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08
Apr 24

The Proximity Principle: Identifying the Dual Nature of Relationships Formed

According to the proximity principle in social psychology, individuals who are physically near to one another have a higher chance of forming a relationship than those who are farther apart. This is a much-studied phenomenon in social psychology.

Research indicates that proximity has a significant impact on who people interact and build connections with most, even though it often works in an unconscious way. It also means that you are more likely to build ties with people who work and live in the same city.

For example, relationships are more likely to develop between people who physically sit closer to each other in an office or classroom than between people who sit farther apart. Because of this, people are probably more likely to become friends with their coworker in the next cubicle or their lab partner at school than they are with random strangers (Finkel & Baumeister, 2010).

Even though relationships are more likely to be formed between people who are physically closer to them, some studies indicate that those relationships aren’t necessarily positive ones. One study, for instance, discovered that people are more prone to despise those who live nearby ( Ebbesen, Kjos, Konecni, 1976). Although it has also been demonstrated that physical closeness affects friendships, frequent in-person interactions were necessary for friendships to thrive. On the other hand, hostility persisted despite the fact that people who lived near to one another did not often interact in person.

Therefore, unwanted conduct exhibited by those nearby can result in negative interpersonal connections, just as positive interactions with those in close proximity to one another can lead to positive interpersonal relationships, either way demonstrating the proximity principle .

 

Ebbesen E, Kjos G, Konečni V. Spatial ecology: Its effects on the choice of friends and enemies. J Exp Soc Psychol. 1976;12(6):505-518. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(76)90030-5

Finkel EJ, Baumeister RF. Attraction and Rejection. In: Baumeister RF, Finkel EJ, ed. Advanced Social Psychology: The State Of The Science. 1st ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2010:419-459.

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03
Mar 24

Is Eyewitness Testimony Trustworthy?

An account provided by individuals of an event they have personally observed, is referred to as eyewitness testimony in legal terminology. They might be asked to explain a robbery trial or a traffic accident that they witnessed, for instance. This covers information on the crime scene, the identity of the offenders, etc. Research on eyewitness testimony is crucial for understanding human memory and cognitive psychology. Eyewitness testimony is typically given careful consideration by juries, who view it as a trustworthy source of information. However, studies in this field have shown that a variety of psychological factors can influence eyewitness testimony, none more so than Reconstructive Memory.

Knowledge of the validity of eyewitness testimony requires a knowledge of, Frederic Bartlett’s theory of reconstructive memory, which claimed that recall is open to individual interpretation based on taught or cultural norms and values, as well as how we view the world.

Individuals organize information according to what makes the most sense to them. We try to fit information into schemas, which are ways of organizing data, to make sense of it. Schemas are conceptual “units” of information that correlate to individuals, things, or circumstances that are encountered often. Prejudice and social values may have an influence on these schemas. Thus, schemas have the power to skew new or unintentionally “unacceptable” information to make it “fit in” with our preexisting knowledge or schemas. Consequently, this may lead to eyewitness testimony that is not trustworthy.

The legal community, law enforcement, and psychologists have collaborated to try and improve the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness testimony. Eyewitness memory significantly improved when researchers Geiselman, Fisher, MacKinnon, and Holland used an interviewing technique they called the Cognitive interview (CI). The strategy aims to inform witnesses of all the circumstances surrounding a crime without fabricating information or creating false memories. This method involves the interviewer getting to know the witness before posing any questions. The witness is then given the opportunity to provide an unrestricted account of what happened. The interviewer then probes further to get further details from the witness and reassures them that it’s okay to express uncertainty and move on. This method leads the witness, instead of following a strict expectation that the witness must recall every detail.

Correct implementation of the cognitive interview results in increased efficiency and accuracy of eyewitness testimony without the generation of extra false information.

 

References

Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Geiselman, R.; Fisher, Ronald; MacKinnon, David; Holland, Heidi (1986). “Enhancement of eyewitness memory with the cognitive interview”. American Journal of Psychology. 99 (3): 385–401

Ghetti, S.; Goodman, G. S.; Schaaf, J. M.; Qin, J. (2004). “Issues In Eyewitness Testimony”. In O’Donohue, W. T.; Levensky, E. R. (eds.). Handbook of Forensic Psychology. San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press. p. 532.

Wells, G. L.; Memon, A.; Penrod, S. D. (2006). “Eyewitness Evidence: Improving Its Probative Value”. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 7 (2): 45–75.

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23
Feb 24

Four Distinct Phases of Team Formation

Bruce Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development functions as a blueprint for how teams form and develop. It’s a fascinating way to understand all the highs and lows associated with working together. Here are the four phases that everybody can identify with:

The Forming stage is first. At this point, the group is still getting to know one another. It’s exciting and full of possibilities, much like the start of a new friendship. While attempting to determine who is better at what, they are all polite.

The Storming stage follows. Things can get a little difficult at this point. As people begin to hold conflicting beliefs, problems may arise. This is the point of a group project that students may argue on how to tackle the assignment.

The Norming stage comes next. At this point, the group begins to click. They established some guidelines and learned how to cooperate. Group members get together, respect one another’s opinions, and work more efficiently in the group project setting.

Lastly, is the Performing stage. At this point, the group is operating at its full potential. Group members contribute to an excellent final product for the group project that showcases their effort and teamwork.

The Stages of Group Development by Bruce Tuckman is a guide for learning how groups develop and thrive. Any group can do some amazing things as they work through the forming, storming, norming, and performing stages.

 

Reference

Truman, J.A., Schneider, F.W., and Coutts, L.M. (Eds.) (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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17
Feb 24

Exceptionally Effective Contact Through Cyberspace

In 1954, Social psychologist Gordon Allport came up with his theory of Contact Hypothesis. He believed that prejudice, preconceptions, and the desire to discriminate would lessen if individuals with different social characteristics had the opportunity to get to know one another and interact. Fast forward to the present, and one of the world’s greatest resources is the internet. The Internet creates a protected environment for users with more control over the communication process. The internet’s ability to connect all types of groups with those they may never meet in person is a resource proving invaluable to social psychology.

As stated in Yair Amichai-Hamburger and Katelyn Y. A. McKenna’s article, “The Contact Hypothesis Reconsidered: Interacting via the Internet” the major challenges of the contact hypothesis are:

(1) The practicality issue: Contact between rival groups according to the conditions required by the contact hypothesis might be very complicated to arrange and expensive to run.

(2) Anxiety: Even though participation in a contact is voluntary, the high anxiety involved in the contact situation may hinder its success.

(3) Generalization: How can a generalization be created from a specific contact with certain outgroup members to the outgroup as a whole?” (2017)

For many decades these dilemmas have created issues for researchers, and through the internet all now have solutions.

Electronic means of communication have created opportunities for connections that were not previously possible back in 1954. People can now be brought “together” despite physical distance and time differences, at least in advanced countries. Electronic meetings don’t require a lot of setup money and typically take up little of a participant’s time. There are many benefits to having participants participate in the contact from the comfort of their own homes. Participants may feel less nervous and more at ease in their familiar settings.

Through the means of the internet, users no longer face language barriers and anxiety responses, and with generative AI and other technological advances, intergroup communication is improved. Its special qualities make the perfect basis for this form of interaction; for instance, participants can establish a safe space, lessen anxiety, bridge geographical gaps, promote equality of other groups and beliefs, improve communication without language barriers, and by utilizing the contact hypothesis theory, an overall improvement in society will happen.

 

Reference:

Yair Amichai-Hamburger, Katelyn Y. A. McKenna, The Contact Hypothesis Reconsidered: Interacting via the Internet, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 11, Issue 3, 1 April 2006, Pages 825–843, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00037.x

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16
Nov 22

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 explains everything we do as human beings, several psychological discoveries have significantly changed our society. Psychological findings have allowed us to think differently about mental illnesses by, for example, transforming our views of mental disorders from behaviors caused by demonic possessions to diagnosable medical conditions. As such, various psychological findings have improved our understanding of human behaviors and our ability to solve associated problems. Psychologists often attempt to apply their skills and knowledge to social concerns to find practical solutions and improvements. Participatory action research (PAR)—a process of research, education, and action—is an effective approach for psychologists to bring about positive social change by using their skills and training while contributing to knowledge generation within the field (Hall, 1981). Let us review how psychologists use PAR to bring about positive social change by discussing the basic guidelines of PAR, its real-life implementation, and its benefits over other research methods.

Despite the diversity within the theoretical bases of PAR, Budd Hall claimed that PAR generally follows three basic guidelines (1981). First, he stated that PAR originates and has been successful with traditionally oppressed populations, such as groups of Indigenous people, immigrants, labor organizations, and women’s groups. Second, PAR aims to achieve positive social change by addressing specific community concerns and the causes of oppression. Third, PAR is an all-in-one process of research, education, and action that allows all participants to contribute their skills and knowledge and to learn and transform through research.

As many previous PAR studies have been successful, PAR has begun to gain ground in the field of psychology. Susan Yeich and Ralph Levine (1992) is one such example of a successful PAR study, as it established a homeless persons’ union in East Lensing, Michigan. The research included a variety of activities, including speaking in university classes, presenting at workshops, meetings with politicians, registering homeless people to vote, organizing public demonstrations, receiving media attention, fundraising, and networking, and recruiting union members. At the same time, the research addressed the fundamental causes of homelessness in the community and examined further problems that homelessness can bring to our society.

Even though PAR uses methodologies similar to traditional social science research, such as community questionnaires and interviews, it has distinctive benefits over other research methods. The fundamental difference in PAR is that community members can determine the methods used to employ, carry out the research, and analyze the results by utilizing a variety of approaches outside the field of psychology (Brydon-Miller, 1997). PAR often involves different approaches, such as political action, community meetings, educational camps, and conferences, to bring successful social change (Brydon-Miller, 1997). Moreover, PAR allows psychologists greater involvement and commitment to addressing social issues based on the skills and knowledge of their professions.

Although discoveries in the field of psychology can solve not all social issues, many psychologists aim to make our society a better place by applying their skills and knowledge. However, a single action cannot bring about social change, as individuals who seek change continually face various economic and political obstacles. Participatory action research can be a unique and practical way to bring positive social change because it allows psychologists to apply their knowledge to actions directly and to increase their involvement in and commitment to societal issues.

 

References

Brydon-Miller, M. (1997). Participatory Action Research: Psychology and Social Change. Journal of Social Issues, 53(4), 657–666.

Hall, B. (198I). Participatory research, popular knowledge and power: A personal reflection. Convergence, /4(3), 6 1 7.

Pennslyvania State University. (2022). Chapter 1 What is Psychology? Lecture notes.

Yeich, S.,& Levine, R. (1992). Participatory research’s contribution to a conceptualization of empowerment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22(24), 189&1908.

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10
Nov 22

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; however, the importance of physical appearance extends well beyond the pleasant experiences we have when we look at attractive individuals. What makes our looks so important? To answer this question, I will introduce striking findings from previous studies on physical attractiveness that cover the computer-match study, the primary effect, and physical attractiveness stereotypes.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota conducted a study called the computer-match study to ascertain the reasons for dating choices among first-year college students at a Welcome Week dance party (Walster et al., 1966). Several hundred student volunteers were told that a computer would find the best match for each student by collecting their personal data. After they paired up for the party, they were asked to complete the questionnaires to rate themselves and their partners on their self-esteem, the physical attractiveness of their partners, and the similarities between them. When the data was analyzed, the researchers found that the only factor that predicted whether a student wanted to see his or her date again was the partner’s physical attractiveness, not their similarities, the quality of their conversation, or the respondent’s level of self-esteem. This study revealed that looks are more powerful factors of attraction than other desirable characteristics of individuals.

It is clear that our looks do matter, but why do they mater? When we first meet a person, we unconsciously judge that person to a certain extent by their looks, as it is impossible to know their other qualities, such as personality, at first sight. This phenomenon may occur due to the primary effect, which is the tendency to be influenced and recall information presented first rather than information presented later (Gruman et al., 2017). Usually, physical appearance is the first piece of information that is gleaned about a person we have just met; thus, according to this theory, we are more likely to be influenced by and recall a person’s looks. This may explain why people often say that one’s first impression is important in dates or meetings.

With the importance of pleasant feelings caused by seeing attractive people having been established, additional studies found that beautiful people were also judged to be better at other qualities than unattractive people. Dion et al. (1972) found that physically attractive people are generally expected to be better; attractive people are assumed to be more sensitive, sexually responsive, interesting, and friendly than those who are unattractive. Another study also found that attractive people are considered positively; they are found to have wider social appeal, interpersonal and occupational competence, or adjustment, purely based on their physical looks, than unattractive people (Langlois et al., 2000). These findings do not mean that attractive people are generally good at almost every aspect of life, but they are simply assumed to have better qualities because of existing biases. These assumptions arise from the physical attractiveness stereotype, which is the general expectancy that physically attractive people have better and positive qualities while unattractive people have negative qualities.

