the stress and fatigue that students go through everyday to turn in assignments, study for exams and at the same time maintain a social life.  These pressures can be immense on a student and can sometimes lead to negative behaviors as a coping mechanism. 

As learned in Chapter 9, some students are capable of self-sabotage when it comes to academics because it’s easier to have a planned reason for failure.  Two concepts in particular that strike me personally are procrastination and self-handicapping.  Procrastinating is putting off work until the very last moment and is often the result of stress or the lack of motivation to complete a task (Gruman, 2017).  I can personally account that these two techniques of student self-sabotage are nothing short of ideal for a stressed student.  

Finals time can be a very stressful time for students and last semester I took it especially hard.  I was constantly fatigued from taking many 400 level courses in my major.  So when finals month rolled around I was extremely excited to get to Winter break and go home and relax for a little bit.  I knew I had a bunch of work that needed to be completed prior to leaving, however I let the stress of the semester take over and instead of preparing for finals week.  I did the absolute bare minimum work and did not study for a single final more than a week in advance.  This was insane for me because I usually block out at least a month to prepare well for finals.  The actual finals week rolls around and I procrastinated my work so much that I had to cram study before every one of my finals.  I ended up doing well on my finals somehow, but it causes even more stress to procrastinate than if I actually studied in the first place.  

Also, the week before finals I knew that I had a 20 page research paper due during finals week, yet I did not want to do poorly on it so I saved it for when I had time to do it perfectly.  I would consider my attitude around not completing this paper in time to be self-handicapping because I know that I am a perfectionist when it comes to writing and I would rather have run out of time to complete the paper than to have turned in one that does not reflect my best work.  

Reflecting on my experiences from the last finals semester and how poorly my outcome was, I can relate to how procrastination and self-handicapping can negatively impact a students academic performance.  Students should be given the proper resources to be able to combat these negative academic strategies in order to boost student self confidence and productivity.     

Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Jamie A. Gruman, Frank W. Schneider, and Larry M. Coutts . SAGE Publications . 2016

While studies on race-specific violent and non-violent pornographic media was not discussed in the text, my interest in Black sexuality has resulted in a mini literature of media on Black sexuality. Of great interest is an article I read, “Worse Than Objects: The Depiction of Black Women and Men and Their Sexual Relationship in Pornography” where the authors reviewed pornographic media featuring Black and White performers to determine how often violent acts are depicted depending on the racial makeup of the performers.

Authors Fritz, Malic, Paul, and Zhou performed a content analysis of over 1,741 porn film clips uploaded to Xvideos.com and Pornhub.com featuring Black and White partners exclusively. Their aim was to determine, via content analysis, whether depictions of sexual aggression are more common depending on the race of the performers. They found that acts of violence were most commonly performed by Black men no matter the race of his co-performer, and that Black women were significantly more likely to be the recipients of violent acts no matter the race of her co-performer (Fritz et al, 2020).

Their results found an underrepresentation of scenes of intimacy (i.e., kissing and eye contact) in performances where both performers were Black to be statistically significant. From the paper I wrote on this topic for my Sociology 409 course, “Inequality in America,” I asked,

“For individuals who regularly consume Black pornography, what kind of understanding, or lack thereof, of intimacy are they internalizing and reinforcing in their own romantic and sexual relationships? Is this lack of intimacy having an outsized impact on relationship satisfaction for Black women? Is this lack of intimacy between Black men and women reinforcing a romantic and sexual preferences toward White women? Or are these multifaceted issues the result of a media machine that prefers lighter skin overall? (Walton, 2021).”

These are all issues that I will continue to investigate as I move forward with my academic endeavors. To the above questions, I would also add, do acts of violence perpetrated on Black women increase the rate of intimate partner violence between Black couples? At this point, media consumption is a ubiquitous genie that can never be put back into the proverbial bottle. My mission is to mitigate the psychological harm that can occur to entire groups of people when the human propensity to transfer what they learn via various media sources, as proposed by cultivation theory, is combined with the fundamental attribution error as we interact with diverse groups throughout our daily lives.

Fritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). Worse Than Objects: The Depiction of Black Women and Men and Their Sexual Relationship in Pornography. Gender Issues, 38(1), 100–120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-020-09255-2

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.) [E-book]. SAGE Publications, Inc.

In this day in age, it is most common to use SMS text messaging or social media to communicate. Whether it’s Snapchat, Instagram, or Facebook Messenger, there are tons of outlets that children learn to communicate with, and it’s starting younger and younger. What does this mean for actual in-person communication? Does social media affect the ability to effectively communicate? What about professionally?

According to an article I read, we must begin to wonder how much social media affects the ability to communicate, and even the ability to learn how to communicate. Consider what life has been like for children over the last couple of years. Because of COVID-19, children have had to stay inside and complete schoolwork online. This means pretty much all of their communication with teachers and classmates has had to be on the computer. Something important about communication is the non-verbal aspect. Without non-verbal cues, it’s hard to understand how someone feels and what they exactly mean by something they say. This lack of face-to-face communication at such a young age can very much impact the ability to effectively understand how to communicate (Dada, 2022).

Something else the article mentioned was how sometimes the use of emojis can aid in effective online communication (Dada, 2022). This is true in the case of communicating over text or texting your friends and family. There’s an emoji for every emotion, which allows pretty much zero confusion about how someone feels about what they’re saying (unless it’s that one upside-down smiley face. That’s a bit hard to interpret). Besides that though, what about professional communication? You can’t put emojis in a professional email to your supervisor. So what can you do?

The only option when trying to effectively communicate is to be professional and not make assumptions about how the person will interpret what you say. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Be clear and concise. Don’t assume they’ll understand a joke or sarcasm. Try not to be reliant on what you know about social media communication. Understand that face-to-face communication is a skill that is necessary for life and learn how to do it sooner rather than later.

Dada, O., 2022. Is texting making ruining our ability to communicate? – Student Media | UAB. Uab.edu. https://www.uab.edu/studentmedia/kaleidoscope/opinion/429-is-texting-making-ruining-our-ability-to-communicate#:~:text=Too%20much%20texting%20may%20lead,non%2Dverbal%20cues%20in%20communication.

As someone who is from the millennial generation, I have heard this debate for most of my life. Do video games cause violence? Do video games not cause violence? Which side of the debate is correct? I have been an avid video game player since childhood. I have always had a very diverse collection of video games from the most violent to the least violent types of games. I will go from conducting ruthless bank heists in one game to tending to my virtual farm in another game and making sure that I pet my cows and chickens every single day, so they feel loved. I would count myself a person with overall very low aggression levels. I believe that there is potential correlation, but not causation between video games and aggression.

Gruman et al. (2016) states that “much of the research on video games has been somewhat simplistic in its assumptions about gaming” (p. 216). Many of the studies they described have failed to consider numerous factors when measuring levels of aggression. It is entirely possible that the subjects of the studies that showed higher levels of aggression may have already been prone to aggression before playing video games for several different reasons. The emotional response of the subjects in any of the studies may have been influenced by their age, gender, emotional state at the time of the study, and numerous other potential influential factors.

