The Need for Power in Team Dynamics:

In certain organizational settings, motivation plays a crucial role in shaping team effectiveness, leadership behavior, and overall performance. One concept that stands out in understanding workplace motivation is McClelland’s Need Theory, particularly the need for...

The Importance of A Good Job

At my ripe age of 29, I can wholeheartedly say that I have worked all across the board. I have worked on a golf course, in the psychiatric rehabilitation field, in the addictions field, and as a barista, among other jobs here and there. I started my collegiate career...

Roommates: The Most Important College Team

We’ve all heard of “nightmare roommates” before and some have even experienced this. Nightmare roommates can look different to each person and I’m sure the stories are endless. Sometimes being thrown in a room with a complete stranger can be...

Trust In the Organizational World

Trust: Trust is something many of us value. Trust makes us feel safe, respected, and honored. With no trust, many relationships do not stand. This especially goes for relationships involved in the workplace. Companies and Employers have to build a trusting...

Dealing with Difficult Personalities in Teams

Working with different types of people is something we all have to face, whether it’s at work, in school, or in a volunteer group. One of the biggest challenges I’ve had in team settings is dealing with coworkers who make things harder than they need to be. Sometimes...

Teamwork Beyond the Classroom

When I think about teamwork, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t just school or work, it’s my Armenian dance group. Getting ready for one of our community shows taught me more about teamwork than I ever expected. Honestly, it wasn’t always smooth. We dealt with...

When Leadership Controls by Omission

According to the American Psychological Association, an industrial and organizational (I/O) psychologist focuses on employee behavior in the workplace and applies psychological principles and research methods to improve the overall work environment. This includes...

Cabin Culture and Teamwork in the Sky

Organizational life can feel like a social minefield. People with different personalities, incentives, and levels of authority are asked to work together and produce results. I experience this every week as a flight attendant, where cabin crew, cockpit crew, gate...

Job Satisfaction as a Research Assistant

Job satisfaction is an aspect of life that many attribute utmost importance. People commonly spout the rhetoric such as “If you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life”. This saying may be valid, but it is also important to question what factors contribute...

Diversity benefits our lives.

I believe that sociocultural diversity benefits both small groups and society as a whole.  Diversity, as a term, encompasses a wide range of different personal qualities and characteristics within a group or population, including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity,...

The Psychology Behind Social Media Envy

In 2023, it was estimated that there were 4.8 billion social media users worldwide (The University of Maine, 2023). I can only image that number has increased significantly since then. That’s billions of people logging in daily, many of whom are being exposed to...

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: My Story

There was a bulk of information in our chapters regarding depression and social anxiety. I’m lucky, in that, I have never been diagnosed with social anxiety. I do, however, have other diagnoses that hinder my day-to-day life. At a young age, I was first...

Being A Waitress With Social Anxiety

Being a waitress with social anxiety? Seems like an oxymoron for psychological torture. Most of us have either waited or been waited on before. The whole ordeal includes a lot of communication and interaction between people. Most of the time they are strangers, and...

Social Anxiety: A True Story

Have you ever read through something and were instantly transported to a difficult time in your life? That exact experience occurred to me while reading Chapter 5: Applying Social Psychology to Clinical and Counseling Psychology in our textbook.   It was the spring of...

Recognizing My Daily Energy Habits

Energy use has become so woven into my daily routine that I almost forget it’s happening. When I wake up, I see all the devices around me using electricity, like my phone charging on my nightstand, the coffee maker heating up, and the TV in the background that I...

Air Pollution Health Effects

Pollution: The Invisible Villain  Did you know our air is filled with nasty particles that can affect our health? Every day, things like cars, buses, factories, oil plants, and more produce toxic chemicals that we unfortunately breathe in every day. According to an...

The Hidden Cost of Bottled Water

The Hidden Cost of Bottled Water When I think about bottled water, I usually picture something simple, grabbing one on the way to class or at the gym because it’s quick and convenient. But after going through this week’s lesson, I realized it’s also a really good...

Understanding and Improving Energy Habits

In my household, energy use is one of the most noticeable environmental habits. We rely heavily on electricity for lighting, heating, cooling, and daily appliances. A simple example is leaving lights or televisions on even when no one is using them. While we try to...

Household Energy Use

PSY424 Blog 1 Entry: Household Energy Use Energy use in my household has been one of the habits that stands out the most, especially during the summer months when air conditioning runs almost all day. This past month in September, my family’s electricity bill still...

Recognizing My Daily Energy Habits

Energy use has become so woven into my daily routine that I almost forget it’s happening. When I wake up, I see all the devices around me using electricity, like my phone charging on my nightstand, the coffee maker heating up, and the TV in the background that I...

Daily College Life: How does the Mind React?

Stress is an unavoidable part of the human experience, but it takes on a unique shape, specifically for college students. While in school, college students are often struggling balancing academics, finances, relationships, and personal development, meaning that...

