The Journey of Finding Love

On the backend of Valentines Day, what better topic to explore than love. In this post, keeping in line with our class’ lesson topic of intergroup relations and diversity, I’d like to reflect on how my understanding of my sexual orientation has changed over the...

My experience with ableist discrimination

In lesson six, we learned about prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice involves having a negative attitude towards a group, while discrimination is more specifically a behavior that expresses a person’s prejudice. In my life, I have been discriminated against...

Could your doctor be biased?

Bias is something that can be often unavoidable and there’s little exception when it comes to psychologists and clinical diagnosis and decisions. Bias can be a result of a few different factors such as stereotypes, the labeling effect, confirmation bias, etc....

Lesson 5 Blog

Health psychology is a specialized field that focuses on understanding how psychological, behavioral, and social factors influence health and illness. It examines how people’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors contribute to their overall well-being and how these...

Impact of Stereotypes and How to Solve it

Although we may not want to admit it, we all have experience with categorizing individuals into social groups. Whether it’s unconsciously or consciously, we should avoid it. Here’s why. Socially categorizing individuals or groups can lead to stereotypes and false...

When Help Goes Too Far

While I was reading about the methods and challenges of health psychology (Gruman et al., 2017), I began to wonder about the limits of using scientific knowledge of applied psychology to influence others. Let’s say, for example, that we are designing an intervention...

Persuasion in Social Psychology

Persuasion comes in many forms and is used throughout many professions. Most people may think of persuasion associated with professions such as being a lawyer defending your client, being a business person promoting a deal or selling something, or a politician...

Hope Therapy

Social psychology has been applied to understanding origins of psychological disorders, diagnostic methods, and exploring  treatment options for psychological disorders (Gruman et al., 2016). Especially in regard to depression, social psychology has played a...
Getting People To Recycle

Getting People To Recycle

Everyone knows what it means to recycle. They know that it is better for the environment. It is not difficult to recycle. It makes you question why do so many people refuse to recycle? Getting people to recycle seems like you have to break the habits they have....

And Sometimes We Fail

  The last step of promoting behavior change is evaluation (Gruman et al., 2017). If the earlier steps were always unfailingly successful there would never be any need for evaluation. So, the possibility, or even a necessity of occasional failure is an integral...

Drive Less!

Resource dilemmas are issues where individuals must choose between their self-interests and the interests of others (Gruman et al., 2017). An issue that is commonly discussed as a resource dilemma is air pollution. Air pollution is the release of harmful pollutants...

Guilty By Association

Alonzo Richardson PSYCH 424   Guilty By Association   Picture yourself, on trial for a crime you did not commit. The night you were arrested, you were driving home from work, and got pulled over. You, thinking you might’ve gone a little over the speed limit,...

Is attraction learned or inherent?

Alonzo Richardson PSYCH 424 Is attraction learned or inherent? Environmental Psychologists say the fittest go first. Cognitive Psychologists say it’s about shared beliefs. Freud said it’s your mom. Or dad. Whatever the case may be, we as humans can’t get enough of...

Big Tabacco and Activist Research

One of the most well-known activist research done is from the dairy business; however, the most sinister research comes from the tobacco industry. Activist research sits in between participatory research and self-interest. This is because the researcher thrusts...

It Takes Two to Make One

Fertility is a common discussion that many people have to face at some points in their life. Many couples try to have a baby and do so with ease, others struggle a little more. There are several factors that contribute to infertility and fertility struggles. Some may...

What is the Color Pink to You?

When thinking about social change, I immediately think of the color pink. But what is social change? It is the evolution in this blog on behaviors and thoughts. A whole shift in attitudes, practices, and policies in a community, but for this discussion, a Country....

Participatory Research and Education Reform

“Nothing about us without us” first became a mantra of activists in support of disability rights (Wilson et al, 2022). It has since become adopted by D-Justice advocates for education justice in Detroit (Wilson et al, 2022). This mantra succinctly sums up the goals of...

Health Benefits of Optimism

Is the glass half empty or half full? Do you see the world through rose-colored lenses or tinted in a fog of cynicism? Do you have a general idea that good things will happen to you if you let them? Would you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist? I believe...

Relationships and Long Distance Relationships

Relationships typically are between two individuals with an emotional and physical bond that has mutual understanding and similarities that connect the two to each other. Before in my mom and dad’s time, they met in university. My dad approached my mom, and the first...

Attachment Styles and Attraction

Have you ever wondered, ‘why am I attracting the same types of people over and over again, even though I know it doesn’t work out?’ Part of the answer may lie in our own attachment style. Before we dive into how these things can be correlated,...

Cyberbullying and Anxiety

Cyberbullying? well what is cyberbullying it is the act of using electronic communication tools, such as social media platforms or messaging apps, to harass, intimidate, or harm others. This issue has become a widespread issue in today’s digital age, with...