Ferguson, Rueda, Cruz et al. (2008) conducted a study on violence in video games and their affect on aggression levels. They ultimately found that increased aggression levels after playing violent video games came mostly from subjects that were prone to aggression and had experienced family violence previously. Most subjects who were not prone to aggression and did not experience family violence, did not experience an increase in aggression levels after playing a violent video game. This is a glaring indicator that the aggression is not caused by the violent video game itself, but indeed correlates to the increased aggression levels if there are underlying influences for aggressive behavior.

While I do agree that violent video games should be kept in check, I do not agree with those that claim that they cause aggression. Video games come with a rating system for a reason. Children should not be able to play violent video games that are rated M for mature. Children’s brains are still developing and absorbing all that they see. They are more likely to be affected by the violence than the adults that the games are made for. The same could be said for children watching violent rated R movies. The video game industry has put these ratings in place to attempt to prevent children from experiencing the violent video games too early in life. When it comes to adults, violent video games may potentially increase aggression levels if they are already prone to aggression, but I do not agree that the video games are the cause.

References:

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

Ferguson, C. J., Rueda, S. M., Cruz, A. M., Ferguson, D. E., Fritz, S., & Smith, S. M. (2008). Violent Video Games and Aggression: Causal Relationship or Byproduct of Family Violence and Intrinsic Violence Motivation? Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35(3), 311–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854807311719

                The topic of this blog was designed to grab attention.  I suspect some will view this as a reference to immigration or science fiction.  However, the event that I am referring to dates to a time well before any of us.  Picture the era before the Second World War, tensions are high, and it seems like the horror of global war are imminent.   Throw into this a radio drama that appears to be innocent and similar to countless others.  Because of missed disclaimers and the already heightened tensions you end up with hysteria.

In 1938 Orson Welles used the most modern media form in wide use to present one of his works; that being radio.  Most people today only use it for music or the occasional talk show but pre-television it was a staple of entertainment in one’s home.   This broadcast was by no means designed to cause any sort of panic but rather to allow the listener to experience The War of the Worlds as though they were part of it.  Sadly, several missteps caused some of those people to believe the events were actually real.  Reports of real places in the show caused those nearby to search for “Alien machines” and people fled in fear of “poison smoke”.  The not to distant memories of the First World War and the chemical weapons used then were fresh on the minds of many.  Also, the rising of Nazi Germany was clear to all as was the stress it was causing on the population.  All of these factors were a perfect storm for a self-containing overreaction to an otherwise benign radio show.  (1)  If such a thing could occur under a form of media where sound is the only thing sent imagine what could happen today?

There are numerous examples of fake posts or misinformation and the damage that can result.  Also, we must consider how something can be taken well out of content for the negative.  The above example is purely historical and a perfect one to show how even over time we have not found a way to control base instincts that we have.  In the modern area we can look at “viral” posts and the behavior that comes from them.  Sometimes a single prankster/troll can be responsible for untold damages, or a joke can start something serious.  Social Cognitive Theory shows how knowledge and behaviors can be influenced by many means.  Understanding those means is vital and one must consider historical events as well. (2)

References:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)#Public_reaction
• https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/07/stopping-spread-mass-hysteria-facebook-social-media/

Society has changed a lot from the beginning of the 20^th century. When most of our parents, grandparents or great grandparents were kids it was taboo to see Lucy and Ricky sleeping in the same bed together. That is why you always saw them in separate beds despite the fact they were married and had a child together. Elvis was considered sexually explicit because of the way he would move his hips on the television and at concerts.

Today we see full on sex scenes on the television. Shows like Outlander, Peaky Blinders, Rome, Spartacus, etc. show us explicit sex scenes and some of those scenes include violence. Outlander specifically warns you prior to watching that the next episode shows scenes of sexual assault. Which it is good that the makers of some of these shows warn you prior to.

On the flip side of that, there are things like violent pornography. Violent pornography can be defined as “the portraying of violence or coercion that is juxtaposed with, or an integral part of, explicit sexual activities with an underlying theme of dominance” (Gruman, 2016). So, this means you can actively go watch porn that basically gives “rapey vibes.” Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?

There are more questions than answers I have regarding this topic. Is this something that is okay or have we gone to far to allow something like this to be so readily available or even legal? If a teenager views this type of material throughout adolescence, is he or she more prone to being sexually violent? Is he or she more prone to being sexually abused as an adult and thinking it is normal?

Gruman, Jamie, A. et al. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Available from: MBS Direct, (3rd Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US), 2016.

First, I’d like to discuss how social media has affected my romantic relationships and my relationship with myself. Social media, specifically Instagram in my case, has opened me up to sharing and viewing other people’s lives since I started an account in 2012 when I was about 14. I was always interested in following my friends, and high school crushes or boyfriends on Instagram. I would post pictures of myself with my friends and boyfriend/eventually a few different boyfriends throughout high school.

Social media started to have an impact on my self-esteem and security in my relationships shortly after creating an account. I was constantly worried about how I looked compared to other girls my boyfriend/s might have been looking at online. I wanted my relationship to appear well online so other people could see I was “happily taken”. This theme has become less of an issue for me as I have matured into adulthood, but I still struggle with comparison sometimes and can admit I have checked my partner’s phone before even though I consider this a breach of trust.

The article I found is a review from Pew Research Center that discusses a topic from our lesson this week, dating and social media. In this study, “adult users under the age of 30, those shares who have used social media to checked-up on a former partner (70%) or posted about their own love life (48%) are even higher.” and ” 23% say they have felt jealous or unsure of their relationship because of the way their current partner interacts with others on these sites, and this share rises to 34% among those ages 18 to 29.” (Vogels, 2020) These statistics came from a survey conducted in 2019 including over 4,800 adult participants.

In general, the amount of time their partners spend on their cellphones was also a topic brought up in this study that relates to our lesson. Our lesson discusses how cell phones have made us feel less alone, but also feel that we’re always on call. The results of the survey from Pew Research Center can coroborate the notion that we are attached to our mobile devices and that this can sometimes bother our partners; “Four-in-ten partnered Americans say they are at least sometimes bothered by how much time their partner spends on their cellphone.” (Vogels,2020)

It seems as though cell phones and social media always being available to us can sometimes be a helpful thing, but can also be a hinderance in some relationships. But, like the article mentioned in our lesson that stated online dating services are responsible for 1 in 6 marriages,(Chadwick Martin-Bailey, 2010) social media clearly gives us the opportunity to find love and connection which is a great thing. I too found love using an online dating service, and now I’m getting married in May, and I have cell phones and social media to thank for that.

Chadwick Martin-Bailey. (2010). The Evolution of Dating: Match.com and Chadwick Martin Bailey Behavioral Studies Uncover a Fundamental Shift.