Moving the Needle

Our final blog is focused on the concept of social change research. In many ways, this topic is the class in a nutshell. How do we perform tasks or structure initiatives to that they have a positive effect on society at large? How do we apply social psychology in a...

The Balance of Screens and Faces in Healthcare

In today’s healthcare landscape, balancing the use of screens with face-to-face interaction is increasingly important. As digital technology continues to shape how students learn and professionals collaborate, it’s essential to recognize both the value and the...

Lesson 12 Blog

Some people just feel easy to be around, almost like you have known them forever even if you just met. There is a real reason for that feeling. Social psychology calls it the “similar-to-me effect.” We are naturally drawn to people who are a lot like us....

Participatory Research and It’s Benefits

This week’s lesson reviewed some basic concepts and ideas regarding social psychology, social psychology research, and some of the perspectives other fields of science might have toward the ways social psychologists conduct research. The first major research method...

How Social Media Changes Attraction

This week’s lesson covered the topic of attraction as viewed through the lens of social psychology. One of the core themes explored in this chapter was the fact that both similarities and differences among two people can increase the likelihood that they will be...

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

  The oft used phrase in the title means simply this: a lot of damage is done by people that meant to do good things. In reading the journal entry this week, I find the simple idea of participating in the research and being changed by it to be extremely disturbing....

Lesson 13 Blog- Staying Neutral

In research, we are usually taught to stay distant and neutral, just observing without getting personally involved. That was definitely the focus in my research methods class too. We learned all about controlling variables, staying objective, and keeping our own...

How Cell Phones Changed The Way We View Privacy

I still remember when we had home phones that were not attached to a cord. We had wireless phones that you could carry around the house, but you still had to stay close because the signal would cut out if you went too far. If you were not home, you just missed the...

Can You Read This?

Participatory research, whether it is called participatory action research or community-based participatory research involves researchers working collaboratively with the community that is being researched and is aimed at creating positive change – social and...

The Validity of Activist Research

Activist research refers to research in which the experimenter takes a stance on an issue and takes actions through research to promote the values they stand by (Gruman et al., 2016; Nelson, n.d.). Most active research is related in part to the environment, whether it...

The Need for Diversity

The legend goes that you can go to America and be free. The streets are paved with gold. You can witness every aspect of the rainbow happily walking hand in hand, side-by-side down the center of the street. Race, religion, orientation do not matter there. America is...

Does The Glass Even Really Matter?

I have always said “I’m a realistic optimist with pessimistic tendencies.” I thought I was just being funny, but apparently social psychology says that’s the balancing act to maintain. It’s like having one foot in hope and the other in “let’s be...

We are too thin skinned

eds5441 on April 10, 2025 at 12:00 pm The online bullying thing is definitely a mojor change from bullying of the past. While the words aspect remains the same, It has taken on a different tact. Online chats and forums and other social media have changed many things...

Navigating the Stormy Seas of Relationships

In our everyday lives, relation ships are central to our well-being and happiness. Yet, conflicts are an inevitable part of any relationship, whether they arise in friendships, familial ties, or romantic partnerships. This week’s lesson emphasized the importance of...

Preparing for the Worst

My mother has always called me a very pessimistic person, though I prefer to think of myself as simply preparing for the worst. My stubborn side insists there’s nothing wrong with considering every negative possibility and planning for it. Yet, another part of...

How Optimism and Pessimism Can Affect You

You may have a more positive or negative outlook on your life. This is known as being optimistic or pessimistic. Optimistic people are hopeful and have a positive outlook on life. Pessimistic people are hopeless and have a negative outlook on life. These perspectives...

Is Attraction “Cheating” in Relationships?

We are all human. When people decide to get into serious, intimate relationships. It tends to be a pattern of people forgetting who they were and how they thought before the relationship. The thoughts, preferences, and attractions do not change just because of a...

What Really Determines Attraction to Someone?

Attraction to someone can be influenced by many different things. There are several ideas and beliefs individuals have when it comes to what really attracts someone to another. There is a common belief that people are more attracted to those that are very different...

Attachment Styles and Optimism Versus Pessimism

For this blog post, I would like to discuss the topics of attachment styles and optimism versus pessimism. To start, the text lists three attachment styles for infant children: secure, anxious/ambivalent, and avoidant (Gruman et al., 2016, p. 427). The four adult...

Ever the Pessimist

My family has always had a rather pessimistic outlook on life. They are the type to say, “when it rains it pours” and “no good deed goes unpunished” often. They don’t expect the future to go well or the bad times to get better. Additionally, when things do go their...

How Colonialism Weaponized Attachment Theory

As psychology students, many of us first encountered attachment theory while studying child development. I vividly remember reflecting on my own attachment style, wondering how the bonds that I formed in infancy went on to shape my relationships, trust, sense of self,...

When did Bullying Graduate from the Playground?

We often think of bullying as something that happens at school—on the playground, in the hallways, or maybe in the cafeteria. But today, bullying has moved beyond the classroom and into our phones, our group chats, and our social media feeds. With the rise of...

Wait, Who Decides My Fate?

