Media Violence and Desensitization

When it comes to media violence and aggressive thoughts, it is public knowledge or “talk” that watching, listening, or engaging in anything relative to violence would lead to aggressive behavior. We have seen this be talked about for years through news channels,...

Emoji: Map Legend to Decode Email Intention

We communicate via written text over online sources – text messages, instant messages, email, chat rooms, and so on – regularly throughout the day. As a society, we have seen the evolution of written communication rise from hieroglyphics and petroglyphs...

Social Cognitive Theory and TV Violence

In many recent studies, psychologists have been able to see how violence in the media and on TV leads to aggression among children and adolescents. The social cognitive theory, according to Boston University, is “learning that occurs in a social context with a...

Social Media and Attachment Styles

Social media and attachment styles, two topics that often become the forefront of psychological conversations regarding the evolution of human communication and the different ways we interact and behave in relationships. Often, these topics are in separate...

Potential Dangers of social media

Social media allows people to create and connect with one another. While it seems harmless there is evidence that proves that social media can be the cause of violent behaviors in youths, and can create violence in communities, schools, and other life events. I am not...

Framed: How News Media Brainwashed Grandma

The element of framing in storytelling involves setting the scene, the writer or speaker telling the audience how the story will go – controlling the angle of the audience’s thoughts and how they see the story based on the information the teller presents… or...

Cultivation Theory in the World Today

In our world today people are influenced by the media and the amount of time spent engaging in it affects how influenced they really are. Cultivation theory looks at the results and consequences of excessive TV watching, specifically for someone who watches more than...

Is Watching too much TV a Problem?

I have previously looked into the different ways watching tv and playing video games can affect people, more specifically affect their aggression levels and attitudes towards aggression. Something that goes hand and hand with this is the cultivation theory which,...

Social Media

These new generations are growing up with social media and new technology. It is shaping a new way of how we all interact with each other. Social media is often a way how teens, kids, and adults can express themselves. There are also negative effects of social media,...

Influence of Media Coverage on Mass Shootings

Mass shootings have become a major public health concern in the United States, and research suggests that media coverage of such events can contribute to the contagion effect, whereby the occurrence of one mass shooting increases the likelihood of similar events to ...

Media Influence on Thoughts

About a year ago or so, one of my sister’s talked me into getting TikTok. I had been vehemently opposed to it because I didn’t understand it and wasn’t sure if I even wanted to. She would occasionally send them to me via text and once when she was visiting, she showed...

Hidden in plain sight; a silent addiction

A major problem that the media and the federal government does is not curtailing the ease and availability of Pornography. Compounding the problem is the medias’ ability to embed sexual material (Kingston et al., 2009), and thereby conditioning the mind (Love et al.,...

Money: The Resource No One Wants to Talk About

As the world’s population grows faster than it ever has due to many revolutionary advancements, the quality of life is arguably not better for most, and the environment is paying the price. The difference between Sparta’s oligarchy, which ruled from the...

Why preventing drug use now can help our future

An area where I believe all individuals should be involved, if they truly wish to curb down the use of drugs and criminal behavior, is in implementing more after school programs that offer extracurricular activities. There is compelling evidence to build more after...

Captain Planet: 90s Climate Change Interventionist

I remember being in first or second grade and hearing about recycling and climate change. This was 1992, so the saying “reduce, reuse, and recycle” was being said and repeated across much of the media people were consuming. I remember checking out a book...

Social Psychology and navigating criminal justice

Social psychology is a field of study that investigates how social influences and situations shape individual behavior and thoughts. The criminal justice system, on the other hand, is a complex system of institutions, policies, and practices that aim to prevent and...

A flawed Criminal Justice System

Based on the eyewitness evidence of a single witness, who recognised Anthony Porter in a police lineup, Porter was charged with and found guilty of the 1982 murders of two adolescents in Chicago’s Washington Park area. William Taylor, the witness, claimed to...

Crime

When I started college I was undecided with no idea what career path I wanted to pursue in the future. Then as the years went on, I found that I had a passion for crime and investigation. I declared my major as Criminology in my junior year of college with a minor in...

Narcissism in the Criminal Justice System

There are few things more abhorrent to me than a man who has any amount of power and financial resources and uses that to take advantage of women. The person I am referring to regarding a well-publicized court case is none other than Hollywood mogul, Harvey Weinstein....

False Confessions

If you were accused of a crime you didn’t commit you would never confess to it, right? Well, research says that is not the case. There are many variables that can lead to a false confession. Some of these factors include, the interviewee being young, having low...