Vogels, E. A., & Anderson, M. (2021, June 5). Dating and relationships in the Digital age. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved March 15, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/05/08/dating-and-relationships-in-the-digital-age/

During this week’s commentary, we watched a video and read information regarding social media outlets, especially, Facebook. As I continued to read I thought about another social media outlet that has taken technological communication to a new level, Instagram. Since it was first established in 2010, Instagram has been able to accumulate a billion users on their application and continues to grow since they have been bought by the founder of Facebook (Evans, 2018). I believe Instagram’s popularity came to be due to social cognitive theory of mass communication and vicarious learning. After learning how people have made careers out of posting on Instagram and how to gain a large following, Instagram blew up. Posting on Instagram has proven to have more advantages than disadvantages. For instance, those who post “good-looking, edited, photographs,” gain a large following because they portray aspects of a lifestyle that most people strive for (Evans, 2018). After gaining this following, people began to feel as though they have an influence on others because they persuade their followers on where to go, what to buy, and how to do something. These people become known as “influencers,” and they are the main promoters of social media outlets today.
As we learned, social cognitive theory indicated that there are four processes that need to take place in order for vicarious learning to occur (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). In terms of the first process, attention, people only post images on Instagram that they know look appealing and will capture the attention of the audience that is scrolling. Most people on Instagram only post the most glamorous parts of their life. Instead of posting a picture in sweats watching TV, they post bikini pics in tropical locations. Furthermore, when it comes to advertising on Instagram, ‘influencers’ find creative ways to target their followers and sell a product, whether it be an experiment, special effects, or personal testimony.
For the second and third process known as the representational and behavioral production processes, people need to remember and learn how to perform the modeled behavior and tend to rehearse it and visualize it into their lives (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). After seeing a post on Instagram, people tend to remember those posts that caught their eye and think of the details of the picture and how they can replicate it. Nowadays, there are all kinds of tools, tutorials, and tricks that can be found to teach people how to edit, fix, or format their posts in the most appealing ways. I personally have a page of notes on my phone with a list of edits that can be applied to pictures to make them ‘pop’ more. Another example is a famous post that has been replicated various times and is made by those who visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Those who visit this famous landmark tend to recreate a pose of them trying to lift up the tower.
Lastly, the motivational process states “people do not perform every behavior they observe; rather they perform those behaviors that they are motivated to perform” (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). To add to the point, people tend to imitate behavior that is rewarded or without punishment, instead of behavior that is punished or disadvantageous. Posting on Instagram has little punishment depending on what you post. Although Instagram has some guidelines, accounts that go against these guidelines are often taken down, but no tangible repercussions occur, seeing as how they are able to make a new account. Furthermore, after seeing how others like them have been able to gather a following and become successful off their posts, Instagram gives its users another motivating factor to partake in their application. Because Instagram also keeps track of other people’s actions towards your account, it gives users a sense of satisfaction when they post a picture that appeals to others.
All in all, although Instagram may seem harmless, I believe it has a very strong influential hold on today’s generation and has become a new societal norm. Nowadays, after meeting someone new, one immediately goes to Instagram to look them up and try to learn more about them. People see Instagram as a window into other people’s lives, however it should be remembered that this window is only showing the best part of someone’s life and not the adversity that may come with it.

References
Evans, B. G. (2018, September 25). Instagram: The dog that launched a social media giant.
BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45640386
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology :
Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

Communication via technology has become one of the main ways for communication between individuals to take place. Technology has made major advances in the communication world and has helped communication in many aspects. Communication via technology has changed the world. For example, it has allowed two businesses on opposite sides of the world to communicate with one another and make a deal. Technology has allowed individuals to become friends with one another by meeting each other on social media without having met each other in person. Technology has become so accessible to people in the United States that when someone does not respond to your text or email, you wonder if they are ignoring you. One aspect that has changed communication via technology is email (Kruger, 2005).

As described in an article, email is one of the most successful computer applications yet devised (Kruger, 2005). It has created many opportunities for communication to occur without being direct with the people you are “speaking” with. Although email is very convenient and a quick way for communication to take place, it does however have negative aspects to it. Specifically, in the business world, the use of email can have negative effects on a company.

The article for class describes one of these negative effects as miscommunication (Kruger, 2005). Mass emails that are sent out to every employee in the company may include statements that are deciphered by recipients of the email in different ways. When an email includes sarcastic comments or dark humor, it can be difficult for individuals to be able to know whether they are joking or not. When communication is conducted over email, facial expressions and tone of voice are not available so it may be questionable if statements made are serious. This is where the miscommunication takes place. Sarcastic statements may be taken as offensive to some people while you meant no harm in it.

In a class that I have taken in the past semester, I learned about another negative effect emails can have on a company. Since emails are a convenient and fast way to communicate, companies often receive a large number of emails in a day. These emails can be from numerous people ranging from co-workers, customers, other businesses, etc. Due to the high demand of emails received in one day, a large amount of time in a workday is devoted to reading and responding to emails (Contributor, 2020). The number of time workers spend reading and replying to emails causes neglect of other aspects of the job that need to be done. The amount of time on email for employees at companies is a large amount of time wasted for when they could have been performing something that would benefit the company they work for (Contributor, 2020).

Another aspect of email that is negative for businesses is the timeliness of email communication (Contributor, 2020). I believe that COVID has caused many companies to rely more on emails as a way of communicating rather than meeting directly. I know that in sales, virtual calls and emails are not as effective as they would be in meeting buyers in person. Communicating over email can cause a delay in responses and make it more difficult for sales to be made. Meeting face-to-face with someone allows the person to display their products and for the buyer to get a better understanding of it without worrying about if they miss understood something that was said over email. Communication via email in sales is difficult for potential buyers to understand the product being presented to them. Sending an email when a quick response is needed isn’t a smart choice because the recipients can view the email and decide to respond when they want to. Communicating with someone in person allows for faster responses and for answers to be known when the timeliness of communication is important (Contributor, 2020).

Email has made a significant impact in communicating. In companies and businesses, some of the impacts email has made have been very positive. I believe that email also carries many negative aspects to it as it can lead to miscommunication, wasted time reading and replying to emails, and does not allow for face to face contact to exist.

Contributor, Chron. “The Impact of Email in the Workplace.” Work – Chron.Com, 29 Aug. 2020, work.chron.com/impact-email-workplace-7915.html.

Kruger, J., Epley, N., Parker, J., & Ng, Z. (2005). Egocentrism over e-mail: Can we communicate as well as we think? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(6), 925-936. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.925

There have been many times in my life where texting has created many problems. Social media is used by people all over the world. More specifically, texting is the number one way to communicate with others. I can say that I personally use text to communicate rather than call or talk to someone in person. There are many benefits to texting someone. It is easy, quick, you can do it anywhere, etc. Not only that, but you are able to have multiple conversations at once with multiple people while also being able to do other things. I do find that texting is an easy and great way to communicate, however, it has its downsides.