We all know that humans and other animals are naturally born with high preferences for beauty (Little et al., 2011). For example, even a baby recognizes a pretty face or other things that are beautiful or not. This post aimed to explain why our looks matter by introducing previous scientific findings on physical attractiveness, including studies on the primary effect and the physical attractiveness stereotype, as well as the computer-match study. These interesting findings are somewhat disappointing in that they confirm that physical appearance has a stronger influence than other attributes. Still, instead of sabotaging ourselves, it is essential to remember that our physical attractiveness is determined by a variety of factors other than facial structure. For instance, non-verbal factors, such as posture, facial expression, hair or fashion style, attitude, and personality, make up our attractiveness and make each of us unique and beautiful.

References

Dion, K. K., Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1972). What is beautiful is good. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24, 285–290

Gruman, J., Schneider, F., & Coutts, L. (Eds.) (2017). Applied social psychology. SAGE Publications, Inc, https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781071800591

Langlois, J. H., Kalakanis, L., Rubenstein, A. J., Larson, A., Hallam, A., & Smoot, M. (2000). Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 390–423

Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., & DeBruine, L. M. (2011). Facial attractiveness: evolutionary based research. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 366(1571), 1638–1659. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0404

Walster, E., Aronson, V., Abrahams, D., & Rottmann, L. (1966). Importance of physical attractiveness in dating behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 508–516

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03
Nov 22

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 individuals prefer to stay and live in big cities, while others prefer quiet suburban areas. I have always preferred to live in large urban centers because they offer better public transportation, career opportunities, and nightlife and entertainment options. However, I cannot deny that a busy city life also brings a significant amount of stress and problems associated with overwhelming crowds, traffic, and noise. Even though city life provides a number of benefits, many studies have suggested that deindividuation, stimulus overload, and bystander effects that occur in city environments can negatively affect individuals’ physical or mental health (Gruman et al., 2017).

A well-known study by Philip Zimbardo (1969) suggested that city environments negatively impact individuals by causing them to become deindividuated (i.e., they lose their sense of personhood). This loss of a sense of self makes people feel less concerned with self-evaluation, responsibility, and self-restraint; furthermore, it increases antisocial behavior. Have you ever noticed that people behave differently in crowds? According to the notion of deindividuation, overwhelming stimulations of city life, such as crowding, lead people to act differently than they would normally act when they are alone (Zimbardo, 1969). For example, a person is likely to follow or mimic the behaviors of a crowd if they are part of a group without reasoning whether the act is right or wrong.

On the other hand, stimulus overload, introduced by Stanly Milgram, provides a psychological explanation for the negative impact of city life on people. Stimulus overload is a state in which our nervous systems are overloaded to the point that we cannot simultaneously react to environmental stimulation, such as crowds, traffic, and noise; thus, we adapt to set priorities and determine where to place more attention (Milgram, 1970). According to Milgram’s theory, city environments cause people to enter a state of stimulus overload, making them devote as little time as possible to obstacles and avoid what is really important in life by leading them to focus on more time-efficiently set priorities. For instance, people living in big cities tend to erect barriers to social interactions, such as withdrawing cash from ATMs, rather than dealing with bank tellers.

Moreover, the bystander effect also explains how our social environments strongly influence individuals’ behaviors. The bystander effect occurs when a large number of people witness an emergency situation in public places and fail to intervene or help others; this commonly occurs in big-city environments (Darley & Latané, 1970). I remember hearing a news report describing an incident in which one person was severely attacked in a public place, but no one in the crowd acted to help the victim. Darley and Latané (1970) explained that the bystander effect occurs in large cities because an individual in a group thinks that he or she will not be blamed for not helping a person who is in danger, since there are almost always many people nearby who might take responsibility for acting in emergency situations.

Although I generally love living in big cities, these previous studies have made me think more carefully about how city environments can negatively affect our behavior to some degree. In addition to the concepts of deindividuation, stimulus overload, and the bystander effect, another study suggests that city living is associated with increased stress and mental illness, such as mood and anxiety disorders and schizophrenia (Yates, 2011). Therefore, further research on the impacts of social environments, specifically on the association between city environments and mental health, is necessary to assess the factors that result in adverse effects on individuals and to find effective intervention strategies for minimizing harm.

 

References

Darley, J., & Latané, B. (1970). The unresponsive bystander: Why doesn’t he help? New York, NY: Appleton Century Crofts.

Gruman, J., Schneider, F., & Coutts, L. (Eds.) (2017). Applied social psychology. SAGE Publications, Inc, https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781071800591

Milgram, S. (1970). The experience of living in cities. Science, 167, 1461–1468

Yates, D. (2011). The stress of city life. Nat Rev Neurosci 12, 430 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3079

Zimbardo, P. G. (1969). The human choice: Individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. In W. J. Arnold & D. Levine (Eds.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 17, pp. 237–307). Lincoln: University of Nebraska

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28
Oct 22

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 minute and have ended up staying up all night to meet deadlines. The act of delaying a task or intended course of action until the last minute is referred to as procrastination. According to Joseph Ferrari, author of “Still Procrastinating: The No Regret Guide to Getting It Done,” about 20% of adults in the United States are chronic procrastinators (American Psychological Association, 2010). Piers Steel (2007) estimated that the majority of college students frequently procrastinate their school-related work at least some of the time. While most people know that procrastination is a bad habit that negatively affects daily life, why does a significant portion of the population still procrastinate? Several studies suggest that procrastination actually results from fear of failure, motivational issues, and self-handicapping (Gruman et al., 2017).

Whenever we see others or find ourselves putting tasks off until the last minute, even when there is plenty of time left until the tasks are due, we often think that the delay occurs because of laziness or irresponsibility. I remember repeating bitter words to myself, such as “Stop being lazy!” whenever I delayed the tasks I should have done much earlier. However, studies have shown that people tend to procrastinate because of their fear of failure and the impact that failure has on their self-concept (Gruman et al., 2017). Another study suggested that when people focus more on the outcome of a goal, such as passing an exam, the possible consequences of failing become more vivid, thus escalating the fear of failure. In addition, when the expectation for the completion of a task is high, this fear of failure would likely increase, making us unable to even begin a task by delaying until the last moment.

Another factor that plays a key role in procrastination is motivation, which is deeply related to self-regulating behaviors (Gruman et al., 2017). When someone is motivated to do a particular task, this often becomes effortless and even enjoyable; thus, procrastination may not occur. For example, a child who is motivated to play a video game will not procrastinate this activity while procrastinating on homework assignments because he or she is less motivated to do homework than play video games. Previous research suggests that students who tend to be more intrinsically motivated are better at effectively managing their time and are able to devote their cognitive attention and efforts toward learning (Burnam et al., 2014; Howell & Watson, 2007). Hence, we can assume that people tend to procrastinate on tasks that they are not intrinsically motivated to do in the first place.

Other than the fear of failing and lack of motivation, there is also a common strategy that chronic procrastinators often use, called self-handicapping, which refers to the creation of barriers to successful performance for a task prior to its achievement in order to have an excuse for future failure (Gruman et al., 2017). By doing this, people can blame something other than their own ability to complete a task when facing failure. This strategy does not only reduce the cost of failure; it also emphasizes the value of success when success occurs despite the handicap. For example, a student puts off preparing for an exam because he thinks it is impossible to get a good grade, no matter how hard he studies. By deciding to go out with friends and delaying studying for an exam until the last moment, he can later justify that he failed his exam because he did not have enough time to study instead of harming his academic self-concept.

As you noticed after reading this blog, we do not put things off just because we are lazy; instead, we tend to procrastinate when we want to avoid failure, are not motivated enough to do a specific task, or desire to protect our self-esteem and self-concept through self-handicapping prior to potential failure. We need to understand that there is much complexity in the reasons behind the act of procrastination, which is why we find it challenging to stop procrastinating. It is clear that simply saying, “Stop being lazy! I should stop procrastinating starting today,” may not be an effective method to curb procrastination. Instead, creating environments that emphasize individual effort and mastery of a task rather than actual ability and performance or developing short-term, more easily achievable goals may be more effective at changing procrastination-related behavior.

 

References

American Psychological Association. The Psychology of Procrastination: Why People Put Off Important Tasks Until the Last Minute. 2010.

Burnam, A., Komarraju, M., Hamel, R., & Nadler, D. R. (2014). Do adaptive perfectionism and self-determined motivation reduce academic procrastination? Learning and Individual Differences, 36, 165–172

Gruman, J., Schneider, F., & Coutts, L. (Eds.) (2017). Applied social psychology. SAGE Publications, Inc, https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781071800591

Howell, A. J., & Watson, D. C. (2007). Procrastination: Associations with achievement goal orientation and learning strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 167–178

Krause, K., & Freund, A. M. (2014). How to beat procrastination: The role of goal focus. European Psychologist, 19(2), 132-144. doi:https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000153

Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 65–94

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23
Oct 22

How do we learn to imitate violence depicted in media?

It is not surprising to find various depictions of physical violence when we turn on television. Many popular TV shows, movies, children’s programs, and video games frequently contain violent scenes such as attacks with a weapon, battles, or murders. Since media has become an essential part of our daily lives and are easily accessible through various devices for personal media consumption, there has been growing concern over the effects of media violence, which has led to extensive research and public attention. The vast majority of research studies consistently show that violent media negatively impacts viewers, making them likelier to increase their aggressive behavior (Bushman, Huesmann, & Whitaker, 2009). How do people become more aggressive by simply watching violent scenes on TV? Bandura (1986, 2009) argued that people learn to imitate violence through the media, which is called social cognitive theory. He introduced four processes that must occur in social cognitive theory: attention, representational, behavioral production, and motivational processes.

The first process indicated in Bandura’s model is attention. People must first pay attention to a specific behavior in order to imitate it. Which particular behaviors usually draw more attention? According to Bandura’s social cognitive theory, people are likely to pay attention to the modeled behaviors depending on how salient and attractive those behaviors are. Notably, violent behaviors portrayed in media, such as TV shows or movies, attract attention because they are usually thrilling, exciting, and salient. For example, violent scenes depicted in action movies, thrillers, and hero movies are popular, and many people find them exciting and fun to watch.

The second step is the representational process, which concerns the remembrance of specific behaviors. Even though these behaviors are exciting and attract attention, it is impossible to imitate them without actually remembering them. When certain behaviors are repeated multiple times, they are likely to be remembered or learned. For example, types of violence that appear more frequently in media become more familiar and likely to be recalled later for most individuals. People learn to imitate behaviors not only by repetition but also by mentally visualizing or rehearsing them, often through fantasies.

The third process outlined in Bandura’s social cognitive theory is the behavioral production process, in which people learn to perform the behaviors they have observed and remembered. This process involves learning to transform observed behaviors into more generalized or novel behaviors. Even though a person might mentally rehearse shooting someone he or she hates, they are unlikely to perform this action in real life. Instead, they are likelier to behave aggressively without actually harming the person whom they hate and to express their feelings in a more socially acceptable way.

Lastly, the final process of learning to imitate behaviors involves motivation. Even though people pay attention to, remember, and learn to perform behaviors into novel behaviors, they do not perform these behaviors if they are not sufficiently motivated. This can be explained by B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning, which employs rewards and punishments for behavioral learning. This concept suggests that individuals are likely to become motivated to perform behaviors that are rewarded, while punishment discourages the performance of behaviors for which individuals are punished. This explains why people may not perform every type of behavior they see depicted in media; instead, they tend to perform the behaviors they are motivated to perform.

In sum, many research findings consistently support the negative impact of media violence on people. Potter (2003) found that TV violence increases short-term and long-term aggressive behaviors, the tendency to imitate violence, increased fear and desensitization to violence, and greater acceptance of violence. Bandura’s social cognitive theory explains how people actually learn to imitate observed violent behaviors by introducing four major processes: attention, representational, behavioral production, and motivational processes. This demonstrates that media violence can be learned by observation, but it does not mean that people learn to imitate all the behaviors they watch. Instead, people may learn to imitate behaviors that draw attention and are remembered, performed, and motivated to perform.

 

References

Bushman, B. J., Huesmann, L. R., & Whitaker, J. L. (2009). Violent media effects. In R. L. Nabi & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of media processes and effects (pp. 361–376). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bandura, A. (2009). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 94–124). New York, NY: Routledge

Potter, W. J. (2003). The 11 myths of media violence. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE

Staddon JE, Cerutti DT. Operant conditioning. Annu Rev Psychol. 2003;54:115-44. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145124

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11
Apr 22

Thoughts about Social Change Research 

This week’s topic is about social change research, as I was reading it, I simultaneously related it to my own research. According to the definition depicted in our Canvas lecture, “Social change research comes in several different forms, but the general idea is that the researcher(s) are actively changing something in a social situation that they are a part of.” And my early research interests focus on a Chinese singlehood issue called the “leftover women” phenomenon. I was a member of this socially stigmatized community, and soon I left it because I got married.

I was a bit surprised by the definition of social change research in the lecture at first sight because I thought every research work is initiated to make a social change or solve a social problem. So when I read about the definition of social change research, I was like ok, this is new! The most surprising part of the definition to me is that the social change researcher must be “a part of it (the community)”. From there, I started trying to connect this definition to my own research.