There’s something fascinating about how a group of complete strangers with different personalities, beliefs, and backgrounds can come together in a courtroom and decide someone’s fate. In the U.S., courts are split into two big camps: civil courts (think lawsuits and...

Safety in Online Friendship Communities

Since the topic of this blog is community I think talking about online community friendships and their safety is important. A lot of people have online friendships, for many it is how they find new friends. While most of these friendships are people presenting as who...

15 minutes to…your ingroup?

There has been a lot of talk lately of 15 minute cities and in our lesson we talked about community being undermined by economic policies determining zoning and urban layout while we also discuss diversity and cultural diversity. I think the idea of 15 minutes cities...

Finding Support in Online Communities

Our textbook discusses the growing use of the internet as a source of help, particularly through online community self-help groups, which offer both factual information and emotional support for medical and psychiatric issues (Gruman, 2016). Online groups serve as...

Walkable Cities and Third Places

This week’s lesson covered some topics regarding communities in modern society, how they’ve developed over time, and some of the major differences between ancient and modern human communities. Generally speaking, human communities started out much smaller during the...

The Power of Community in Building Resilience

    In today’s fast-paced and often isolating world, the concept of community has never been more crucial. As we navigate various challenges, from academic pressures to personal struggles, the support we receive from our communities can significantly...

How Can Your Social Environment Affect You?

There are many different environments people live in like rural, urban or suburban. The person-environment fit concept is that people have a preferable environment that matches who they are (Gruman et al., 2016, p. 327). Your social environment can have a positive or...

Why Social Media Creates Communities

When it comes to the idea of social media it can be seen as a very complex subject. Social media is something that can slowly decrease the productivity of someone do to how addictive it is but also put people in better situations to help better their life. It is all...

Community and the LGBTQ+

We already know folk wisdom and platitudes and such aren’t necessarily reliable and are often conflicting, but despite this, I would like to start out by exploring a particular saying in relation to community. Many of us have likely heard the saying: “It takes a...

Social media as a community

Okay, hear me out—I know that social media has many downsides. Nowadays, younger generations seem to experience more stress and anxiety. They compare themselves to what they see online and feel inadequate for not looking like a model or not owning a certain expensive...

The Thirteenth Jury Member, Bias.

The judicial system is built on the principle of equal treatment under the law. Yet, in practice, achieving that fairness can be difficult when human judgment is involved. One of the most significant challenges facing the legal system today is implicit bias,...

Be Present In The Given Moment.

Robert Spatafora  Lesson 11 Blog Entry        I went to get breakfast this morning and the usual server said “hello, how are you doing today?” Did she really care how I was or my plans for the day, probably not. She was being polite and offering a salutation of hello,...

Is it really racism? Or are we missing the mark?

Time and again, i get told about something new that is racist. After the Superbowl, I was perplexed over the fact that Samuel L. Jackson dressed up like Uncle Sam was riling people up. For the life of me, I could not understand why. When I saw that, I thought,...

Positive Observation

Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment is a landmark study in psychology that demonstrated how children learn through observation. The study showed that children who observed an adult acting aggressively toward a doll were more likely to imitate that behavior. This...

Does Violence in the Media Truly Affect us IRL?

Human beings are simple creatures. It is since a time before anyone on this planet can trace back their origin that bloodsport has been a source of amusement and entertainment for the human race. We are fortunate enough to live in a world today where these violent...

Sex Education in Schools

This week in my Psych 422 class we wrote an essay about sex education in the classroom. “So why are you writing about it in Psych 424 then? Have you not exhausted the topic?” You may ask. My response is no. In fact, quite the opposite. There is substantial...

Pssst I have a secret: studying terrifies me

I hate school. There, I said it! I love learning; deep down, I’m a huge nerd. I enjoy acquiring knowledge and learning about various topics, but studying has never come easy to me. In this week’s lesson, we discussed how social psychology can be applied to education,...

Finland’s Unique Education Practice

A topic I think fits under this weeks topic of education would be how another country, Finland, and how their education system differs from the United States. Something different that happens in the Finland education system is that after 45 minutes of teaching they...

How Tracking Impacts Minds, Motivation, and Equity

For this week’s blog post, I want to share the 1996 documentary Off-Track, which explores tracking in American schools. Tracking is the contravercial practice of separation of students into different classes based on perceived ability. I became aware of this...

How Self-Handicapping can affect your education.

To begin, many students like to give themselves excuses as to why they did not pass a test or why they missed an assignment. Self-Handicapping refers to someone underperforming so they can have an excuse for the future (Gruman et al., 2016, p. 445). Giving yourself...

Observational Learning in School

Observational Learning for Students        Observational learning has been a critical piece of learning throughout all of a student’s school career. Observational learning is watching the way others act, and learning from them (Fryling, M. J., Johnston, C.,...

Social media, what are children learning?

As we learned this week about education and social psychology I was able to recall from earlier classes about the Bobo Doll experiment by Dr. Bandura, as we learned how children learn from seeing adults committing acts of violence that also brought me back to the last...