What Makes People Attractive

I am sure anyone reading this blog could make a list of people they know either in real life, celebrities they like, or people on social media, etc., of who they find attractive. But have you ever wondered what made you so attracted to them? Is it purely the way they...

Attraction, as Told by an Utter Misanthrope

Indeed, physical attractiveness matters. This is proven by a study which found that attractive people are judged more positively than ugly people are, including a higher social appeal, but also in various forms of competence (Gruman et al., 2017, p. 424). Yes,...

Does It matter If We Are Similar?

Have you ever wondered how much similarity contributes to whether or not you will get into the school, job position or role you’re applying for? To further elaborate, the similarity of the decision maker and yourself and how much it plays into whether or not you are...

Cyber bullying and Mental health

Bullying has always been around, and in my opinion it was easy to keep an eye on it and control it, if parents, schools and teachers worked together. Unfortunately with the introduction of internet and rise of social media platforms, a new kind of bullying, called...

Decoding the Complexities of Adult Attachment Styles

Attachment styles, a concept pioneered by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, develop deep emotional bonds between two people. These styles, which originate from the bond between an infant and their primary caregiver, significantly influence future social and intimate...

Pick Tok

Cyberbullying, regular bullying, both the same and both horrible.  They have been on the uproar since technology has excelled in its finest.  Personally, I could not tell you how many times a week I hear my daughter upset because of a friend’s Tic Tok or Instagram...

A Tiny 13 x 5 Screen

When talking about communities, we often think about our neighbors, friends, family, and maybe our peers at work or school. What gets overlooked is the online communities we participate in everyday. A community can be made up of a group of people that share a space...

Importance of Online Communities

Learning about communities this week had me wondering why online communities are so important, especially in today’s society. We have gone many centuries without online communities, even the internet. It is with the technological advances in our country and the...

Technical (Mis)communication

Cyber or virtual communication has become a convenient type of communication, basically 24/7.  Being able to communicate to someone at any given time of the day thanks to technology has been a wonderful thing.  “We live in in a world where technology grows and changes...

A False Sense of Community

I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I love social media, but the more I use it, the more thoughts and feelings I have of self-hatred. I can remember the exact day I first downloaded Instagram and was immediately able to connect with all of my friends...

Emotional Help from the Internet

In recent years, the internet has become a valuable resource for individuals seeking emotional support and assistance. Online platforms have emerged as safe spaces where people can find solace, share their experiences, and receive guidance from others facing similar...

Networked Individualism and Narcissism

I wanted to expand my thoughts from the discussion because one particular term stuck out to me from Reich’s 2010 study, “Networked Individualism” (Gruman et al., 2017, p. 331). The study found some connections were positive in that people would honor...

False Portrayals of Mental Illness in The Media

There are many instances in which the sole exposure or explanation of a mental illness will be through the media. This can be extremely dangerous if the portrayal is false or negative. False or negative portrayals can create preconceived notions and feelings towards...

Staying Sober with the Help of the Internet

Historically, support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) have gathered in church basements or other dedicated locations. Anyone with a history of addiction or a family member who has battled addictions know how important AA is in...

Finding Your Destined Environment.

Every person thrives in a different type of environment. It would be nearly, if not completely, impossible to find two people who are a part of and enjoy the exact same environment and lifestyle. This is why I found the “Life in the City” portion of the...

Changing a Community of Bystanders to Upstanders

When it comes to taking action during an urgent situation, you can either be a bystander or an upstander.  When a person witnesses an emergency occurring, it is natural to go into fight or flight mode.  However, in a community, you could also be someone’s hero...

Overcoming Self-Handicapping

In reading this week’s lesson, I was brought to a sudden realization of some of the ways in which I hold myself back in the academic sphere. Particularly, under the procrastination and self-handicapping section, I found myself relating to many of the negative...

Youth Aggression and Prevention

Bullying in school is something we all were a part of, whether that was getting bullied, being the bully, or simply being a bystander to it happening before us. It’s everywhere, in every school across the nation, and it’s been happening for longer than we...

Defying the Bystander Effect

Hello, I’m that crazy person who stopped on the freeway to chase down a mangy, starving dog I spotted on my way to the grocery store. Some of you may have honked at me, and I’m sorry if I startled you, but I thought it safer for us drivers and the dog if I got him off...

The Detrimental Loop of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Do the outcomes that other people have in their lives happen because of you? It is a strange question and seems obvious at first thought. However, what if there was a chance that the belief you had towards people’s future actions caused those people to do what...

Gender Stereotypes in Education

This week’s lesson had focal point of education and stereotypes. This blog will be dedicated to gender stereotypes across education. Gender stereotypes refer to widely held belief and expectations about the characteristics, abilities, and roles of males and...