When I began my research on the singlehood phenomenon, I was not a member of that community anymore. But I was still very interested in this phenomenon at the time I started my work. And I wanted to use my research to explore this issue and finally help people. Then, is my study qualified as social change research since I am not a part of that community anymore? Though, I do not really worry about finding out the answer to this question. What I care about is whether my research can make an impact on people’s lives in the real world in the end.

Last, I tend to believe that every serious researcher would expect their work to make a significant impact in the world someday. Let’s recall the definition of social change research, “Social change research comes in several different forms, but the general idea is that the researcher(s) are actively changing something in a social situation that they are a part of.” After all, if think of it in a broader way, we all belong to the same world community, and every valuable piece of research contributes to building a better world.

 

https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2177148/modules/items/33983579

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07
Apr 22

Why not aim high when you are looking for love?

“The matching phenomenon” caught my eye as I was reading this week’s material because my initial reaction was the opposite of the study’s results. According to the textbook, “The matching phenomenon, preferring a long-term partner who is similar to oneself in looks (and other qualities), reduces the chances of either rejection or dissatisfaction.” (Schneider et al., 2016). That is, to my understanding, people tend to act in a risk-averse way as they consider choosing their long-term partners. For example, in Van Straaten’s experiment, participants are more likely to date the confederates who are similar in attractiveness. (2016) I understand that, as study shows, this matching phenomenon is a human behavior tendency in dating. However, I wonder, why not aim high when searching for love? What are the costs and benefits of taking the risk of aiming for mates that are so called “out of your league”?

What are the costs of asking the most attractive girl in your class for a date? The worst outcome is that she rejects you, which is often the case when you aim for the best. Indeed, being rejected is not a pleasant experience, and you might feel embarrassed. But your real journey begins here. After getting rejected, you learn from the experience and seek to improve yourself. You try again, and you approach the most attractive girl in perhaps another class. You keep learning and practicing until one day, you have improved yourself enough that even the most attractive girl is no longer “out of your league”.It is actually a good thing to get rejected because, with the right mindset, you would end up gaining a lot through rejection.

Now, what are the benefits of taking the risk of asking her out? The most attractive girl in your class might say “Yes” to you. You feel great, and you two have a chance to see if it works out for the long term. But let’s say the relationship doesn’t work out, and you go back to square one and start dating again. You still aim for someone who is so called “out of your league”. You could get rejected or accepted. If rejected, you would experience the process I just mentioned in the previous paragraph, and you learn from it and improve yourself. Therefore, an early “yes” might not be as good as you think because it delays your learning process dating-wise. To sum up, you actually benefit less through an early “Yes”.

Here is the recap: what are the costs and benefits of taking the risk of aiming for the most attractive girl? The cost is you could get rejected but you could also gain a lot through the rejection, and the benefit is you get accepted but you miss a chance to gain through rejections. Thus, as rational people, we choose what brings us the most gain, which in this case is to choose people who are more likely to reject us. To put it more bluntly, you will more likely be rejected by the most attractive person than those who are more likely to accept you as a potential mate. If you keep aiming for the top, you will likely keep getting rejected. But you win in the long run by becoming a better person through these rejections! This “always aiming high” mindset works not only in searching for love but in every aspect of a person’s life. A high expectation is a powerful engine that could lead you to a future level that you may initially think is totally “out of your league.”

So, why not aim high?

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (3nd ed). Sage.

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02
Mar 22

How to get away with murder?

How to get away with murder?

Apparently, be under 14.

I watched the first two episodes of Juvenile Justice on Netflix earlier today, and it made me start thinking about the topic of punishment. This new crime drama tells stories taking place in South Korea’s juvenile criminal justice system. In the first two episodes, a 13 years old teen with schizophrenia was claimed to have killed, mutilated, and dismembered an 8 years old boy. According to a 2019 news article from Korea JoongAngDaily, the English edition of the South Korean national daily newspaper JoongAngIlbo, “Under Korea’s Juvenile Act, the maximum sentence that can be given to minors aged 14 to 18 is 15 years, while children aged 10 to 13 are considered ‘protection cases’ and are exempt from criminal punishment.” It is what the story in Juvenile Justice is supposed to be unfolding. But it turns out this is not the case. But I am not here to talk about the show.

According to B. F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning theory, people’s behavior is shaped through either rewards or punishment. That is, no matter if you are an adult or a kid, people are encouraged to do things when they get rewards by doing it and avoid behaviors that lead them to punishment. Thus, if a child under 14 kills and receives no punishment, does it mean that society and the law unintentionally encourage such behavior, theoretically? I don’t agree with giving no punishment for rule-breaking, anti-societal actions, especially for minors who are still in the early stages of life-long self-development. Every action should have consequences. Moreover, I very much agree with Cesare Beccaria, the father of modern criminal law and the father of criminal justice, that punishment should be “swift, certain and just”. (Bernard et al., 2016)

Without punishment, a minor could become a monster, especially a kid who comes from a privileged family, because they are much more likely to get away with it. Here is another true story that I heard from a podcast called “Something Was Wrong” (episode: (Molly) Unimaginable Rage), recalled from a kid’s nanny. As you can infer from the episode name, it is a story about rage. This kid named Alex came from a very wealthy American family. He could do whatever he wanted to do without any punishment. He kicked and hit his nanny, shouting to her “you are going to be fired! You have no idea what I am going to do!” He verbally and physically abused the nanny and sabotaged the room whenever he was in a rage. The only “punishment” Alex got was his mother taking him in their luxury car to a poor part of the city . “see how others live” which his mother hoped “could push him to rethink his bad behavior and how lucky he is in this family”. This was the most surreal and dramatic moment in the episode. I cannot imagine how this Alex kid would turn out. Based on his current behavior, it is very likely that sooner or later he will become a serious risk to people around him and the whole society unless he is deterred.

I truly believe that punishment is critical in shaping behaviors for people at any age, but it should not be idle. It should be, as mentioned, swift, certain, and just.

 

References:

Bernard, T.J., Snipes, J.B, & Gerould, A.L. (2016). Vold’s Theoretical Criminology. 7th Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199964154.

Girl held for murder, but by law punishment will be light. (n.d.). Retrieved 2 March 2022, from https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2019/12/31/socialAffairs/Girl-held-for-murder-but-by-law-punishment-will-be-light/3072082.html

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22
Feb 22

This type of leadership makes people leave

photo taken in Shanghai, China by Jianan Ye

 

“…information from the social environment (i.e., communication and friendship networks among coworkers) had a significant effect on individuals’ job satisfaction.”— (Schneider et al., 2016)

Before I moved to the U.S., I worked for an Italian suit company based in Shanghai, China, as a writer for their marketing team. In that corporation, I was part of a large team that consisted of a photographer, designers, other field staff, and my team leader. One of my regular assignments was to conduct GQ-style interviews with male guests who were considered successful businessmen in Shanghai who “knows how to choose and wear a suit”. In my role, I first needed to communicate with the interviewee on the phone to get to know him a bit and introduce to him the whole interview process. Then, we would meet in person along with our whole team. When the photographer and designers were taking care of the interviewee’s appearance, I conducted the interview. The interview article I wrote, with photos taken by other team members, would later be posted on the company’s several media platforms.

photo taken in Shanghai, China by Jianan Ye

I admit I loved that job. It was time flexible, well-paid, and I was able to meet many interesting people and hearing their stories. I fulfilled every task I was assigned to on time and customers were happy with my work. However, my job satisfaction at the time was undoubtedly low. It was not the job that bothered me but the team leader.

Our team leader liked to act like a boss, and to flaunt her authority to a quite extreme level. One day, it was at the company’s dinner party, I was completely stunned by her behavior. “Who da hell do you think you are? You do what I told you to do! Got it?” It was loud and rude. She just humiliated one of our colleagues in front of 50 guests. I saw that young, humiliated colleague’s face turned pale. Everyone in the room, including the guests, were looking at her, trying to comprehend what just happened. I was also confused by this type of management or even social interaction. From that moment, I knew that she was not the person that I would want to follow. Eventually, I learned that while she had an excellent public relations background, she was very actually insecure about her limited fashion knowledge, and therefore acted in a way to instill fear in her subordinates in order to appear in charge.

photo taken in Shanghai, China by Jianan Ye

This week, as I learned the term “team cohesion” from the textbook, this old memory came back. Since that incident at the party, the team dynamic changed dramatically. If “team cohesion” existed before the incident, it was gone after that party. It reflects what was depicted in the textbook that “…autocratic leadership (i.e., the coach as leader makes all decisions and refrains from delegating any power) is associated with lower levels of task cohesion.” (Schneider et al., 2016) My old team leader certainly fits into this category of autocratic leadership, and as you can see, it kills the cohesion within the team. As a result, everyone at the team eventually left, and I was the first.

“Hey, dear, my new job is fantastic! I really should have left earlier!” The young photographer, the one who was humiliated by the leader at the party, called me before I left for the U.S., sounding happy.

 

Reference:

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (3nd ed). Sage.

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06
Oct 21

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work… right?

When I was a high school freshman, my high school’s band program was known as one of the best programs in the city, if not the state. Not only did it perform incredibly well in state competitions, but it was also a great experience being a part of the band. Students from different sections got along great with one another, and for many of us, our sections felt like family. However, in the years that followed, I noticed that the band felt less cohesive than when I first joined. Students still viewed their own sections as a kind of “family”, but there were fewer interactions between different sections. Also, our performance at competitions slipped downwards, eventually to the point where we usually got eliminated out of finals. What happened? Some of these changes may have resulted from outside factors, like changes in the band directors and students. Nevertheless, a part of me wondered whether the drop in the band’s cohesion caused the drop in the performance. Would we have done better if the band was more unified?

The concept that a team’s cohesion affects their performance would seem to make sense logically. When cohesion is high, team members get along better with one another and are on the same page regarding their shared objectives. This line of reasoning would be consistent with research on sports teams discussed by Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts (2017), which show that cohesion strongly relates to individual performance, individual efforts, and team performance (pg. 137). Team members are more likely to exert more effort when the team gets along well, and they can coordinate well with one another when they are all on the same page. It is tempting to interpret these findings to mean that group cohesion greatly improves how well they get a task done. As they say, teamwork makes the dream work… right?

Unfortunately, improving team performance may not be as simple as getting people to get along. It is important to remember that correlations do not necessarily indicate that causation goes one way or the other. Although it may seem to make more sense for group cohesion to cause performance, it is possible that performance also causes group cohesion. Evidence for this possibility comes from Grieve, Whelan, & Meyers (2000), who found that cohesion has far less impact on performance than performance has on cohesion. A shared victory can be a great experience for people to bond over, while a defeat can leave people feeling bitter and distancing themselves from the team. Further research discussed by Gruman et al. (2017) regarding the cohesion-performance relationship found that cohesion can predict performance just as well as performance can predict cohesion. Regardless of which one causes the other more, the research shows that the relationship between team cohesion and team performance can go both ways, with both of them influencing each other.

So was it the drop in cohesion that doomed my band’s performances? While research shows a strong link between a team’s cohesion and performance, it also suggests the causality is bidirectional. My band’s performance may have suffered from a decrease in cohesion, but that drop in performance may have also caused cohesion to suffer as well. Thinking back, this would make sense, as I recall some of my band friends emotionally distancing themselves from the band program after we failed to make finals. The process may have repeated multiple times over my high school years, with decreased band cohesion leading to worse performances, and failures at state competitions leading to the band further falling apart. Perhaps my band would not have drifted apart as much if we had done well at performances. The band may have bonded better after a successful performance, which could boost future performances as well. It is true, on some level, that teamwork makes the dream work. However, based on the research, I would also argue that when the dream works, the team works.

 

References

Grieve, F. G., Whelan, J. P., & Meyers, A. W. (2000). An Experimental Examination of the Cohesion-Performance Relationship in an Interactive Team Sport. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 12(2), 219-235. doi:10.1080/10413200008404224

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: SAGE.

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30
Sep 21

Gender Differences

Gender Differences

Gender differences have been a major issue in the society that we live in. People immediately give off stereotypes stating what a person can and cannot do. Gender differences can be seen whether they are stated verbally or non-verbal. Stereotypes lead to assumptions and norms about what activities, sports, and dress codes are considered masculine or feminine. Gender differences play a huge role since childhood and continue to expand as a person gets older. Biological and social factors affect the result of gender differences. A child’s gender influences the outcome of education, social life, and the judgment against them.

Gender differences is a way that we stereotype ourselves and keep ourselves in groups. There are different categories in which we separate for males and females. The activities, dress code, and sports are ways that we stereotype ourselves. For example, when we think of ice hockey, we think of males playing the game instead of females. While thinking about cheerleading, we think of majority females. Gender refers to “social or learned characteristics that are associated with being male or female” (Gruman 393). The way that we act in the social world is the way that we are being characterized. There are social norms that state things to be masculine and other things being feminine.