How Social Learning Theory Affects Criminal Activity

Who we surround ourselves with impacts us for better or for worse. Naturally, the behavior of others who we spend a lot of time with rubs off on us. The social learning theory suggests that our behavior is learned from observing and imitating those around us. If an...

The Effects of the U.S. Criminal Justice System

  “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separates yet equally important groups: The police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories” (Wikiquote, 2023).  This of course is...

The bystander effect

Something that has always interested me was the bystander effect. If you are unfamiliar with the bystander effect, it is basically the idea that a person’s likelihood to help in an emergency situation decreases when there are others around (Emeghara, 2020). An...

Constructivist and moral perspectives on law

In constructivist epistemology, the observer observes the world based on different distinctions, and the self-reference to the distinctions used is the process of self-description. The legal system sees the world in terms of legal/illegal codes, and the legal side is...

Psychology and Interrogations

Police interrogations can be mentally draining on anyone having to sit through one. There can be mental manipulation that goes on and that can possibly lead to false confessions.  There are people out there that have confessed to crimes they did not commit because of...

Social Learning Theory

It is interesting to think about the psychology behind criminals and try to understand why they do what they do. I think that the textbook explains very well different theories and reasons why a criminal may commit a crime. The Social Learning Theory is one theory...

Do we still need leaders?

Despite the many technological advances in the different areas of our economy; one fact remains clear, the need for individuals to carry out specific work is ever-present, and so is the need for teams to complete some of these tasks.  With this brings a set of...

The Team and Organizational Model

I wonder how many of us remember when we were little and the kinds of games we played to keep us entertained.  Some of this was forced in school and some we really did just for the fun of it.  These games could have included Red Rover, Tug of War, tag and maybe even...

The Desire to Control

  The need for power is a concept in social psychology that refers to an individual’s desire to control, influence, or have an impact on others (1975; McClelland & Burnham, 1976) This need for power can manifest in various ways, such as seeking...

Organizational Teamwork

At any job you begin at, there is always a “team” where coworkers and leaders are essentially working together to fulfill a mission. When you are working within a group, there are different social norms and factors that go along with it, some unconscious...

Teams and Leadership

Having effective leadership within a team is what can make a really good team that works well together. Having a good leader that can help and communicate with others what needs to get done. Having that kind a good leadership on a sports team is necessary if you want...

Equity Theory in the Workplace

In the workplace today people are motivated to work hard at different levels. Where that motivation comes from and how it occurs is known as process theories. An example of a process theory is equity theory, which reveals that a person’s sense of fairness plays...

Psychology Behind Sports

Sports is something I have always enjoyed to watch and play when I was younger. It is interesting to dig deeper into the psychology behind sports, and how it affects players as well as teams as a whole. The distraction theory is something that I believe can be...

Multidimensional Model of Leadership: Overview

In 1978, P. Chelladurai and colleagues proposed the multidimensional model of leadership. This model views athlete performance and satisfaction as influenced by three components of behavior: actual leader behavior, preferred leader behavior, and perceived leader...

Social Dominance Theory and Religion

Social dominance theory describes how processes at different levels of social organization, from ideologies to institutionalized discrimination work together to form and maintain a group based dominance. One common example of social dominance theory in the United...

The Light and Dark Side of Diversity

Could you imagine if we all looked the same talked the same and grew up in the same culture?  One thing for sure is thar the United States and for that matter North America would not be recognized as the “melting pot of the world”.  While the U.S. became a country in...

Equal Pay Day

“Women are fun to play with, but when it comes to getting things done, they are worthless.” This was a phrase that was shared verbatim to my husband by one of his past employers. It is scenarios like this that make my skin crawl and proves that sexism in the workplace...

Social Dominance Theory and Privilege

Social dominance theory and white privilege both can play a role with each other. SDT is studies of how someone comes to hold social dominance and what characteristics come with that. Then privilege is someone who is more at an advantage to get what they want and...

Social Identity Theory of picking up the purse

When it comes to the most common identification psychology in life, it should be buying fashionable products after following the trend. Social proof is most persuasive when an individual feels unfamiliar or uncertain about a particular situation. That’s because...

Greek life and social identity?

How many of you are/were a part of greek life? I don’t really need to ask how  you see/saw yourself because I can probably guess. How? Because I know exactly how I would answer. If you ask me what I am pertaining to college/greek life, I will proudly answer with...

Stress in Collegiate Sports

Almost all, if not all, collegiate athletes will undergo some type of stress related to academic and athletic performance throughout their college career. In an article from Frontiers called Stress in Academic and Athletic Performance in Collegiate Athletes: A...