Texting can also be a difficult way to communicate with others because it causes many miscommunications. I myself have been in many situations where I got into a fight with someone due to texting reasons. The reason for this is that it is difficult to understand how a person is saying something over text. Text messages are unable to convey tone, emotion, facial expressions, gestures, body language, eye contact, etc. These are common reasons why a text message will be misinterpreted or misunderstood.

One time that really stood out to me where I experienced text message miscommunication was with my bestfriend. My bestfriend and I text all day everyday updating eachother about our lives. It is so normal for us to be texting and we  are able to understand eachother very well. most of the time. There was one occurance where we did  not that started a whole fight between us. We were texting about hanging out and I was unable to. I had to cancel on our plans and I guess the way I worded it sounded like I had “something better to do” however, I was seriously not able to make it. In my head I thought I sounded sincere, but over text she did not convey it that way. This lead her to respind rudely which started a whole fight between us. We were going back and forth over text and it was not resolving anything.

Finally, I decided to show up to her house over person and explain myself and allowed her to explain herself. When I said what I had previously said over text in person, she had a completely different reaction. We were able to see how my text could have sounded mean in the first place. I also was able to see that there is a pattern with texting and communication. It has happened not just in this scenerio, but in many others as well. I am aware that whenever I talk in person or face to face with the person that the issue is solved and we are able to see the miscommunication. It is hard to fully understand how someone is saying something when it is over text which causes there to be many issues with texting.

I realted this story to study I read by Justin Kruger, Nicholas Epley, Jason Parker, and Zhi-Wen Ng. The article discusses how without the benefit of paralinguistic cues such as gesture, emphasis, and intonation, it can be difficult to convey emotion and tone over electronic mail (e-mail). Five experiments suggest that this limitation isoften underappreciated, such that people tend to believe that they can communicate over e-mail more effectively than they actually can” (Kruger et al., 2005).

Kruger, J., Epley, N., Parker, J., & Ng, Z. (2005). Egocentrism over e-mail: Can we communicate as well as we think? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(6), 925-936. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.925

Why are some individuals more likely than others to commit crime? Why are some categories or kinds of people more likely than others to commit crime? The most common theories can be classified into three groups: sociological, biological, and psychological.

 Biological theories tend to see crime as a form of illness caused by pathology specific to certain individuals. Some examples include Sheldon’s research on Body Types which was studied on 200 bodies and found mesomorphic body types more prone to delinquent activities. Another biological theory found that an extra Y chromosome correlated with crime. The extra Y chromosome was founded to create a strong compulsion that the XYY carrier is at an extreme risk of committing violent crimes. 

Psychological theories of crime emphasize individual differences in behavior and the approaches to thinking, feeling, and decision-making that make some people predisposed to committing criminal acts. Scientific principles that are formulated and applied to the analysis and understanding of cognitive and behavioral phenomena. One example could be someone with antisocial personality disorder. Someone with antisocial personality do not learn from punishment, do not experience fear/anxiety about consequences of their behavior.   

Both genetic and physiological factors are emphasized in biological explanations of criminal behavior. Hereditary factors influence criminal behavior, but the mechanisms through which this influence is exerted are unclear. The most likely candidates involve neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, and certain subcortical and cortical brain structures, particularly the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for monitoring behavioral inhibition, planning, and decision-making. A more specific prospect involves a mutation on the X chromosome in the gene coding for MAO-A, in combination with maltreatment as a child.

Social-psychological theories view criminal behavior as a learned response resulting from classical conditioning, reinforcement, observation or modeling, and social labeling. Sociological theories of criminology believe that society influences a person to become a criminal. Examples include the social learning theory, which says that people learn criminal behavior from the people around them, and social conflict theory, which says that class warfare is responsible for crime

Gruman, J.A.,Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

As a child, we all like certain characters or idols on TV. As I am older now I notice my nephews and nieces growing up and watching T.V and enjoying certain types of shows.
I notice their behavior mimics the characters on T.V. Sometimes I see them as the doppelganger of the character they like so much. During birthdays or Christmas, all they want is items from that characters.
I think of Bandura’s social cognitive theory,” four processes that must occur for vicarious learning to occur, attention, representational, behavioral production process, and motivational process” and how T.V. can attract young viewers by this theory (Gruman, 220).
First is the attention, as T.V. shows are tailored to children with cartoon characters and voices. How can it not be attention-seeking? My nephew loves the shows and the cartoons and is so zoned out, that when I talk to him, he is not even listening. Second, Is the representational process which meant, which “entails remembering the modeled behavior”, I see this as he tries to say things and repeat certain phases of the characters he likes on T.V. (Gruman, 220). Third, is the behavior production process, “which focuses on how people learn to perform the behavior they have observed” as he tries to act the same way as the characters he likes on TV from the way they walk or the actions they take on certain situations (Gruman, 220). Last is the motivational process, “perform those behaviors that they are motivated to perform” I see this in my nephew as he does a certain act and looks at me for a reward or reaction (Gruman, 220).
All of these things make me think that he is a doppelganger just in life form. I don’t see this as a good thing as I believe children should learn from good characters or role models. However, I’m not saying TV in all is bad, but I realized that parents and family members need to pay more attention to their children’s TV programs. Just because it’s in a cartoon or some other form, doesn’t mean it’s good for the child. I learned that I also need to speak up and inform the parent of the issue I see in a certain program. In our world now we see a lot of negative things and behaviors on TV, but it’s our responsibility to teach our children when and how to view certain programs and to explain them as well.
I informed my sister of my concerns for certain T.V. programs as she was not aware of the behaviors or violent acts and was grateful this was brought to her attention. As for now, I see the doppelganger nephew singing a song as one of the T.V. characters and enjoying the song as I think parents and families will need to be more cautious and limit access to children on TV.

Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Jamie A. Gruman, Frank W. Schneider, and Larry M. Coutts . SAGE Publications . 2016

I recently came upon a Facebook article posted by my local sheriff’s department, who regularly post stories about particularly noteworthy arrests. Although the arrestees in these posts are typically strangers to me, I occasionally recognize them as friends of friends or former acquaintances. This article was one such occasion. The man arrested was someone my friends and I used to “party” with regularly during our high school years. Apparently, he had never moved past the stage of rebellion that is so common during adolescence. Reflecting on this observation, my friends and I noted that he had “missed the memo” about maturing into a responsible adult—He had failed to “understand the assignment.”

According to the Office of the Stafford County Sheriff (2022), our former acquaintance had been under police observation for some time due to suspected criminal activity. He was finally arrested during traffic stop, at which time police discovered a “cocktail” of illegal drugs concealed in a Pringles can in his glovebox. His mother, a passenger in the car, was also arrested (OSCS, 2022). Stories such as this that involve people my friends and I used to associate with are always somewhat shocking to hear. While we seemed to mature past the stage of teenage rebellion naturally and effortlessly, this has clearly not been the case for these former acquaintances. By contrast, these individuals seem to have both engaged in more of these behaviors and involved themselves in increasingly serious criminal offenses. This always leads my friends and I to the question of “why?” Having started off in similar places in life as these offenders (sneaking out of our parents’ houses, underage partying, etc.), what lead to such a stark contrast in how we carried on with our lives? What caused these individuals to “miss the memo?”