Even in early childhood, kids separate themselves based on being a male or female. Children separate themselves in activities, classrooms, and playgrounds. If you were to see a boy in a line of girls, then other kids would make fun of him for not being with them. When I was a child, I could relate to gender differences because I would only accept things that are pink and considered girly. I loved to have my hair done, nail polish, and dressing up as a princess. I used to also stay in areas around other girls and play with activities that are not as masculine. When playing a game or activity, do you normally pick others in the same gender or the opposite sex? Not only do our physical actions affect our gender differences, but also our verbal actions. The way that we express our feelings and emotions are different and might be expressed as being emotional for women. According to the textbook, “when a male child cries, people will often explain the behavior by saying that he is angry, whereas when a female child cies, they will often describe her as frightened” (Gruman 394). The way that we express our emotions as perceived differently in males and females. Men are considered to being angry and weak if they cry, while females are considered to be frightened and emotional.

Gender differences are the result of biological and social factors that influence a child’s response. Depending on the biological and social factors that a child grew up in, their responses might differ. If you were to tell a boy, what job do you want to work as you grow older, his answers might be like police officer, fireman, or athletics coach. They would consider jobs that are considered more masculine. On the other hand, if a girl is asked, she would say something like a teacher, model, doctor, or artist. Girls tend to choose careers that are feminine and less masculine. Not only do our choices affect the way that we choose things but also our biological and social factors. Some children might choose to be police officers because the social environment they live in might not be too safe.

In conclusion, the way that we are raised as children is the way that create gender differences and will be the same for future generation. In the society that we live in, gender differences have had a huge impact in our lives. Gender differences cause stereotypes in which we preserve ourselves and consider what and what not to do. Separating ourselves based on gender even developed since childhood and continues to expand as we grow. Gender differences expand to create stereotypes that create social norms since childhood. There are biological and social factors that influence gender differences. Does gender play a role in the way that you interact and communicate with others?

References:

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

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28
Sep 21

Less Competition, More Cooperation for Intergroup Relations

Growing up in the United States, I’ve been exposed to a culture that emphasizes competition. Whether it was in sports, video games, academics, or even band, we are often pressured in some way to be better than everyone else. In my first years of college, I became fascinated with cooperative video and board games. I loved the idea of having everyone work together and, if all goes well, share the feeling of victory. As I learned to play more cooperative games, I began to wonder whether we could use more cooperation in American society. After all, is having a culture so focused on competition good for the relationships between people and groups? The Robber’s Cave experiment by Sherif (1988) seems to suggest otherwise, showing that intergroup relationships suffer in competition but build up in cooperation.

The Robber’s Cave experiment, as summarized by Gaertner et al. (2000), investigated the effects of cooperation and competition on two groups of boys. When the randomly assigned groups engaged in competitive activities against each other, the relationship between their groups became very adversarial. This outcome led to the realistic group conflict theory, which stated that the hostility between the groups resulted from real competition and conflicting goals (Gruman et al., 1988, pg. 407). When groups view each other as obstacles or even enemies in accomplishing a goal, intergroup tensions may increase dramatically and lead to intergroup conflict. It is not difficult to think of social groups in the United States, such as those of political beliefs, that constantly compete and conflict with one another on a national level. Could a national culture of competition be facilitating and possibly even worsening these kinds of intergroup conflicts?

At the same time, the Robber’s Cave experiment also shed light on how to reduce intergroup conflicts: cooperation. When the two groups were instructed to complete tasks that could only be completed through cooperation, intergroup relations improved and both groups had more positive views of one another. One possible reason for this outcome, as discussed by Gaertner et al. (2000), is that the two groups began to view themselves less as two separate groups and more as one larger one. Cooperation helped take down the barriers that previously separated the groups. Members of both groups could now see each other as equals sharing in a common struggle, resulting in positive intergroup bonds. Cooperation between groups of people can create opportunities for them to set aside their differences and build strong intergroup bonds with one another.

There is a lot of emphasis on competition in the United States, with the idea that you should do whatever it takes to get ahead of the others. However, based on previous research on how competition and cooperation affect intergroup relationships, I would argue that society needs less competition and more cooperation. By looking for ways to cooperate rather than compete, we may be able to reduce the hostilities that exist between many groups here today. We may also foster harmonious relationships with one another, opening ourselves to new perspectives and accomplishing greater goals together.

 

References

Gaertner, S. L., Dovidio, J. F., Banker, B. S., Houlette, M., Johnson, K. M., & McGlynn, E. A. (2000). Reducing intergroup conflict: From superordinate goals to decategorization, recategorization, and mutual differentiation. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 4(1), 98-114. http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1037/1089-2699.4.1.98

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Sherif, M. (1988). The Robbers Cave experiment: Intergroup conflict and cooperation. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

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23
Sep 21

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Have you been in a situation where you experienced an unpleasant event that left you traumatized for the rest of your life? Well, that is considered post-traumatic stress disorder in which an unpleasant event or incident happened that might cause life threatening injuries to a person. Although some are not life-long, many might be for a while and cause a person to fear his life. Symptoms, like nightmares, irritation, anxiety, depression and many more, should be shown before giving a person this diagnosis. An example of PTSD is riding a roller coaster in which I give an example explaining it more in depth below. Some treatments that would help with PTSD are cognitive processing theory and medications. PTSD is a psychological disorder that relates to other mental health disorders that we discussed in class like anxiety and depression.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder in which an incident or event happened that caused a person to constantly stay afraid or traumatized afterwards. Some reasons that a person might experience post-traumatic stress disorder is either experiencing an unpleasant event or going through something. For example, if someone has a fear of roller coasters and rides it one time or even sees on the news that a roller coaster stops midair for hours this would cause a person’s anxiety levels to increase causing a person to develop PTSD. It would also cause a person to fear riding a rollercoaster ever again. Not only does it cause a person to stress about it, but it might cause a person to have other symptoms. Other symptoms are like not being able to sleep, causing mental health problems, hyper vigilance, depression, nightmares and many more.

This might even cause a person to stress about it while only thinking and talking about remembering the bad experience. Some might experience it for a long time while others might only experience it for a short period of time. There are treatments that a person can go through which would help them with solving the problem. An example is cognitive processing theory in which the process changes the way that a person might think by changing their attitude resulting in a change in their feelings. Another treatment is medications in which stress relievers are given to a person to help calm down their nerves. As well as exposure therapy is a beneficial treatment because it helps with “Repeated confrontation of traumatic memories, often through detailed recounting of the traumatic experience” (3 Jonathan). These are only a few treatments for PTSD. Connecting it to the example of a roller coaster, PTSD is considered as a rollercoaster because of the ups and downs that it causes a person to go through. Consider yourself a psychologist or even a student pursuing psychology, how would you approach a person with PTSD? 

Post-traumatic stress disorder connects to the textbook reading in which it connects to different psychological disorders like anxiety and depression. PTSD is a form of anxiety in which as the levels of PTSD increases, more anxiety is caused. PTSD is considered a psychological disorder and to find treatments for these disorders, “social psychologists who work in this area study factors that might bias the process of identifying the nature of a client’s difficulty. They also study the impact on the client’s welfare of giving a diagnostic label to a client” (Gruman 99). Many disorders can be treated after researchers’ work with patients and finding the reason behind the diagnosis. An issue that is present in most physiological disorders is the labeling effect in which a person’s identity might be influenced by words that describe a person. There are other issues in psychological disorders which are present in the textbook like stereotypes, anchoring, and the confirmation bias (Gruman 124). Even though there are issues related to PTSD, it can be treated through different formats. 

Experiencing a traumatic incident or event that might cause a person to injure themselves is considered as post-traumatic stress disorder. There are many symptoms in which a person goes through to consider themselves having PTSD like constant fear, anxiety, lack of sleep, mental health problems, and many more. After diagnosing someone with PTSD, there are some treatments in which a person can go through to help with their mental disorder like cognitive processing, medications, and exposure therapy. Post-traumatic stress disorder connects to other psychological disorders discussed in the textbook like anxiety and depression. Even though there are treatments for PTSD, I think there should be more treatments and solutions to post-traumatic stress disorder. One question to keep you thinking is, how would you approach a person with PTSD?

Here is a link to another example of PTSD if you are interested.

https://youtu.be/YMC2jt_QVEE 

References:

Bisson, J. (2007, April 12). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.bmj.com/content/334/7597/789

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

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01
May 21

The Environment – An Inconvenient Truth

We are all aware of 2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth” – a documentary that brought the concept of global warming (or climate change) to the main stage. Reading through this lesson caused me to think more about global warming and global warming information that gets released. Intuitively, I would take a guess that most people took the issue more seriously after watching that documentary. It stated a lot of facts from scientific research which is very compelling and even skeptics could not ignore it. Former VP Al Gore became the catalyst to launch the issue of global warming into people’s minds as well as politics.

I did a little bit of research into this to see how effectively “An Inconvenient Truth” slipped into America’s psyche. I found a research paper called “An inconvenient truth? Can a film affect psychological mood and our explicit attitudes towards climate change?” By Geoffrey Beattie, Laura Sale, and Laura Mcguire that sought to find an answer to my question.

To do this study, first they played “highly informative (and emotional)” clips from the film to sets of participants and their “social attitudes/social cognitions” were measured on five scales. The scales were: “(message acceptance/motivation to do something about climate change/empowerment/shifting responsibility for climate change/fatalism)” (Beattie, 2011). Their study found that the clips definitely effected emotion and left participants feeling “motivated to do something about climate change” (Beatie, 2011).

I think the key factor is that people need to have a raw emotion about climate change. Someone can be explained the empirical facts of the matter, but one is likely to acknowledge the danger but at the same time not feel highly motivated. I think this is true of anything – motivation is very strong when there is an emotional target on the line.

The researchers actually observed this result as well, stating that emotions are “critical in this context” because feelings “often arise prior to cognition and play a crucial role in subsequent rational thought” (Beattie, 2011). It’s hard to have an emotional response about global warming because the damage takes place very slowly over a long period of time, so we don’t have that one instant spark of emotion since the problem is so big and we have plenty of time to find a solution. This is the challenge that the film was trying to solve, and for the most part it did a great job.

 

Resources

Beattie, Geoffrey & Sale, Laura & Mcguire, Laura. (2011). An inconvenient truth? Can a film really affect psychological mood and our explicit attitudes towards climate change?. Semiotica. 2011. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270480063_An_inconvenient_truth_Can_a_film_really_affect_psychological_mood_and_our_explicit_attitudes_towards_climate_change

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30
Apr 21

Health and Clinical – Social Isolation

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us a lot about social isolation and what happens when people are quarantined for an extended period of time. From my own experience and talking with friends, it seems everyone is stressed out and overworked. I found some research on the effects of social isolation and stress. In “Making ‘Good’ Choices: Social Isolation in Mice exacerbates the Effects of Chronic Stress on Decision Making,” researchers Arish Rakshasa and Michelle Tong hypothesized that social isolation amplifies stress.

I found this experiment particularly interesting and thought-provoking. To summarize, the researchers split up the mice into two groups – one socially housed, one isolated. Then, both groups of mice were subjected to induced stress by undergoing a “seven-day period of repeated immobilization” (Rakshasa, 2020). The purpose of this is to induce stress equally both groups, and see which group is more affected. Stress was measured in two ways: an open field test and measurement of stress hormones. The open field test is a measure of “anxiety-like behavior that is sensitive to stress,” since mice will tend to stay closer to walls when stressed (Rakshasa, 2020).

They were able to conclude that the housing situation had a significant impact on the measured stress levels. Not surprisingly, the mice that were socially isolated were much more sensitive to the induced stress. This lines up with my experiences and conversations with people. I know some people more prone to stress or depressive behavior, and they seem to be the ones who struggled the most while quarantined. On the other hand, some people are actually making the best of it and liking the situation. They are able to work from home and pursue their hobbies or projects without social obligations or responsibilities. Based on people I talked to, the second group is mostly introverted people.

I found this study to be interesting, especially in the time of the pandemic. People are more socially isolated than normal, so it is interesting to see the effects of this isolation when combined with stress. If I were to design an experiment to do something similar with humans, I would first have all of my participants fill out a questionnaire or take a personality test. This would add another dimension of data to the final results because we would have another layer of data to incorporate. This would be much more complicated mathematically, but I would be curious to see how different personality types respond to being socially isolated.

Mudra Rakshasa, A., & Tong, M. T. (2020). Making “good” choices: Social isolation in mice exacerbates the effects of chronic stress on decision making. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 14, 10. http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00081

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29
Apr 21

Social Change – Astroturfing

As we learned, social change research refers to when the researchers are taking active part in changing something in their social situation. One form of this which has a huge impact on our society and politics is activist research. This is a form of research where the researcher is more than just vested in the outcome, they are in fact pushing an agenda. One famous example of this is the advertising campaign the dairy companies ran for milk. Slogans such as “got milk?” and “milk – it does a body good” were based on dairy industry research sponsored by major dairy companies. This could be applied to politics as well in the form of “astroturfing.”