Confessions of a serial Procrastinator

I think I am  the biggest procrastinator of all time, and no I don’t think there is something wrong with me, so much so that I sometimes feel it is ingrained in my  genetic DNA and, I have passed it down to my 3 kids. t I don’t think procrastinators are lazy or...

The Modern Student and Technology

Have you ever found yourself thinking about characters on TV as inspirational models for your efforts as a student? Perhaps Hermoine Granger, Elle Woods, the boys from Dead Poet Society. If the media has the power to influence how we perceive the world and what we...

Violence in the Media Vs Our Youth

Violence in the media is such a complex and important topic to consider. There is a numerous of research that examines the potential impact of violent media content on individuals, especially children and adolescents. Yes exposure to violence in media does not...

Cognitive Error and How It Affects Education

  We all perform some sort of cognitive errors within our own lives and certainly have in the past more than once. We can investigate our own belief systems and explain, at least in part, why people perform, behave, and interact in a certain way in certain...

Reducing Drop-Out Rates with the help of the Village

Although the national dropout rate has significantly declined from 2005-2021, dropping from 12.5% to 5.8% (Iriondo, 2023), we can still do better.  There is an old saying that the children are our future.  Why are we willing to stand back and let 5.8% of our future...

Priming us for Acceptance

Violence in the media is something so common, I often don’t notice how it’s something we wouldn’t be seeing in daily life if it weren’t for the media. Just as our text says, “the average child will witness more than 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of...

Violence plus Media Equates What for the Youth?

Media and violence research started back in the 1960s; growing up in an environment with violence raises the danger of them acting violently, diverse media, such as the internet, video games and social media, enhance the risk of violent behavior on the part of the...

Effects of Pornography on Relationships

In 2006 statistics of pornography, it is said that every second $3,075.64 was being spent on pornography, and in every second 28,258 internet users were viewing pornography, and in that same second 372 internet users were typing adult terms into search engines, and...

Social Media and How It Impacts Self-Esteem

Social media’s impact on self-esteem is a complex and multifaceted issue. Research has shown that the relationship between social media use and self-esteem can be influenced by various factors, including individual characteristics, the nature of one’s...

Violent Media and Violence

Violence in TV and video games can cause people to imitate violent acts they’ve seen by increasing their ‘repertoire’, so to speak. It rewards people for being violent, and also has a very subtle effect of pushing people to choose violent behaviors...

How Violence in the Media Affects Us

Today, we as a society across the world consume media in what seems to be at all times of the day. Whether we see a TV at home, at work, at a restaurant, a gas station, etc., it is always around us. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing until we realize what kind of...

Development of dating

The Internet age has made it easier for us to flirt online and more difficult to do so in person. Of course, this has a great impact on human behavior for the formation of the modern family. In previous generations, finding a partner was a subject that required a...

Women and True Crime Depictions in the Media

True crime stories infiltrate our lives. Between news stories, podcasts, documentaries on every streaming service, and entire television stations devoted to true crime, we are bombarded with tales of murder and brutality. The people most drawn to these stories seem...

The Damaging Effects of Pornography

Most of us are familiar with pornography, whether it is online or offline. The popularity of porn has grown over recent years due to online accessibility. If you do not know what pornography is, it can be defined as “any sexually explicit material that you can find...

Horror movies and kids

Although I vaguely remember when me, and my siblings watched the original Exorcist (1973) movie , maybe I was too young to even understand or comprehend what I was watching. Fast forward 20 years in the future I am having a conversation with my brother, who is only 4...

Media and Perception

Media, in all its forms, influences how we perceive the world around us. Whether through television, social media, or print, media has the power to shape our perception of events, people, and issues. As with many things, its effects are complex and impact our...

Is Antisocial a Factor that would Lead to a Crime?

What is antisocial? When thinking of it, some would think they’re not sociable. They even make merchandise such as “Anti Social Social Club,” giving people a sense of belonging to not being an extroverted person. Besides all that, antisocial in a psychological...

Charles Whitman

This week’s lesson covered multiple approaches/theories to explain the behavior of criminals. One theory stated that criminal behavior could be partially accredited to genetics, psychophysiology, neurological functioning, and biochemistry (Gruman, Schneider,...

To Help or To Not

Have you ever seen a situation on television and thought “What would I do in this scenario?” In today’s society, there is a lot of chaos and senseless crimes you can witness through social media or news outlets. In fact, there are many bystanders who...

Fines and the Peasantry

Have you ever been running down an empty stretch of highway in your 1998 Toyota Tercel, enjoying the wind in your face (because the window doesn’t roll all the way up anymore), hearing the rumble of the exhaust (because the exhaust manifold is leaking), and...

Investigative interview

We will always remember the trials and sentences that have been televised and of high public sensitivity and with a lot of audiences. However, before the trial occurred, there was a police process that investigated. Social psychology has been important in improving...