Biopsychosocial Approach to SMI

The biopsychosocial model recognizes that all health, including mental health, is influenced by a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors, and that a purely biomedical approach to understanding health problems is lacking (Gruman, 2016). The...

Depression and Hope

When you think of the word health what is the first thing that comes to you mind?  If you are like me, you may think about the day at hand and if your healthy enough to get through it.  This may be a weird way to think as many people think about the future and their...

Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is the fear of being judged in a negative manner by those around you. Most people experience social anxiety at certain points in their life. The kind of social anxiety that comes about during presentations or during high stress situations is not the...

Mental Health

Mental health is something that was not always studied or looked at to be as important as it is today. Over past decades, there has been a rise in suicide and depression rates that stem from environmental factors as well as psychological factors too. I never really...

Comprehending Infidelity

What is it about infidelity that has made it one of the top reasons why relationships and marriages don’t work out in the United States? Do people thrive off the rush of meeting an attractive stranger? Are their partners just not doing it for them anymore? Maybe it’s...

PTSD and therapy options

Many young adults have experienced something traumatic enough that can put them at high risk for PTSD. Especially with new adults given a bunch of freedom at once and do not know what to do with it. Many of these people can find themselves in a situation that they did...

Understanding of stress

Richardson once said that if the human mind is always busy thinking about every unsatisfactory thing in a pessimistic direction, there is no need for the appearance of an enemy, and you will be defeated first. Stress is a cognitive and behavioral experience process...

Resource Dilemma Reward or Punishment

Resource dilemma falls into the hands of welfare groups or society. When it comes to the dilemma of resources it comes to the environment and the natural resources that keep us alive. Resources dilemma creates scarcity, and conflict in our environment and in people’s...

Resource dilemma

We all have a role to play as member of society whether you feel that role is big or small.  You can think of this on a global or local stage.  This can be in your community, or you can go beyond and venture out into the world.  In the U.S. we must follow the laws...

Resource Dilemma—it is not EGGcellent

ENVIRONMENTAL BLOG Resource Dilemma—it is not EGGcellent What came first, the chicken or the—-. I will stop myself right there. No one cares which one came first, they just want to know why their eggs are so damn expensive. Eggs have always been an amazing...

Reflections on Maslow’s Theory of Needs

When it comes to Maslow, I believe everyone has seen a picture of a pyramid shape divided into five levels. Even if I don’t put this picture, everyone can think of it immediately. Because this picture is used in many psychology-related articles to prove the...

How to win a guy in 10 dates!?

We have all seen the iconic Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson movie How to lose a guy in 10 days. Many of us have got it down to a science on how to love a guy in 10 dates but how can you win a guy. Kate Hudson’s character in the movie Andie begins an adventure with...

American Murder: The Family Next Door

Everyone watched the breath takingly beautiful Shanann Watts on Facebook live showing off her children and adoring husband Chris Watts. Then as we found out about her and her children’s heartbreaking disappearance and then later on realization of their death. It made...

Teen Pregnancy Fear Appeal

Throughout high school there are many stressors, what college will I go to, will I make the sports team, will he ask me out, these are some of the normal stressors of being a teenage but what if your main stressor was pregnancy. Theres an estimated 750,000 pregnancies...

The Need to Know

A Class Divided made me think about how 54 years later we are seemingly only getting worse in regard to racism and discrimination in the classroom. Lately, it’s common to come across news stories showing anger over teaching the history of the United States, even...

Helpful Online Communities

I benefit from the use of the internet as a source of help, as mentioned in our Chapter 12 reading. Online communities can provide access to valuable information and emotional support to many who cannot seek help through traditional avenues (Gruman, 2016). I stumbled...

Not All Reliable

When I was going through this lesson the discussions of problems with police investigations, interrogations, and lineups made me think of how all of those things are portrayed on TV. I went to YouTube to look up videos of real-life experts discussing the differences...

The Laws of (Pheromonal) Attraction

I’ve always been interested in human relationships and what makes us attracted to one another. In this lesson’s readings, there was a lot of information about physical attraction, proximity, familiarity, situational influences, and how all of those things...

Listen to the kids

When it comes to studying groups of people, especially when you are trying to design interventions, it would make sense to actually ask for their feedback, right? We see this done with all sorts of communities when social change research, or participatory action...

Crisis Change Research

     It is no secret that the homeless crisis in Los Angeles has been a concerning issue for decades. However, now more than ever, these transients are going out and committing violent crimes in broad daylight. It is sad to see that our politicians care more about...

Can Psychology Change Our Society?

After the emergence of the field of psychology, the science of behavior and mental processes, psychologists (Pennsylvania State University, 2022) have discovered much about why and what causes us to behave in a certain way. Even though we cannot say that psychology...