In “Online Astroturfing: A Theoretical Perspective,” Jerry Zhang and his peers define astroturfing as follows: “online astroturfing refers to the coordinated campaigns where messages supporting a specific agenda are distributed via the internet.” The important part is that astroturfing uses deception “to create the appearance of being generated by an independent entity. Basically it is large corporations pushing agendas from what appears to be a grassroots movement. One example of this would be a politician’s communication team making fake Twitter or Facebook accounts that push their political agenda.

I’m not sure if many people know about this practice, but I am just learning about it now from doing my own research. From a psychology standpoint, I think that people’s beliefs can be sttrengthened if they see there are many others who have the same opinion. So we can immediately see the danger of such a practice. It is effectively manipulating the psyche of people to subconsciously manipulate them. I think in the realm of politics, there is a lot of this behavior going on. In the last few elections, everyone saw the power of online chatter and the shift in the public to seek out their own information in addition to consuming news media.

Another form of astroturfing can be done through TV commercials. The commercials will make an organization started by regular people in order to solve a problem or take down a corporation. One example of this is “Americans Against Food Taxes,” which is a front group of the food and beverage industry. After watching the commercial on YouTube, I can immediately see how this also plays into the viewer’s psyche. The commercial predicts a mom unpacking groceries from an SUV – something very “folksy” that is intended to make the viewer thing “she is just like me, so I should have the opinion she wants me to have.” As Zhang states, “the perfect online astroturfing campaign relies on both skillful deceivers and vulnerable receivers” (Zhang, 2013).

I found all of this very interesting, but at the same time it can be dangerous. One disturbing outcome is that “once an astroturfing campaign gains traction, the fraudulent information will likely be redistributed by the manipulated users and become indistinguishable from other user-generated content” (Zhang, 2013). I hope that more people find out about this practice and make sure to have an open mind and do thorough research if anyone is trying hard to convince you of something.

Resources

Applied Social Psychology – Lesson 13 Module (PSYCH 424). Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2110187/modules/items/30953786

Zhang, J. & Carpenter, Darrell & Ko, M.. (2013). Online astroturfing: A theoretical perspective. 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2013 – Hyperconnected World: Anything, Anywhere, Anytime. 4. 2559-2565. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286729041_Online_astroturfing_A_theoretical_perspective

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29
Apr 21

Legal System/Criminal Justice – False Interrogations

I find the psychology behind interrogations and investigations very interesting. I’ve seen many true crime documentaries and they often have video footage of interrogations. I was blown away by how many psychological techniques the detectives use with so much skill. The subtle remarks, body language, and other methods to gain the trust of the potential criminal and make him or her feel understood. A lot of good comes out of this, but there are also some cases where false confessions occur.

This is counterintuitive and confusing – why would someone under any circumstance confess to a crime they are innocent of? I would think the accused would be able to prove an alibi or at least just hire a lawyer and be patient. Professor Saul Kassin’s “The Social Psychology of False Confessions” seeks to explain this question.

One technique he refers to is “minimization.” This is where the interrogator minimizes the magnitude of the crime by blaming the victim, sometimes offering some justification for the crime. The result of this is the accused person feels it is implied that their confession would be met with some leniency (Kassin, 2015). By convincing the accused that it was actually the victim’s fault, they feel more like they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or had some bad luck, instead of feeling like they had full responsibility (and therefore would receive full punishment).

In one particular study, minimizations increased the rate of false confessions from 6% to 18%. While this is obviously desirable, this technique also increased the rate of true confessions from 46% – 81%, which is definitely a good result! This makes the detective’s job much more tricky and require that much more skill.

Kassin also mentions that innocence itself could be a factor in producing a false confession. Research shows that innocent people do not think about “self-presentation” and offer up alibis freely, without considering that the slightest inaccuracies will be seen as suspicious by the detectives. They are also less likely to accept a plea deal and go to trial, because of their belief in the system (Kassin, 2015).

Kassin, Saul. (2015). The Social Psychology of False Confessions. Social Issues and Policy Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2015, pp. 25–51

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07
Mar 21

Juror Prejudice During Trial

On August 12, 2011, my life had changed forever. I awoke that morning to my mother calling me on the phone for our normal morning conversation over coffee. After some small talk was out of the way, she asked me if I had heard about the shooting that occurred in our town the previous night. She said that the shooter was my age. Suddenly, my heart dropped, and I instantly knew that something was wrong. I was not sure what yet, but my intuition was telling me that something was not right. I quickly got off the phone with my mother and took to the internet to try to find information about the shooting. No names had been released yet, but the address of the shooting was released. The address was that of one of my best and oldest friends. He lived at the address posted on the internet with his pregnant girlfriend. My jaw dropped. The news had reported that, the night prior, he had shot his girlfriend in the head with a new handgun that he had purchased that day. In disbelief, I tried to call his cell phone. He did not answer. I then called those who belonged to our close friend group to inform them of the news. We agreed to spend time together that night to try to make sense of what was happening. One of those friends was named godfather to their baby. The night came, and there were many tears shed and drinks finished.

The next morning, I received a phone call from a law firm based out of Brooklyn, NYC. It was my best friend’s lawyers. They had found my name on a police discovery and needed to speak with me about my relationship with the defendant. I met with them, and they decided that they wanted to use me and the proclaimed godfather of the child as a character witness during the trial. I showed up to the trial on the dates that I was subpoenaed to attend, but they did not want to use us for this portion of the trial. During his trial, there were a few issues that the prosecution ran into. For example, the prosecution called in a weapons expert to prove that the argument of the defense (the gun misfired while he was cleaning it) was not valid. While the weapons expert was handling the gun and explaining how it was impossible for that type of gun to misfire, the gun used by the defendant misfired inside of the courtroom. This was only one example of many of the complications during the trial for the prosecution. Never-the-less, the first verdict was read: the jury found him guilty of murder. Even with all the mishaps that gave evidence that my friend may have been telling the truth, the jury still found him guilty of 1st and 3rd degree murder. The next step was to figure out if he was to be tried for the death penalty or life imprisonment. But what made those jurors come to their verdict, even with evidence supporting the defendant’s story?

Looking at this scenario from an applied social psychologist’s standpoint, I would like to focus on juror prejudice. There are four different forms of juror prejudice: specific, normative, interest, and generic (Gruman, 2016). While I cannot comment on any interest or generic prejudice because I was not permitted to speak with anyone on the jury, I do believe that there was specific and normative prejudice when dealing with this trial. Specific prejudice occurs when a juror is unable to be objective because of principles or feelings that affect their decision making (Gruman, 2016). Because the trial was for the murder of a pregnant woman, a juror may have looked at that fact and already decided that he was guilty so that the woman and child can get justice for their death. Normative prejudice happens when the juror wants to appease the opinion of the public, so they do not take all evidence into account during the trial that could go against public opinion (Gruman, 2016). Like my example given earlier, it is hard to believe that the gun misfiring in front of the jury during the trial did not provide any doubt to any of the jurors. This could be in part because of how the public views violence against women and children.

I did eventually participate in the trial as a character witness in 2013, two years after the shooting. Testifying in that trial was one of the most difficult experiences that I ever had to and have had to do since. His lawyers attempted to move the trial to a different location because of the local media frenzy surrounding the case, but that motion was denied. He was not sentenced to the death penalty, but to life imprisonment for 1st and 3rd degree murder. While big-named local newspapers wrote about the trial in a seemingly biased manner, grassroots publications also wrote about the trial. They shared the same doubt that I did, and they did not have any bias towards the situation. I’ll always remember the last words of their last article about the trial, “We may never know if *name withdrawn* murdered *name withdrawn* and their unborn child. I am not sure if we ever will, but anyone can see that there is uncertainty surrounding this trial and how it was conducted. I hope that whoever deserves justice receives that justice one day.” He was recently denied for another appeal in 2020. It still breaks my heart to read their names.

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. ProQuest Ebook Central. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com. Accessed on 3/7/2021.

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01
Mar 21

Abuse of Power Within the Workplace

In my first blog entry, I discussed security aspects of my first job. For this blog entry, I will be revisiting that job, but for another reason. When I was first hired, I was 16 years old. The manager that hired me for the position was a wonderful boss. Although she let everyone know that she was the woman in charge, she would still ask for input on how to better run our store and would implement changes as a team. She was a spitfire 65-year-old woman who loved her job and loved her employees. She would go above and beyond for all her employees in both their professional and personal lives. We all considered her our “surrogate grandmother”, and we worked very hard for her. Our store had received awards for customer service, speed of service and cleanliness every year that I worked underneath her. The main branch that we all worked under put our store as the store that all others should strive to be. We were the spotlight store on center stage. After 9 years of working for her, everything changed in an instant.

One day, I received a call from my store. When I picked up the phone, I was told that our manager had suddenly passed away. This was a devastating blow to all of us. Corporate had workers from other stores come and relieve us of our positions so that we could attend her funeral. After grieving the loss of our fearless leader, we wondered what that meant for us. She was the backbone of our store, so we were hoping that the next manager to come through would follow in her footsteps so that we could maintain our status and make her proud. Unfortunately, that was not at all what had happened.

The new manager that they sent to our store, I will call her “Trista”, was new to her management position (she had been working for the company for three years at that point). She held a meeting so that we could all meet her, and during that meeting, we quickly learned that her managing style was completely different from what we previously had. Trista let us know that she was the boss and any input from other employees who were not part of her management staff was not going to be considered or taken seriously. She was more of a tyrant than a boss, but we decided to give her a chance to see what we could do as a team. Being that I was one of four veteran employees and the most senior employee on my shift, I was looked to for guidance by novice employees. Because I was looked up to by the employees, Trista put a target on my back. From the moment that she realized that she could not intimidate me or force me to make decisions that were bad for the other employees, she treated me terribly. Instead of using me as a tool to bridge the gap between herself and the employees, she saw me as a threat to her managerial power. At one point, she even tried to set me up to admit to theft (which did not work because I was not stealing anything). That is only one instance of the many, many times she had tried to get me fired. Work life became unbearable for so many of us, and the turnover rate began to increase significantly.

Trista was the posterchild for the quote “power tends to corrupt” (Cislak et al., 2018). Studies have shown that power can negatively influence the ability to have meaningful relationships, decrease inclination to take other’s input, and can reduce empathy for others (Cislak et al., 2018). Because Trista was more concerned with having control over others and not personal control, the store began to fall apart (Cislak et al.,2018). If she were to utilize personal control, then both she and the store could have benefitted from the relationship (Cislak et al, 2018). Trista believed that she was powerful because of who she was as a person and not because the position that she was given gave her the illusion of power, therefore exercising the fundamental attribution error (Cislak et al., 2018). In the time that I had worked with her, she exhibited many signs of abuse of power. She was narcissistic, overoptimistic in her abilities, and harmful to the morale of employees. Because of her behavior, her supervisor staff (those under her, but above my position) began speaking to me about how we can stop her. When I brought her behavior to the attention of those above her, I was told that I was the problem and that I basically needed to shut my mouth and deal with her abuse. They were more concerned with protecting the system of power than helping abused employees. This led to me being treated badly by her boss as well. The store began to fail health inspections, receive bad reviews online, and customers began to stop coming to the store.

Eventually, I was able to transfer to a different store with the help of another store manager who was aware of my situation. After I had left and the buffer between Trista and the employees was gone, the employees revolted against her. Every single employee called into the employee hotline number multiple times a week. This caused the issues to gradually go further up the corporate ladder until someone from Human Resources paid the store a visit and personally interviewed employees, myself included (even though I was no longer there). In the end, Trista was relieved of her position within the company and was told that she should seek employment elsewhere. There are still one or two employees at the store with whom I had previously worked with. They still talk about me and what I had done for them by calling me their “founding father”. It is important that, if someone is corrupt with power, they are called out for their behavior and the situation is remedied. If anyone had listened to us in the first place, the decline of the store, loss of employees, and the loss of her position could have been easily avoided.

The last time I heard of Trista, she was being interviewed at a pet store by a former employee of hers. She did not get the job.

References

Cislak, A., Cichocka, A., Wojcik, A. D., & Frankowska, N. (2018). Power Corrupts, but Control Does Not: What Stands Behind the Effects of Holding High Positions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(6), 944–957. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218757456

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24
Feb 21

Social Identity Theory and the LGBTQ+ Community

In April of 2015, I had just moved into a new apartment in a small town in rural Pennsylvania close to my job with my new girlfriend (we will call her “Brittany” for confidentiality purposes). Although I had been dating girls for years, I was in the closet until I came out to my Roman Catholic parents with Brittany. While they were not too pleased in the beginning, they eventually warmed up to the idea of me dating women and even invited Brittany to Christmas with the family. We met some friends in our new town and quickly found the spot to go to that welcomes those who live an “alternative lifestyle”. This was the safe place to go for any queer individuals in that town. This place was for “the girls, the gays, and the theys”. The patrons of this bar introduced us to all the LGBTQ+ in the area and explained to us that we stick together because of hatred in small town America. Although I am from a larger city, I still understood hostility towards members of the LGBTQ+, I had just never experienced it myself to a threatening degree. About three months later, my words caught up with me.