Research by Gruman et al. (2016) in the fields of social and criminal psychology outlines many of these potential causes. One notable factor that was likely in effect in the case of our former acquaintance was the attribution of negative parental influences. As made evident by the simultaneous arrests of this individual and his mother (OSCS, 2022), his parents clearly had a less-than-positive influence on his behaviors. The extent of these influences is also supported by the fact that (as witnessed by my friends and I) this individual’s parents had, in the past, routinely allowed large parties and underage alcohol consumption to occur in their home. (These parties had also frequently been “busted” by the police; Despite this, the parents continued to host them.) This lack of positive parental guidance and supervision are recognized as key risk factors in the development of criminal behavior (Gruman et al., 2016). The allowance of (and, at times, participation in) such behaviors by parents along with the influence of equally rebellious peers during this time served as both social support and positive reinforcement of these behaviors. As further explained by Bandura’s social learning theory, the observation of criminal behavior in one’s environment often leads to the imitation of such behavior (Gruman et al., 2016). “Poor use of leisure time” (in the form of partying, underage drinking, and illegal drug use for this individual) also inevitably decreases time available for “prosocial leisure pursuits” with “noncriminal associates” (Gruman et al., 2016, p. 374). As is often the case for “adolescence-limited individuals” (Gruman et al., 2016, p. 376), my friends and I’s parents actively condemned antisocial and criminal behaviors in the home. This individual, by contrast, had parents who supported this lifestyle; Therefore, these negative influences did not simply cease when association with like-minded peers faded off after high school. This likely played a key role in our former acquaintance’s continuation of (and heightened involvement in) antisocial and criminal behaviors beyond the adolescent years—as is characteristic of the “life-course-persistent” group of criminal offenders (Gruman et al., 2016, p. 377).

As indicated by my friends and I’s former observations of this individual along with drug possession being the reason for his recent arrest, the consistent presence of drugs and alcohol in this individual’s environment was likely another major contributor to his criminal involvement. These substances are known to be mind-altering, in themselves. In addition, the recurrent presence of these factors in an individual’s life can lead the individual to regard them as more socially acceptable than they truly are (Gruman et al., 2016). This dissonance from reality (in combination with parental support of these behaviors) often results in a greater tolerance towards deviance, in general (Gruman et al., 2016). Each of the above factors help to explain why our former acquaintance “missed the memo” and failed to progress beyond the years of teenage rebellion.

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2016). Applying Social Psychology to the Criminal Justice System. In Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed., pp. 367–405). essay, SAGE Publications. Retrieved 2022, from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/reader.action?docID=5945490.

Office of Stafford County Sheriff (OSCS). (2022, February 10). “Pringles Problem” Adds to Charges. Facebook. Retrieved 2022, from https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStaffordCountySheriff%2Fposts%2F7437752996249780&show.

Why do some people commit crimes or engage in criminal behavior? Are the origins of this behavior from the biological make-up of someone, their environment, or a combination of the two. This is probably one of the oldest questions of mankind. There are a few theories to discuss and none of them are necessarily right or wrong.

The biological theory to criminal behavior is “based on the view that criminal behavior is the result of genetics, psychophysiology, neurological functioning, and biochemistry” (Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Sociological theories are based in “sociological principles relating to social class, poverty, and social inequity” (Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). There are also social psychological theories that focus more on the influence of individual characteristics that influence one’s behavior, along with the external influences that can impact someone’s life.

I think that all of these theories hold truth to the reasoning behind criminal behavior. It is fair to state the biological make-up of an individual plays a role in how someone thinks or behaves. However, your environment plays a role as well. The influence of what you see growing up and who you have been surrounded with helps mold you into who you are.

Out of all of these theories, I found the social psychological theory the most interesting. I also think this theory is the most accurate because in my opinion it encompasses all potential influences on a criminal. From the reading, this theory includes what goes on in your brain and the chemicals in your body and it also includes the possible social influences. In my opinion, all of this influences all of us in positive and negative ways.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781506353951

Those that founded this country looked forward to a justice system that followed the simple rule of law without prejudice or vice.  Looking over history it’s hard to find a time where we had just that.  Early on laws were vastly different from location to location, state to state and often times who was charged with what depended upon one’s financial state.  Following those years, we had decades before and after the Civil War where race or heritage played a role in predetermining guilt.  Even today one can find two cases of similar nature with two very different results depending upon the factors outlined above.  (1)

As a student of history, I completely understand the motivations of the founding fathers in their desire for a single tier justice system.  England has common courts and those for the nobles with two different sets of laws.  In this country it was supposed to be a blanket of laws over all persons.  (2)

Numerous reforms and the courageous actions of individuals over the years has certainly reduced the issues outlined above.  It’s hard for anything to take place behind closed doors with the Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) and those that use it to expose corruption.  Social media and the ability to share instantly allows for real time digesting of complex cases with valuable input.   There are countless historical cases that would be jaw dropping today but because of how slow news traveled in the past were mostly unheard of.  Public outrage is a powerful force as recent history has shown us.

Like many aspects of our country, I feel the justice system is constantly changing and evolving into something worthwhile.  If we as a nation can view judges as something else than political capital and have the local/federal government change laws as needed and have the population be better educated/informed, then there is hope.  Afterall, Lady Justice is blind for a reason. (3)

References:

• https://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/02/13/timothy-sandefur/isnt-founding-fathers-judicial-system/
• https://iaals.du.edu/blog/our-founding-fathers-vision-enduring-rule-law
• http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/the_myth.pdf

False confessions make no sense. If someone is innocent, shouldn’t they maintain that claim? If they do confess, then they’re guilty. Nope. False confessions happen regularly and are a leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. Why do people falsely confess? Many factors contribute to false confessions. One of them is that investigators are trained to interrogate suspects with the ultimate goal of obtaining a confession. They’re also taught to only interview people they think are guilty. This creates an expectation of guilt. Interactions between the interviewer and interviewee and the specific dynamics between the two can influence the outcome. Something called the Reid Technique commonly used demonstrates investigators’ power over the situation. The technique includes confrontation, aggressive tactics, interrupting, lying about possible evidence, and even giving details about how they committed a crime (Gruman, 2016). This technique has led to many false confessions because it is a high-stress situation that amplifies this stress and preys on vulnerable people. The impact of false confessions is not to be underestimated.