Do Opposites Attract?

The lesson about attraction was fascinating. Is the theory of opposites attracting true? In the past, I often heard this saying about how opposites spark interest in one another. Although I now have a different opinion on the theory. The lesson demonstrated the two...

A Conflict of Interest?

As a psychology student, reading about social change research has been absolutely thrilling. We read in our module that what sets apart social change research from classic scientific research is the active involvement of the researcher. While we are encouraged to...

How I Met Your Mother

There’s a biology professor at my local community college who starts each term with a warning to his students: choose your lab partners carefully, you just might end up married to them. As it turns out, I’m part of the reason for that warning. As we...

Sense of Community

We are all naturally social beings, we craving interaction and belonging. Therefore we look for a sense of community where we live, work, and learn. “Community psychology concerns the relationships of individuals with communities and society” (Gruman et al., 2017). I...

Do Looks Matter?

It is often said that one’s inner beauty and personality are more important than their physical appearance. Then, is it true that our looks do not matter? The honest answer is that they do matter. Beautiful and physically attractive people are pleasing to look at;...

Are MMOGs Worth The Mental Warfare?

In today’s day and age MMOG or mass multiplayer online games are played at any time seemingly everywhere in the world. There are so many options of consoles to use ranging from Playstations to Xbox’s to Nintendo Switches to so many PC options and even...

It’s Not All Fun and Games

At my childrens’ elementary school, they implement an anti-bullying program. From the time my boys stepped foot onto that campus, at the ripe age of 4, my boys were taught we do not bully. Young children need to be taught that being kind is always superior than being...

Opportunities to change an attachment style

Attachment styles are shaped by experience and can be replaced throughout adulthood (Gruman et al., 2016). However, what events trigger us to unlearn our attachment styles? Moreover, are these changes temporary or enduring? If these can be clarified, it may lead to...

A Healthier Future

When a baby is born, they’ve already entered a world in which many choices have been made for them, such as what parents they were born to and how they’ll be raised. Therefore, in many regards, our attachment style isn’t our choice. We may have parents that raise us...

Close Proximity

This week’s reading about how social psychology relates to our personal relationships naturally had me thinking about the people in my life and how they came to be there. For many of us, we can remember how and where we met people; but, what made us go from...

Online Possibilities

Nowadays it is very easy to talk to anyone essentially anywhere in the world regardless of distance or time differences. This is a great time to be here if I’m being honest. Things are much different now than they used to be and we as people have different...

My Neighborhood Dream

When I think of community, I think of a diverse group of people who are kind, giving, vulnerable, and thrive off of caring for the other members and their shared space. This sounds idyllic and it indeed is, but even a fraction of that kind of ethos would benefit every...

The Power of Online Communities

Being diagnosed with a chronic illness at sixteen came with mixed emotions. First, I was relieved to finally have an answer to what illness had taken over my body and life a year ago. But on the other hand, this was an illness not I, nor anyone else I knew, had heard...

Loneliness in Cities

“Building a strong social network among adults in the neighborhood is instrumental in promoting healthy outcomes, preventing negative outcomes, such as child abuse and delinquency, and empowering residents to improve their surroundings” (Gruman et al., 2016). This...

Life in Big Cities

Do you prefer to live in a busy city, such as New York, or in a smaller town surrounded by nature? According to the ecological concept of person–environment fit, people have differing opinions on whether they fit better into urban or rural environments. Some...

My Favorite Bunch

When the pandemic happened and everything changed to zoom instruction, I could no longer see my beloved coworkers in person. I was very thankful to be transitioning to a new job during this difficult time period. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to my old coworkers...

The Mental Health Stigma

Mental health awareness and the acceptance of mental health issues is a recent phenomenon. According to a survey done by the APA, 87% of Americans agree having a mental health disorder is nothing to be ashamed of, while 86% believed mental health disorders can be...

Social Hierarchies in Schools

For generations upon generations, there has been bullying. Kids enter school and soon enough they begin to fall into their place within the school’s social hierarchy. This unspoken hierarchy includes the most popular kids and the most isolated, and everyone else in...

Why Do You Procrastinate?

Have you ever put off important tasks until the last minute or after the deadline by consistently creating excuses for not finishing them on time? During their college years, most people have experienced delaying assignments or studying for an exam until the very last...

Racism Is Taught

Racism is an epidemic in America. There are so many different ethnicities, religions and skin colors, that sometimes it confuses me to why it is such a problem here. It is unfortunate that I have seen many of my family members go through it, including myself. I have...