One night, as I was walking home from the bar, I noticed that there was a piece of paper on the windshield of my car. I lifted my windshield wiper, grabbed the paper, and read the words (excuse the profanity) “You and your sinner of a girlfriend get the f*ck out of my town, you f*cking d*ke b*tch.” On the reverse side of the paper was a multitude of bible verses that I assume they would want me to look up to inform me about how I will go to hell for being a homosexual. I never did look up those verses. I did, however, check the rest of my car to see if there was anything else on it that I should be aware of. Turns out, they also decided to put razor blades in the handles of my car so that I could cut my hands when I went to open my car door. I ran into my apartment to make sure that Brittany was okay, which she was fast asleep and just fine. I then sent out a mass text to the group from the bar. They immediately were extremely supportive and were so concerned for my safety and my sanity. They all raced over to my apartment to check the perimeter and to make sure no one was lurking around the property. How my social group reacted towards me during my situation made me feel so good about the group that I belong to. They were people who had firsthand experience with hate from heteronormative people in the town.

When thinking about my group, I can apply my experiences with the social identity theory. My social identity, which is how I characterize myself within a group that I belong to, is being a part of the LGBTQ+ community (Gruman, 2016). While I cannot speak for the individuals who threatened me and vandalized my car (because I never found out who they were), I would assume that they belong to a heteronormative Christian Right group. Basing my conclusions off historical context, I would imagine that they created a negative social identity pertaining to me and my girlfriend because they feel as though the LGBTQ+ community is full of “sinners” and “sexual deviants” while placing their own community on a pedestal (Gruman, 2016). This comparison of the two groups has been documented for centuries, so it is not outside of the realm of imagination to assume so. They feel as though their “Christian moral high ground” means that they must have conflict with any group that does not necessarily share the same morals and ideas that they have (Gruman, 2016). However, I feel good about the group that I belong in (yet another trait of the social identity theory), and they did not abandon me when I was in possible danger (Gruman, 2016). My experience with the hate that I received has caused me to view individuals like those who spread hatred to my community with hostility. I wish that the conflict did not have to exist, but one can always dream.

While I never did find out who came to my car that night, it never happened again. Six years later, there were never anymore razor blades or notes for me to find. Luckily for me, theirs was an empty threat. I cannot say the same for others in the LGBTQ+ community. The sooner that those who oppose the community realize that we just want to love who we love and not be bothered, the better. While I do not base my friendships off if someone is a Christian or not, I do keep my eyes open whenever I am around a large group of Christians and feel someone unsafe in their presence. I hope to one day not feel as though I must look over my shoulder to secure mine and my girlfriend’s safety out in public spaces. No matter where I end up in my life, I will always remember those who had my back; my LGBTQ+ community. My social identity.

References

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. ProQuest Ebook Central. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com. Accessed on 2/24/2021.

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06
Feb 20

Poorly Constructed Buildings

The construction of safe and well-made homes is not just a social concern, but an environmental one as well. Building structures (such as improperly sealed air gaps, inefficient material choices, etc.) account for much of the inefficiency of buildings. This inefficiency is through the building’s use (primarily heat production) which accounts for much of its environmental impact (American Chemical Society, 2015). With this in mind, we discover that what was deconstructed in order to construct these buildings is less of a concern compared to how efficiently they run when in use.Using this knowledge we can shift our concerns to constructing more efficient buildings, and improve our techniques for doing so.

According to Ryan McNeill, the president of a solar energy company, the use of more efficient methods when constructing buildings begins with five steps: “sustainable site design..water quality and conservation..energy and environment..indoor environmental quality..materials and resources” (McNeill, n.d.). Using these tenets of construction we are able to address where current buildings potentially fail to provide an adequately efficient environment. Although the usage of already constructed buildings can be more efficient than constructing a new one, buildings that are already scheduled to be built can benefit from this kind of information. When faced with resource dilemmas related to household utilities, there can be difficulties on both sides of the issue, since citizens as well as legislators can be difficult to influence. For the purposes of influencing building construction, citizens may occasionally build new buildings, however the method of influencing legislation and regulations seems to be a more effective method of intervention as contractors often build many more houses than the average citizen.

The creation of legislation or regulations to be followed regarding the construction of new buildings and regular inspection of current buildings can have a large influence on the environmental efficiency of a community, as shown in small office and residential buildings in Switzerland. With these regulations in place, environmentalists’ largest concerns are often energy consumption. The use of water and other environmental resources also have an impact, however the use of various energy sources and efficiency levels are often the largest determinants of environmental impact (American Chemical Society, 2015). With a model society in mind, Switzerland in this instance, the creation of larger scale implementations are able to advance.By performing greater research on these issues in various countries we will be able to more accurately determine which pieces of legislature are most effective at solving different resource dilemmas regarding energy use.

Picture Sourced from Efficiency Vermont: https://www.efficiencyvermont.com/

Some notable influences on energy efficiency within homes can include rooftop structures, improved insulation, enhanced ventilation, building materials, motion sensing lights, building orientation, smart heating and cooling systems, and efficient lighting (National Geographic, 2017). The promotion of these factors within both current and in construction buildings can help decrease environmental impact. Aside from changing legislation, social promotion efforts can help influence current buildings to practice more energy efficient practices. Through our class readings, we discovered that influencing individuals to practice certain behaviors can result in negative practices. This was shown through a study in which individuals who were negatively judged for not recycling were then likely to recycle even less (Gruman et al, 2017). With this in mind, any interventions we seek to perform should be carefully evaluated for their effects.

Using the knowledge we have gained about the environmental impact of our homes, there are many paths to follow in regards to decreasing our environmental impact. Individually we can become more aware of our energy usage within our homes, possibly adopting some of the energy efficiency recommendations by National Geographic. On a larger scale, the promotion of energy efficient legislation as well as political leaders who will promote such causes can be one of our greatest tools for enacting change. By holding these individuals responsible, we can create communities that are built with quality in mind over frugality. Noticing it as a hotspot for energy usage, the adoption of more energy efficient building construction techniques could be one of the largest impacts we could have on climate change, and is an issue that should be attended to more often.

 

Resources

American Chemical Society. (2015). Environmental Impact of Buildings: What Matters. Retrieved from https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/acs.est.5b01735
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-1-4833-6973-0
National Geographic. (2017). Green Buildings Could Save Our Cities. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/urban-expeditions/green-buildings/benefits-of-green-buildings-human-health-economics-environment/
Ryan McNeill. (n.d.). Green Buildings vs. Non-Green Buildings. Retrieved from https://www.buildings.com/buzz/buildings-buzz/entryid/442/green-buildings-vs-non-green-buildings
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03
Feb 19

Life isn’t plastic, we need to get enthusiastic

 

Since its introduction in the 1950’s, it is “estimate[d] that 8300 million metric tons (Mt) of virgin plastics have been produced to date. As of 2015, approximately 6300 Mt of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment” (Geyer, Jambeck, & Law, 2017). These are staggering numbers to absorb, and it is apparent that this trend of plastic generation will have devastating environmental effects.

“The amount of plastic produced in a year is roughly the same as the entire weight of humanity” (Geyer et al., 2017).This translates to “91% of plastic waste isn’t being recycled. And since most plastics don’t biodegrade in any meaningful sense, all that plastic waste could exist for hundreds or even thousands of years” (Geyer et al., 2017). According to research, “plastic takes more than 400 years to degrade, so most of it still exists in some form” (National Geographic, & Parker, 2018). Meaning, the plastic we make and “toss away” today will remain here long after our children’s children are gone. “Half of all plastic manufactured becomes trash in less than a year” (National Geographic et al., 2018).

“Worldwide, a trillion single-use plastic bags are used each year, nearly 2 million each minute” (Earth Policy Institute, & Larson, 2014). Nearly 100 billion plastic bags are used by Americans every year and tied together, they would reach around the Earth’s equator 1,330 times. In an effort to combat the accumulation of plastics, many cities and countries now either ban the sale of plastic bags in stores or charge a nominal fee for the use of the bags; a fee that is shared between the store and environmental cleanup corporations. While this is a step in the right direction, it still begs the question about what lasting effects plastic production will have on our environment currently as well as for the generations to come.

Plastics are effectively threatening our oceans and marine life. One prediction states “that by mid-century, the oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish, ton for ton, and this has become one of the most-quoted statistics and a rallying cry to do something about it” (National Geographic et al., 2018).

“Recycling in the U.S. has remained at nine percent since 2012. The United States ranks behind Europe (30 percent) and China (25 percent) in recycling, the study found” (National Geographic et al., 2018). Sadly, our environmental regulations are far behind many other parts of the world.

“The rapid acceleration of plastic manufacturing, which so far has doubled roughly every 15 years, has outpaced nearly every other man-made material. And, it is unlike virtually every other material. Half of all steel produced, for example, is used in construction, with a decades-long lifespan” (National Geographic et al., 2018). An intervention on plastics production is imminent, the question is whether the population at large decides to participate in the conversation before it becomes a very real crisis.

The time to fix these issues is now. “We as a society need to consider whether it’s worth trading off some convenience for a clean, healthy environment” (National Geographic et al., 2018). Taking action as a consumer is one tangible step in the right direction. Using reusable bottles or bringing reusable bags to the grocery store are individual choices that can make a big difference. Sharing information with others and helping influence the community around you can help alter the marketability of plastics which in turn will ensure change. If the choices of consumers show that plastic mass production is no longer profitable, companies are bound to follow suit and will have to find better, more sustainable options to get their products on the market.

Resources:

Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017, July 01). Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Retrieved January 31, 2019, from http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782

Earth Policy Institute, & Larson, J. (2014, October 16). Plastic Bags Fact Sheet. Retrieved January 31, 2019, from http://www.earth-policy.org/press_room/C68/plastic_bags_fact_sheet

National Geographic, & Parker, L. (2018, December 20). A whopping 91% of plastic isn’t recycled. Retrieved January 31, 2019, from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment/

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02
Feb 19

The Tragedy of the Commons

The tragedy of the commons is a resource dilemma concept introduced by a prominent 19th century economist named William Lloyd. In his allegory, he discussed the fact that in our world where resources are finite, people will consume these resources in a self-interested manner which will eventually lead to their depletion (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). We can look at history to see that, in certain situations, this theory holds true and we will see that economic principles may provide a potential remedy for this problem.

For a resource dilemma example, we will consider water rights to a certain creek in Montana. Rob Harmon gave a thought-provoking TEDxRainier Talk in 2010, entitled Blue is the New Green: Water Footprints, on the Prickly Pear Creek and how people with senior water usage rights used their allotments (even when they did not need the water) solely to maintain their rights. This consumption in a self-interested manner led to the complete drying up of the entire creek. We can also see tragedy of the commons when we consider the over-fishing of so many species in our oceans, the irresponsible and extravagant use of clean water sources, excessive deforestation, etc. This is a problem that economists and environmental psychologists are both are struggling to solve.

These examples are evidence that the choices of a few can affect the welfare of many. Economists view these types of problems as negative externalities. Negative externalities are the spill-over effects (usually seen as costs to a third party) that are not accounted for in the original transactions of production or consumption. These negative externalities are treated as market failures by environmental economists; too much of a good is being produced due to the fact that its full cost is not being accounted for (Callan & Thomas, 2013).

One solution for this type of market failure was proposed by Ronald Coase in 1960. In his paper “The Problem of Social Cost” he hypothesized that the assignment of property rights would bring the market back into equilibrium. According to Coase, it does not matter who is assigned the property rights, whether it’s the party we feel is harmed or the one doing the harming (1960). To briefly explain the Coase Theorem, we will use the problem of air pollution.

For this example, the citizens who live around an oil refinery will be assigned the property rights to the air in their town. If the citizens own the rights to a public good, such as clean air, then the refinery will have to pay them in order to pollute that air. Due to this extra cost, refined oil will become more expensive, and as a result the demand for it will decrease. This will in turn cause a reduction in the air pollution. This is how property rights can bring the market back into equilibrium.

In certain situations, I think that this concept could help environmental psychologists mitigate resource dilemmas such as the tragedy of commons and improve the manner in which people consume resources. Perhaps an intervention could be designed that would increase participants’ feelings of ownership of the environment. This intervention could utilize cognitive dissonance in the same manner that Dickerson, Thibodeau, Aronson, and Miller did in 1992 to encourage water conservation.

First, the intervention would establish the understanding that the Earth belongs to everyone which translates to the participants assuming individual ownership of the Earth. This relates to the Coase Theorem as it would be assigning conceptual property rights to the participants. The next step would be to ask participants how they take care of their most valuable possessions, especially those that cannot be replaced. Finally, feelings of hypocrisy would be induced when participants are made aware of the disparity between how they choose to treat their belongings in contrast with how they misuse our Earth and its finite natural resources. The intended result would be that participants choose to use natural resources in a more conscientious and sustainable way. Perhaps if we implemented an intervention in this manner, combining environmental economic and social psychological principles, the tragedy of the commons (market failure) would become a problem of the past.