The justice system is very easily influenced by confession evidence, even if it’s false and there is no other evidence against the person. This happens because of what’s called the fundamental attribution error, which explains that it’s more common to describe someone’s behavior as internally driven instead of externally. So, investigators, jurors, judges, and the general public might see the confession, false or not, and attribute it to an internal cause such as the person is terrible instead of contemplating the external factors like investigative coercion (Gruman, 2016). Labeling someone who has confessed as a rotten egg and not even considering anything otherwise is the fundamental attribution error in action. In fact, a study focused on jurors’ false confession and coercive investigation knowledge found that although participants agreed that some stressful and persuasive interrogation techniques could lead to false confessions, they believed that they are “counter-intuitive and unlikely, even in response to psychologically coercive interrogation techniques that have been shown to lead to false confessions from the innocent” (Leo & Liu, 2009). People just don’t believe that false confessions are all that common.

In addition, false confessions negatively impact other evidence, information, etc. Let’s say you’re a witness to a crime and asked to view a lineup of suspects. Suppose the investigator informed you that a particular person in the lineup had confessed to the crime. In that case, you’d be more likely to identify that person as the perpetrator even if they’re innocent. Confessions impact how we process all types of information about a crime, including handwriting. It’s even more likely that an alibi witness will deny their friend’s alibi if they think the friend has confessed (Gruman, 2016). None of this makes logical sense because if you were with your friend during the crime, how could they confess? The phenomenon is called forensic confirmation bias which sets the stage with the confession and taints anything new, creating a bias against the confessed. How can false confessions be avoided?

It’s all about the interview. We’ve all seen tv shows and movies portraying hostile witness or suspect interviews that feature violence and coercion. Unfortunately, coercive techniques are all too common in reality as well. Even without consciously trying, interviewers can accidentally influence the outcome by asking closed-ended questions and interrupting. A new type of law enforcement interview called the cognitive interview had been hailed as an innovative and much more accurate technique. The CI uses open-ended and nonleading questions as well as expertly timed silence. Details are essential in an interview, and the CI allows the person, whether witness or subject, to describe things in their own words and at their own pace. It also improves information accuracy by 20-50% (Gruman, 2016). The cognitive interview is an essential tool for the criminal justice system that ensures that witnesses and suspects are not being pressured, coerced, or made to feel the need to confess falsely.

To this day, false confessions are still happening all too often. Like researchers Leo and Liu found, people have a hard time believing that they happen because they just don’t make sense. Unfortunately, this disbelief and disconnection hinder the justice system because people are more likely to judge the accused based on biases created by the false confession without considering an alternative explanation. Through the development of the cognitive interview, it’s hopeful that, in the future, the false confession is a long-forgotten misstep in the system of justice.

Works Cited

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.

Leo, R. A., & Liu, B. (2009). What do potential jurors know about police interrogation  techniques and false confessions? Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 27(3), 381-399. doi:10.1002/bsl.872

I am close with several officers in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They hold several different positions in the Federal Corrections system and have a lot of experience in the field. In our many conversations about prisons, prisoners, and the state of the system they reveal a number of interesting ideas based on their unique perspective.

A commonly held opinion I have observed is that our current system of incarceration is inadequate and inefficient. There are a lot of reasons for this, and proposed solutions vary. The general perception I have received is that the officers see an environment where they are meant to enforce societal rules on people who are not motivated to follow them. The inmates have their own rules, and generally have no use for those of the guards. The inmates have their own social structure, and that of the outside world is irrelevant. An inevitable result is conflict; violence and injuries are common, even in facilities holding less violent offenders. The intent and methods of housing inmates needs to change if this is to be improved.

Prisons serve several purposes in our society. They keep dangerous criminals off the streets, punish those criminals by removing them from society, and seek to rehabilitate them to reduce recidivism (Gruman, et al., 2016). One approach to achieving these goals is the therapeutic community. Therapeutic communities are structured around the growth and rehabilitation of the residents (Gruman, et al., 2016).  The therapeutic community places an emphasis on the development of the residents, but does not sacrifice security (Gruman, et al., 2016). It is very possible that a therapeutic approach helps a large number of people we would otherwise lock away without another thought.

Therapeutic community approaches are favored by more corrections officers than I expected. One recently told me that he’d give every inmate a game console and let them expend their competitive energy by playing games. It makes a type of sense. Inmates that are occupied and able to interact socially can’t possibly have as much time to cause trouble and hurt corrections officers. This example is simplistic, but it reflects the ideas of a therapeutic community. Imagine American prisons that place a focus on the engagement and socialization of inmates. There’s a greater likelihood of rehabilitation amongst social populations that can be guided toward goals of healthy reintegration into society.

Therapeutic community models will not solve all of societies ills. But, if they take a portion of the prison population and redirect their energy to better purposes, it can reduce the need for long term incarceration facilities. Allowing lesser offenses to enter rehabilitation programs instead of prison will likely benefit society overall. We will never eliminate prisons; there will always be people around who are simply unable to peacefully participate in society. We can, however, make prisons smaller and better.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781506353951

As technology advanced over time, many positive and negative changes have had an outcome on these changes. When relating to the Criminal Justice System, social media has been used to exploit arrests, film criminal trials, have press releases on certain cases, send out amber alerts, and much more. Social media has allowed for people around the world to be continously updated on arrests, court case outcomes, and information on suspects. On the other hand, notfifying the public too early can effect big breaks in the case or risk getting valuable infomration leaked. We have to weigh out these options befire publishing any information on social media regarding the Judicial System.

To begin, the positives of having the Criminal Justice System digiitalized is giving the public access to crimes and criminals while the cases are still active. For example, as most of the world knows, the George Floyd case has broke the internet resulting in the Black Lives Matter campagin which was posted everywhere on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. According to Nevett, “He has been arrested more than 70 times since he started documenting the city’s police force, the NYPD, in the late 1990s. His use of video to expose police brutality has blazed a trail for the growing police accountability movement seen across the US today.” (2020) expressing the exposure of racisim in the police force. After the video was released, there have been many reforms such as defunding the police, and civil rights protests. Without the recording of the murder of George Floyd the Black Lives Matter campgain would not have bloomsed the way it did in advocating to put an end to racisim for good.

In opposition, the Black Lives Matter protest has had some negative effects because of the digital media usage. For example the vandalism and robbery of stores in NYC was televised and then happened again all over the world in California, Miami, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and many more places. It was aired all of the breaking in to high end fashion stores and no one was caught and no consequences were put into place leading for it to happen globally. According to Gruman, “The strain leads the person to engage in socially deviant behavior like crime to attain goods and social prestige.” (2016) conveying that their abnormal behavior was a reflection of their peers actions which was portrayed through media outlets. Social media increases behavior to gain a certain reaction out of people to follow, it also allows for people all across the world to access information about anything in instances. The Georgle Floyd case reached hundreds of millions of people in just days leading to a nationwide protest of the rights of African Americans.

Overall, there are positives and negatives to everything including digital media outlets. In relation to the Criminal Justice System, social media can aid the public in being kept up to date on arrests, court cases, missing children reports, and ways to stay vigilante. But, social media can also express harm by exploiting information before it can be released or leading for the outbreak of massive crime as seen in with the George Floyd protests. Depending on the exposure and reason for reporting a case online, there are ups and downs to both sides of media outlets and the Judicial System.

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., Coutts, L., Krieger, M. A., Chun-Yan, G. A., & Towson, S. M. J. (2016). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. In Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (pp. 51–73). essay, SAGE.

Nevett, J. (2020, June 11). George Floyd: The personal cost of filming police brutality. BBC News. Retrieved March 2, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52942519

Investigative interviews involve witlessness, victims, and suspects that were involved in a specific crime (Gruman et al., 2017). One objective in all three of these types of interviews is to get information about the crime (Leo, 2008, as cited in Gruman et al., 2017). However, the major goal of the interview is to obtain a confession from the suspect (Leo, 2008 as cited in Gruman et al., 2017). Most police officers in North America are trained to conduct interviews only with suspects which can be very problematic (Kassin et al, 2010 as cited in Gruman et al., 2017). This is because police are determined to obtain a confession from the suspect being interviewed (Gruman et al., 2017). In other words, the police are already convinced that this person is guilty regardless of whether or not they have evidence.

In order to address this issue, police officers must be aware of various concepts: interactional synchrony, self-fulfilling prophecies, fundamental attribution error, and forensic confirmation bias (Gruman et al., 2017). Interactional synchrony refers to the tendency of people to coordinate their body movements during conversations (Gruman et al., 2017). This is important because many individuals, including police, have the perception that restless body movements mean that a person is lying (Gruman et al., 2017). Next, self-fulfilling prophecies refers to the way that an individuals expectations can influence behaviors in a way that will confirm beliefs (Gruman et al., 2017). This is problematic when witnesses, observers, or police are told who is most likely guilty (Gruman et al., 2017). The fundamental attribution error describes the way individuals overestimate internal factors and underestimate internal factors (Gruman et al., 2017). This concept is especially important when police create confession tapes and jurors review them (Gruman et al., 2017). And the forensic confirmation bias occurs when there is already an expectation of guilt or innocence (Gruman et al., 2017). This concept goes along with the fundamental attribution error.

Social psychologists have developed a procedure to help address all of these concepts: cognitive interview (Gruman et al., 2017). Cognitive interviews involve a series of memory-retrieval techniques designed to increase the amount of information that can be obtained from an eyewitness (Memon, 2006). Cognitive interviews consist of asking open-ending and nonleading questions as well as using strategic silence (Gruman et al., 2017). Social psychologists have already conducted laboratory experiments in order to assess the accuracy of cognitive interviews (Gruman et al., 2017). Cognitive interviews can increase the amount of information a witness recalls by twenty to fifty percent (Gruman et al., 2017). Despite the empirical studies that back up cognitive interviews, many police departments have not adapted to this procedure (Gruman et al., 2017).

Research Gate

To conclude, applied social psychologists have determined concepts that make investigative interviews problematic: interactional synchrony, self-fulfilling prophecies, fundamental attribution error, and forensic confirmation bias (Gruman et al., 2017). However, social psychologist have developed a procedure called cognitive interviews in order to address these issues. Cognitive interviews involve a series of memory-retrieval techniques designed to increase the amount of information that can be obtained from an eyewitness (Memon, 2006). Cognitive interviews can increase the amount of information a witness recalls by twenty to fifty percent (Gruman et al., 2017).

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.

Memon, A (2006. The cognitive interview. In O. Hargie (Ed.) The handbook of communication skills (pp. 531-550). Routledge.

We often hear about innocent people getting heavy sentences for crimes they didn’t commit. But we don’t hear often about criminals that are not being caught, although they are openly committing crime. One of those crimes is cybercrime, and it is not the famously dangerous ones such as hacking banks and spreading child pornography. It is a crime that anyone can do anonymously, which is bullying and slandering people online.

In March 23, 2020, Hana Kimura, a professional wrestler died of suicide at the age of 22. The reason for suicide was cyberbullying, which can be said that she was lynched verbally for her actions in a reality TV show. It took months to find the perpetrator of the suicide, and there were only two people that were caught and convicted in total. One convicted man was convicted with the crime of public insult, and this crime is unbelievable in how light the charges are. Directly quoting the news article of the suspect, the crime of public insult, even when it results in killing the target is “the charge carries with it a punishment of being detained for up to 29 days or a fine of at least 1,000 yen ($10) to no more than 10,000 yen ($100)” (Nikkei Asia). If you kill a person in real life in the United States, you might be serving life sentences or possibly capital punishment depending on state. It is just sad to see a person only paying at most $100 for leading a person to suicide. And what makes it worse, we don’t know the name of the person that was convicted, and there are many others that were not convicted nor caught.

Cyberbullying, or often Japanese people say “Net Lynching” is a major problem surrounding the internet society today. Based off my knowledge and some global research, far east nations especially have this problem. In Japan, an idol song in 2017 was created as a satire to this problem of the toxic internet. NMB48’s “Warota People” (translated as LOL People) used satire lyrics to address this problem of net lynching. The lyrics indirectly criticize of what people are doing in the internet, such as “Someone somewhere, hide your name and make some noise!”, “Throw the stones from the chaos in the crowd”, and “Integrity, morals, conscience, just throw these things away”. In my references I have the music video and a webpage of translation of the song, and I will also post a direct link to the song.

Cyber harassment and slander are a major problem in Japan’s internet today. And the government and service providers were incompetent that they didn’t do as much to stop the problem, until someone died, and it became clear in the news. And its investigation showed more data of incompetence that the punishment in balance to its crime is very unbalanced in favor of the convict. With such cheap fines and light sentences, the punishment doesn’t serve its purpose. And for the reason for why these crimes don’t stop, I think it is in not just the lack of punishment, but also the deindividuation of net citizens. Compared to Americans, Japanese and Koreans are careful in not having their actual names being clear on the internet and social media. They value hiding their individual identity, and that contributes to deindividuation. This is just my perspective, but I feel Japanese people use VPNs more as well, to hide their IP addresses. Protecting their individuality, they commit harassment and in extreme terms crimes, for they know they won’t get caught or suffer severe consequences. The lyrics of Warota People does portray that, in how deindividuation is used to lynch people with words.

The Japanese government has started to reform the laws recently, but I doubt their competence to do that. There are too many things the government needs to do, and I am cynical about their ability to accomplish all of them. Of course the punishment for committing crimes of slander and homicide using the internet need to be more strict, but that’s not it. There is a need for government to make a more competent cybercrime investigation agency. There is a need for government to educate people about the crime using the internet, and its consequences. There is a need for government to create programs to track down more suspects faster, so they pay their price. There is a need for government to give more access and knowledge of how to report these crimes. There is a need for service providing companies to cooperate in catching cyber criminals. And there is a need for all people to understand that homicide or assault, regardless of being verbal or physical, is a serious crime. Granting all of these needs will take a long time, but without starting reform, the problem won’t go away.