 

References:

Callan, S. J., Thomas, J. M. (2013). Environmental economics & management: Theory, policy and applications (6th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Coase, R. H. (1960). The problem of social cost. The Journal of Law & Economics, 3, 1-44.  

Dickerson, C.A., Thibodeau, R., Aronson, E., & Miller, D. (1992). Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water conservation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 841-854.

Harmon, R. (2010, December 10). Blue is the new green: Water footprints [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV3ZjORGwoI

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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06
Feb 18

Art and Neuroscience

Have you ever been curious about why some people are perfectly content being a “starving artist?” Maybe, it’s because their core job of creating art is stress relieving and relaxing. I must admit that when I first heard of art therapy several years ago, I was skeptical. I, like many others, thought that the purpose of art therapy was primarily for children or simply an outlet of expression. This is likely because I perceived art and neuroscience to be complete opposites. Though, the benefits of creativity and artwork is commonly underestimated, and research has suggested that participating in different forms of art can have several beneficial effects on one’s brain.

How do two seemingly opposite fields such as freely driven art and the scientific study of the brain work together? Curiously, art therapy has the potential to be much more than this, as it offers a different approach from the traditional talk therapy. Konopka suggests in their journal article, that there are significant connections between art therapy and healing the brain. Konopka notes that “Art therapy has gained popularity because it combines free artistic expression with the potential for significant therapeutic intervention” (Konopka, 2014). Konopka also discusses that even further research is necessary to fully understand the potential of art therapy and its relationship to cognitive functioning.

Many people have experienced the positive effects of art therapy, and some claim that it has even contributed to changing their life. Some brain injury survivors attending art therapy, share their stories on a local PBS news station. One participant, Jennifer, shares that she is now able to “Reconnect with her cognitive functions and mobility that she lost from her [brain] injury” (PBS, 2016). This program also discussed how “recreational therapy such as Art and music can help heal the brain at faster and more complete rates” (PBS, 2016). Martin, who is an art therapist also shares how art therapy contributed to understanding and centering a young man who was threatening homicide (American Therapy Association, 2018).

Perhaps you do not have a traumatic brain injury, and this whole concept seems very specific and non-relatable. Perhaps, the idea of attempting to create something visually appealing may be intimidating. Regardless of your ability or need, art therapy may still have beneficial effects on the brain. Konopka notes that “for years, we recognized that art-making allowed one to re-frame experiences, reorganize thoughts, and gain personal insight that often enhances one’s quality of life” (Konopka, 2014).  Writer, Priscilla Frank discusses in their article various findings supporting the notion that just 45 minutes of artwork can reduce cortisol levels (Frank, 2016). In Frank’s article, they discuss how the act of engaging in an artful activity relieves the very common experience of stress (Frank, 2016). Frank suggests that if you are feeling the burden of stress, you will likely find relief in some old-fashioned arts and crafts.

From relieving stress to rewiring one’s brain after a traumatic brain injury, participating in art is beneficial. It is important to also note that there is certainly a difference between art therapy and personal participation in art. Art therapists are trained at the Master level and “work with people who are challenged with medical and mental health problems, as well as individuals seeking emotional, creative, and spiritual growth” (American Art Therapy Association, 2018). However, regardless of your needs, engaging in forms of artistic participation can have widespread beneficial effects on your brain. So the next time your feeling stressed or overwhelmed, it’s a good idea to engage in some creative expression.

 

References

American Art Therapy Association. (2017). About Art Therapy. Retrieved from Arttherapy.org: arttherapy.org/about-art-therapy/

American Art Therapy Association. (2017). Story Library. Retrieved from Arttherapy.org: arttherapy.org/story-library/

Frank, P. (2016, June 16). Study says making art reduces stress, even if you kind of suck at it. Retrieved from Huffingtonpost.com: huffingtonpost.com/entry/study-says-making-art-reduces-stress_us_576183ece4b09c926cfdccac

Konopka, L. M. (2014). Where art meets neuroscience: a new horizon of art therapy. U.S. National Library of Medicine. DOI: 10.3325/cmj.2014.55.73

PBS (Director). (2016). Art therapy helps patients with traumatic brain injury. Retrieved from PBS.org: pbs.org/video/njtvnews-art-therapy-helps-patients-traumatic-brain-injury/.

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04
Feb 18

Environmental effects on Human Behavior

It is widely known that the environment and settings surrounding a person can have great impacts on a person’s behavior. Factors including lighting, noise, and temperature are all variables of an environment. Relevant to this idea, I’ve often wondered why I could never focus or study at my house unless it is completely silent, the entire house is tidy and clean, candles are lit, and I’m wearing cozy clothes. Why am I like this I ask myself? Though this may sound so weird to some people, I’m sure there are others out there who are like this. People who cannot focus in their home (or anywhere else) unless it is their perfect environment. Everything needs to be very “Zen”, if I may say, in order for me to fully focus.  In our text this week there was a very interesting yet also kind of odd example of how people’s environment can greatly affect their behaviors.

“The Built Environment” in chapter 13 of our text (Schneider, Gruman, Coults, 2012) the example provided is about an apartment complex that was built in Missouri in 1954. The apartment design was considered to have highly adequate vandal-resistant features and had a very open, simplistic and individual layout in which no space had been wasted. The apartment complex design was called the “Pruitt-Igoe” design and it permitted 12,000 residents to reside here. This new design had been created with the hopes of decreasing vandalism and crime, and also improving the deteriorating inner-city housing.

Something the project constructors of the new complex did to create a spacious feel was invest in elevators which only stopped on every third floor so most tenants had to walk up at least 1 to 2 floors in order to reach their apartment. The buildings were 11 stories high and this elevator design caused much more traffic in the stairwells. Something the project constructors clearly didn’t consider was that more people and traffic in stairwells can become a negative environment for people. Shortly after the opening of the apartment complex, problems began, all because the construction designs failed to understand the impacts of environment on human behavior. A very common problem in the building was known as “stairwell crime”. After only a mere 18 years the building had to be demolished because of how bad the environment had become once again.

Although the Pruitt-Igoe design example is a rather extreme example of environment on behavior, it does still send a message. The physical layouts and designs of buildings and spaces have many different variables within them that can have unimaginable impacts on how its residents behave. For me if I were living in that apartment in Missouri in the 1950’s, I’d be scared out of my mind to even open my door. That particular environment would have that effect on me.

Another funny example of environment I was just reminded of that happened in my life was the time I was staying at this really ritzy hotel in New York City. The one night I had been craving a tray of New York style pizza, I just needed to have it. I placed my order and waited for delivery. About 20 minutes later my room phone rings and the delivery guy is downstairs. I ask the front desk if they can send him up and tell me no he is not permitted to because the elevator uses your room key in order to function. I say oh ok no problem and I head down to the lobby. Mind you I’m having myself a relaxing night while in NYC, I’m wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, my hair is in a messy bun, and I have no make-up on, I’m really just lounging tonight. When I reached the lobby, I cannot even fully describe to you how bad I felt. It was about 7:30 pm and all of the hotels tenants were in the lobby dressed to the 9! Literally these people around me looked like they may have been millionaires. Women were in ball gowns, men were wearing tuxedos, and their children were dressed in their own best attire as well. It wasn’t one of those moment where I was just feeling self-conscious and thought everyone was looking at me. Every one really was looking at me. I had made eye contact with about 15 different people as I walked toward my pizza delivery guy. I felt as if I was truly putting a damper on everyone’s night. The strangers had looked at me as if their environments had just been negatively affected by my appearance and activity. In turn, this environment that I was presently in had a very negative impact on me as well! My cheeks became very flushed, my heart was going a million miles an hour, and I was so embarrassed. I gave the guy the money, and quickly took my pizza back up to the 7th floor where for the rest of the night I felt very sensitive about my image, and I inadvertently stress ate my entire tray of pizza. A person’s environment is key to their moods and behaviors. Also design flaws such as requiring hotel room cards in order to operate elevators can influence human moods and behaviors such as the example of when I had to retrieve my pizza and I became the laughing stock of a ritzy upscale hotel.

 

References

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

 

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02
Feb 18

How a Philadelphia prison reduces food waste through composting

One major challenge facing densely populated areas is waste disposal. Therefore, many programs are emerging to dispose of trash in an environmentally conscious manner. Philadelphia Mayor Kenney is an optimist, with his ambitious plan to “reduce the amount of waste the ends up in landfills and incinerators 90 percent by 2035” (Jaramillo, 2017). Therefore, in 17 years, the city must build programs and initiatives to make the plan possible. What makes this plan so ambitious is that Philadelphia currently does not have any facilities to manage the city’s composting. Furthermore, there are only a handful of small organizations that regularly collect compost from residences. There are endless steps to be discussed regarding a major city reducing its waste by 90%, though we will focus on one major factor, composting.

Of course, composting is certainly not the only solution to the earth potentially approaching it’s carrying capacity (PSU WC, 2018). It is instead a feasible way for humans to reduce their impact on the environment. Composting is a natural way of turning food scraps, yard trimmings, and various other waste materials into nutrient rich soil. This soil is reinvested into the earth and contributes to the growth of food and cleaner environments. Composting also directly contributes to a reduction of trash that gets transported to landfills, thus reducing energy use and the loss of natural resources.

For some cities, the barriers to composting may feel too large to tackle. Currently, Philadelphia cannot physically support such a large initiative due to lack of facilities and programs. However, the Philadelphia prison system presents an excellent example of how how turn food scraps into a sustainable, educational, fruitful practice. The city of Philadelphia’s website discusses how some inmates are graduating with a vocational certificate in Organic Agriculture from Temple University (Chatterjee, 2017). Incarcerated students learn through working on a large and extensive farm and composting program within the Philadelphia prison system, composting hundreds of pounds of food waste daily (Chatterjee, 2017). Chatterjee also notes: “The program helped them make connections between food, agriculture, and adverse impacts of the food system on climate change” (Chatterjee, 2017).

According to Applied Social Psychology: “Sometimes, social change is accomplished by empowering the social group or facilitating its members’ social action in some way” (Schneider, 2013). This is what Sustainability Manager, Laura Cassidy initiated within the prison system. A program began that allowed the inmates to work on a program that took their food scraps and turned them into soil and thus produced a farm. This created a cycle of sustainability, while also providing job training, educational certificates, and influencing the culture to one that in conscious of food and how it influences the environment.

Programs such as this are extremely valuable, as they reduce to amount of energy wasted on trash disposal, while also providing jobs, educational opportunities, and fresh healthy food. This saves money and reduces the negative impact on the environment. Other organizations can use this as an example to reduce their negative impact by increasing sustainable and highly-beneficial composting programs. Finally, programs such as this are a way to influence social change, through the inmates participating and directly experiencing the positive influence of such a program.

References

Chatterjee, H. (2017, May 16). Outside the walls. Retrieved from City of Philadelphia: https://beta.phila.gov/posts/office-of-sustainability/2017-07-13-a-new-cohort-of-graduates-in-organic-agriculture/

Jaramillo, C. (2017, February 6). Composting in Philadelphia: Where we are and where we are going. Retrieved October 30, 2017, from Plan Philly: a project of WHYY: http://planphilly.com/articles/2017/02/06/composting-in-philadelphia-where-we-are-and-where-we-are-going

Pennsylvania State University, World Campus. (2018). PSYCH 424: Lesson 4: The Environment. Retrieved from CANVAS: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1924488/modules

Schneider, F. W. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

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30
Oct 17

Online Education and Peer Interaction

As I read the assigned chapters for class this week, one thing that stood out to me was how critical peer interaction is in academic environments.  According to Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, (2012), kids who have poor peer relationships struggle with developing competency in a variety of different areas of their lives, including academia, while those with positive relationships are more likely to thrive.  In fact, studies have indicated that the act of just playing with other children can increase a child’s self-confidence and, in turn, increase their academic achievement (Schneider et al., 2012).  However, in an increasingly modernized educational environment, more and more academic programs are being offered online.  According to Connections Academy (2015), from 2009 to 2014, there has been an 80% increase in grade school students taking online or blended learning courses and a 58% increase in full-time online public school enrollment.  If students are no longer in classrooms together, however, will this lack of peer interaction be detrimental?

 

As Schneider et al. (2012) note, the academic environment provides individuals with the opportunity to form and maintain friendships, acquire leadership skills, learn about conflict resolution and cooperation, and develop positive self-concepts, in addition to enhancing academic achievement.  All of these lessons are learned through peer interaction.  Early poor social adjustment is shown to lead to academic struggles later on, a negative perception of the school environment, and even eventual academic failure (as cited in Schneider et al., 2012).  This opportunity to develop social skills is even more important for students with disabilities and behavioral difficulties, with positive interactions leading to marked increases in their motivation and performance (Schneider et al., 2012).  If students are participating in online learning, then, they will experience distinctly less peer interaction, potentially leading to poorer academic and social skills.