Music video of Warota People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpdmskJ0arM

References:

“Hana Kimura Death: Cyberbullying Suspect Faces Possible Charges.” Nikkei Asia, Nikkei Asia, 16 Dec. 2020, https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Society/Hana-Kimura-death-Cyberbullying-suspect-faces-possible-charges.

“【MV】ワロタピーポー / NMB48[公式].” YouTube, uploaded by NMB48, 29 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpdmskJ0arM.

“ワロタピーポー: Warota People: The Lol People.” STUDIO48 ♪ , http://stage48.net/studio48/warotapeople.html.

As someone who as always crime shows and attempted to use psychology to measure why the suspects acted the way they did, this lesson was extremely interesting to learn about. The idea of deindividuation always surprises me or gets me thinking the most. Deindividuation is a diminished sense of self-awareness that suggests that people under the cover of anonymity may deliberately choose to engage in behaviors that might be considered wrong (Gruman, 2016). Specifically in a growing world that uses technology and social media to communicate. Online, you can hide who you are and not worry what any repercussions are. People feel more comfortable saying things that they know they should not. I sadly, had the chance to apply these ideas in real life.

In high school, teenagers make not the brightest decisions. There were some crazy instances, but one comes to mind specifically for me when discussion deindividuation. Social media is a huge problem that contributes to this idea. My sophomore year of high school, someone made an Instagram account that took pictures of people in the halls or through windows and then posted them anonymously and made fun of them. It went on for an extremely long time as the school could not discover who was running it and every time Instagram was contacted to shut the account down, it would just restart. This person or group of people was hidden from the world, free to make these comments without any judgment. It reached a point where local police had to get involved because they somehow installed cameras around school hallways and posted footage to social media. Unfortunately, that was their mess up because the cameras were used to track the IP address. It turns out, it was a group of students who were being bullied and were targeting their bullies to make them feel the same pain. The idea of deindividuation allowed those people to make those comments because their identities were hidden, and they could engage in behaviors that often would be deemed inappropriate.

Social media sadly creates this ability for many people. I am sure that this was and is not the only instance where something like this has happened. They have made television shows about things like this, catfishing, and gold-diggers. Social media contributes and gives everyone this new ability to engage in behaviors that are socially deemed inappropriate or wrong. Most times, there are minimal repercussions because the identity is never found. This can further contribute to criminal behavior. Before social media, how often did you hear about anonymous hackers? Before, you had to try to cover your face and run into the building to get what you wanted; but now, the internet and social media gives this possibility of remaining anonymous in unacceptable behaviors. I believe it further contributes to the criminally offensive portion to deindividuation because it allows those who engage in illegal behavior a new way to access these things.

Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Jamie A. Gruman, Frank W. Schneider, and Larry M. Coutts . SAGE Publications . 2016

By the end of 2020, there were more than 1.8 million imprisoned Americans. Every year, there are more than 600,000 people get released from state and federal prisons. Nine million people are released from local jails. This is an issue alone, however, the topic I want to discuss is the recidivism that is occurring in the United States. Recidivism is defined as the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend. I believe that it is important to enforce programs that the prisoners but go into right after being let out (Benecci, 2021).

According to Harvard review, within three years of an individuals release, two out of three of them are rearrested and more than 50% are incarcerated again. If this keeps occurring, there will never be an end to crimes being committed. It is concerning that after being in prision they are supposed to learn their lesson to want to do anything again. Prisions are not doing a good job of teaching them to never want to commit a crime again.

After being in prison it is very difficult to live a normal life again. One thing that is extremely difficult for prisoners to do after being let out is find a job. Having a background of committing a crime is extremely scaring and untrustworthy for professional jobs. After coming out of jail and not being treated fairly will just cause another reason for committing a crime again.

One way this could be fixed is by implementing programs that prisoners must go through after being in prison. In the textbook, we learned about the Stay’n Out program that was established. I think this is a good way of helping prisoners actually be changed and for the better. Residents should be expected to participate in group seminars where they will focus on self-discipline, self-worth, respect for authority, and acceptance of guidance for problem areas (Gruman,2017).

The prisoners need to learn how to be more social again and how to live in a normal enviroment. These programs will actually be able to teach them this rather than them be punished. I also believe that it will help them in the real world if other people are aware that they are in these programs. It will make them better people.

Benecci, L. (2021, August 8). Recidivism imprisons american progress. Harvard Political Review.

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.

Reading this week’s chapter reminded me of one of the sections we focused on during my freshman criminology class. When we were discussing Aker’s (1973) social learning theory of crime, we also discussed Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory and Anderson’s (1999) code of the street. What I found most interesting was Anderson’s (1999) code of the street that drew on field research conducted in inner-city communities to present its subculture of violence. The code of the streets, “amounts to a set of informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior, including violence” (Anderson, 1994). Not only is the heart of the code, respect, but it also governs the proper ways to respond if challenged and regulates the use of violence. This code pressures minority youth in inner cities to respond to shows of disrespect with violence.
Although not all youths accept the underlying values of the code of the streets, they feel an overwhelming pressure to conform to the code because, “Knowledge of the code is thus largely defensive; it is literally necessary for operating in public” (Anderson, 1994). Everyone must know the code to negotiate in the inner-city environment and also must look or play the part. By adolescence, most youths have internalized the code or learned the need to behave in accordance with its rules because of their experiences living in inner cities. Furthermore, they must portray that they are capable of violence if the situation requires it; for example, having a mean walk or facial and verbal expressions. Additionally as part of the code, during a physical altercation, an individual must fight and can not run or will lose all respect. After the altercation, it is necessary for the individual to seek the people who assaulted them and avenge themselves to restore their respect.
The precipitating factor of the code of the streets is the adaptation to the lack of faith in the police and judicial system. In inner cities
The police are most often seen as representing the dominant white society and not
caring to protect inner-city residents. When called, they may not respond, which
is one reason many residents feel they must be prepared to take extraordinary
measures to defend themselves and their loved ones against those who are inclined
to aggression (Anderson,1994).
Because the police and system do not respect and protect those in inner cities, they have learned to employ their own system that values respect and takes care of each individual. Many people who conform to the code of the streets are more worried about the threat of “justice” at the hands of peers than at the hands of the police. In some cases, going to prison can actually enhance one’s reputation on the street.
A perpetuating factor that continues the cycle of the code of the streets is what the children in inner cities are learning from their parents and those around them. Children who come from very low income households in inner city neighborhoods are often taught through viewing adults with short-tempers around them as role models, to fight at a young age. By the children being exposed to verbal disputes, physical altercations, or worse, they understand to defend and hit those who go against them, thus, continuing the cycle (Anderson, 1994). Another important aspect that children from inner city neighborhoods learn at a young age is having to fend for themselves. A majority of parents in inner city neighborhoods are often at work and have little time to spend with their children at home. After being exposed to repeated absences, the child learns another lesson, survival, and comes to the ultimate conclusion that they themselves have to fight for their place in the world.

References
Anderson, E. (1994, May 1). The Code of the Streets. The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/05/the-code-of-the-streets/306601/