 

Despite this dire picture, however, studies also show that the academic-social interaction can be reciprocal, with high academic performance leading to more positive social skills.  Specifically, studies have shown that actively working to increase the academic performance of children early in their school careers, through interventions such as math and reading tutoring, can lead to positive social development (Schneider et al., 2012).  This suggests that the lack of peer interaction in online education may not be so detrimental after all.  In fact, if these programs focus on high achievement, social development may just simply follow along.

 

So, where does that leave us?

 

It seems that since online education, especially that aimed at younger children, is still in its infancy, no conclusions have been universally agreed upon.  In an article for Parents.com, Deborah Stipek, a Stanford University education professor, noted that the research for the consequences of online education on social-emotional skills is simply not there (O’Hanlon, 2012).  It is agreed that traditional school provides a unique setting for students to learn and interact, but what happens to the development of social skills once this mold is broken is still unknown.  Since these future implications are still unidentified, I believe it is crucial that online education programs utilize as many strategies as possible to promote effective social skill development.  This includes social skills training programs, where students can learn appropriate behaviors and methods of interacting, an emphasis on small group work to encourage effective collaboration, and free time in a synchronous virtual environment where students can help one another learn.  All of these strategies, as mentioned in Schneider et al. (2012), have been shown to help foster social skills and, in turn, academic achievement in traditional classrooms, so implementing them in online learning environments would, hopefully, result in similar benefits.

Overall, the modernization of education, especially the drastic increase in online education, provides some interesting new challenges for students.  As social skill development has been shown to be important in fostering academic achievement, discovering ways to promote the development of these skills in asynchronous environments will likely be critical to the success of online students.

 

References

Connections Academy. (2015). Growth of K-12 digital learning. Retrieved from https://www.connectionsacademy.com/Portals/4/ca/documents/pdfs/press/2015/CE_Infographic%202015_FINAL(2).pdf

 

O’Hanlon, L. H. (2012). Virtual elementary school: Should you enroll your kids? Retrieved from http://www.parents.com/kids/education/elementary-school/virtual-elementary-school/

 

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understand and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

 

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26
Feb 17

Attributing Blame By: Kristen Jezek

Attributing Blame
By: Kristen Jezek

I used to think I was a pretty great judge of character. In fact, when I saw someone cut a person off in the middle of the road, I thought I could make a pretty sound judgement on the type of person they were. After all, we all hate it when we’re cut off in traffic, it’s dangerous for goodness sake! Spending time in New York City could make you think it was almost your birthright to put judgments on the people you drove by on the street. However, fundamental attribution error and actor-observer difference suggest that our judgments about ourselves, others and motivations for behavior may not be so accurate after all.
The fundamental attribution error states that when judging other people’s behavior, we will tend to overestimate their behavior caused by their personal qualities or demeanor, and underestimate the influence of external factors on their actions (Schneider et all, 2012). Furthermore, the actor-observer difference explains our personal bias in ranking our own behavior due to external circumstances, rather than a judgement of our personal character (Schneider et all, 2012). These two theories and explanations of human behavior have a humbling effect on the girl who used to think she could judge a book by its cover.

“OH MY GOSH WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!”, I screamed as I slammed on my brakes while moving out of my New York City apartment. Immediately I went on a tirade of how bad New York drivers were and how inconsiderate they could be for drivers like me on the road. Not even five minutes later, as my navigation system chimed “Turn left NOW” did I find myself swerving in a manner so characteristic of the person I just yelled over, I could have been doing a re-enactment of the previous scene. Multiple cars honked at me and I winced as I merged onto the freeway on-ramp, only to sit there in more traffic, surrounded by the very cars I had just cut off. “I can’t believe they’re looking at me like this, the navigation system didn’t even tell me to turn until the last second and I have no idea where I’m going—they should cut me some slack”. There I was, living proof of both the theories I just explained. When the car in front of me first cut me off I was sure it was a testament to his poor driving skills and the lack of consideration of “New Yorkers” (which, by the way, I also was). I made the fundamental attribution error on my fellow-driver and assumed that he knew where he was going and he purposefully cut me off, regardless of circumstance. Not even five minutes later, when I made my own driving snafu, I was quick to attribute my actions to outside circumstances, effectively rendering myself innocent, a la the actor-observer difference. I knew my circumstances were innocent enough, and I did not want to label myself a bad or inconsiderate driver. After all, the roads in New York are often one-way and if you miss your exit, you could be stuck in traffic for another hour trying to get back to it!

What were the implications of this experience? The humility that comes with the knowledge that you are not perfect and that other people may not be either. Life is a complicated series of moving parts and often there is more to it than meets the eye. This experience, the knowledge of the fundamental attribution error, and the actor-observer difference keeps me on my mental toes when anything doesn’t go as planned or people do not behave as I expect them to. This change affects how I treat myself and others on the road, in the doctor’s office, and in basically every human interaction. After all, surprises can happen anywhere.

The fundamental attribution error suggests that perhaps in our finite wisdom, we often place others on a higher standard than we place ourselves and attribute their misgivings to their personal faults rather than their outside environment. However, the actor-observer bias is an effect of us cutting ourselves slack, or perhaps innocently, just seeing more of the picture and attributing mistakes to outside forces beyond our personal integrity. The awareness of these two theories can be a powerful and humbling weapon in underestimating your fellow-man and overestimating your own circumstances. Perhaps if more people understood this, the world could be a kinder, more forgiving place.

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

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12
Feb 17

Release Social Anxiety By Doing “The Work”

Utilizing “The Work” In Reference to Social Anxiety

By:Kristen Jezek

If you are like most people, there has been a time in your life where you have felt somewhat anxious or nervous at the thought of going on an important date or attending a party with a lot of people. This type of nervousness to meet with others can be natural, even exciting for some. However, for others it is a nightmare of anxiety which develops into full-blown social anxiety disorder (Schneider, 2012), crippling their social life and self-concept. To combat the thoughts that lead to social anxiety disorder, and a host of other undesirable consequences, The Work of Byron Katie offers a way out (Do The Work, 2015).
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA, 2017) defines social anxiety disorder as “the extreme fear of being scrutinized and judged by others in social or performance situations”. While the person who experiences this may have a fulfilling and productive life in the comfort of their own company, the social phobia kicks in with the thought of socializing with other people, meeting someone new, or going on a job interview. As social creatures, this phobia can have devastating effects for a person’s quality of life. When faced with a social situation, the fear can be so great that it stops the person from attending the social activity, leading to isolation and loneliness.
The Work of Byron Katie is a method to question your stressful thoughts. The thoughts you utilize to question in the work consist of anything that is causing you stress or disrupting your quality of life. This has incredible implications for someone who is suffering from irrational anxiety due to their beliefs about what may happen in a social situation. When faced by a social situation that causes anxiety, a person would first identify and write down the stressful thought (or thoughts) they are believing. For example, the stressful thought may be “others will judge me negatively”, “this person will think I’m stupid” or “I will never get this job”. These are the types of thoughts that, when played over and over in a person’s mind, brainwash them into an anxiety which cripples and debilitates their social confidence, and can lead to intense social anxiety. Rather than believe these stressful thoughts, The Work invites you to question them.
So, what is “The Work”? The work is a series of four questions and what is called a “turnaround”, in which you turn the thought around. The four questions are as follows:

1) Is it true?
2) Can I absolutely know that it’s true?
3) How do I react when I think that thought?
4) Who would I be without that thought?

The turnaround is simply finding an opposite of the stressful thought. Examples of
the turnarounds for the thoughts presented above are “They will judge me positively”, “this person will think I’m smart”, or “I will get this job”. The next step is to find three concrete examples of how that thought could be as true, or truer than the negative thought before. I might find three examples of why I should get that job, and armed with the knowledge of those three examples, I could feel more confident that it was true. Furthermore, this increased confidence in social situations often leads to a better performance in the social situation overall.
The implications for The Work in treating and managing social anxiety are huge. Whether you are a person with slight social anxiety or suffering from full-blown social anxiety disorder, the act of slowing down your thoughts long enough to question them can offer tremendous relief. If a person could question their stressful thoughts as they thought them (and turn them around), they would be able to free themselves from the crippling fear that comes with dreading a stressful outcome. This confidence compounds over time and with regular practice of asking these four questions and turning them around, the person can facilitate themselves to greater health, social abundance, and mental freedom.

Bibliography:

1) Social Anxiety Disorder. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2017, from https://www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/social-anxiety-disorder (ADAA)
2) Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: Sage.
3) International, B. K. (2015, September 06). Do The Work. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://thework.com/en/do-work

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11
Feb 17

Let’s have a heart-to-heart about stress.

How was your day today? Were you happy, angry, sad, stressed? Many of us would answer that we felt some stress. So, what made you feel stressed? Was it class work, money issues, health, family? Maybe it’s all the above. But what does that stress do to us? In this week’s lesson, in Psych 424, we discussed health related problems due to stress. In the lesson, health psychology is defined as the science of understanding psychological issues, as well as social influences on why we become ill, how we stay healthy, and how our bodies respond.

A questionnaire, called The Dental Environment Stress Questionnaire, was given to 205 dental students enrolled in a Bachelor of Dental Surgery program in Australia to quantify and identify the sources of stress in their lives (Sanders & Lushington, 1999). D come as no surprise to us students, their greatest stressor was their grades. But what does this stress do to our bodies?

Most of us have learned that acute stress doesn’t tend to have long-term effects on our bodies. Animals experience acute stress in the wild most every day, but because the stress leaves once there is no longer a threat, the stress doesn’t have long term effects on their bodies. Chronic stress, which is what we humans have come to know so well, is the type that stays with us. It is the worries of work, finances, family, and any other thing that adds to our daily stress that makes them chronic stressors. This chronic stress is what is effecting our health. Though doctors don’t know exactly how chronic stress affects the heart, those at Harvard Medical have a good idea. They believe that it is most likely due to stress triggering inflammation, which is known as an instigator of heart disease. In addition to the inflammation, stress that leads to unhealthy behaviors such as a bad diet and lack of exercise can also lead to heart disease. (Harvard Health, 2017)

You may be thinking, “But what can I do? I’m always going to have stress in my life.” Harvard Medical School has 5 suggestions that may help.

First, they suggest staying positive. Have a laugh! It’s been found to lower stress hormones, reduce that instigating inflammation, and it can help increase “good” cholesterol!

Next, try meditating. The focused, deep breathing has been known to reduce some risk factors associated with heart disease.

Then comes the exercise. Though it may seem like a pain at the beginning, exercise releases mood-boosting chemicals that can help lower blood pressure, strengthen your heart muscle, as well as keep you healthy and stress free.

Unplug. Leave those work calls and emails until tomorrow if possible.

Lastly, find other ways to de-stress. Is listening to music, getting a massage, or reading a book your idea of releasing some stress?

What you think contributes to stress the most? Would any of these help YOU?

 

 

References

Harvard Health: 5 ways to de-stress and help your heart, February 11, 2017, Harvard Health Publications. Retrieved from: http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/5-ways-to-de-stress-and-help-your-heart

Sanders, A. E., & Lushington, K. (1999). Sources of stress for Australian dental students. Journal of dental education, 63(9), 688-697.

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25
Sep 16

No more fresh water for you

For this week blog I will be discussing an article from nytimes.com titled, “In Sign of Warming, 1,600 Years of Ice in Andes melted in 25 years” by Justin Gillis. The article is about the world’s largest tropical ice sheet; the Quelccaya ice cap of Peru and the rate in which ice is melting, in addition to what is being revealed. Lonnie G Thompson, the Ohio State University glaciologist, along with her team has been studying the Quelccaya ice caps for more than 10 years.

Plants that were trapped under ice for thousands of years are now being exposed due to the rapid melting of the Quelccaya cap. These plants were dated by a radioactive form of carbon in plant tissue that decays at a known rate; giving scientist a new precise method of determining the history of the ice sheet’s margins. Several years ago, Dr. Thompson and her team found plants that were about 4700 years old. Now with an additional thousand feet of melting, Dr. Thompson and her team are now finding plants that are 6300 years old.  If we subtract the age of the new plants from the age of the older found plants we see a difference of 1600 years.

Although finding plant species that were thought to be long gone is very exciting, the rate at which the caps are melting is very concerning. Mathias Vuille, a climate scientist at the State University at Albany in New York said, “the ice may not go quick because it is so much ice, but we may have already locked ourselves into a situation where we are committed to losing that ice”

After reading this article I cannot help but wonder what this means for the people of this region. According to the article 50% of the water supply to the people of Lima will be gone if the Quelccaya caps completely melt. I cannot help but wonder why don’t we have technology that would stop the ice from melting?

 

 

“In Sign of Warming, 1,600 Years of Ice in Andes melted in 25 years” by Justin Gillis. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/americas/1600-years-of-ice-in-perus-andes-melted-in-25-years-scientists-say.html

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04
Apr 16

A Sense of Community

One of the interesting aspects of community and social psychology is the idea behind a sense of community. Our text describes a sense of community as the factors that determine whether people view their community in a positive or in a negative way (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). My husband and I have moved several times throughout our marriage and as a personal observation, I am much more adaptable to communities than my husband is. There have been several communities that I felt comfortable in, but he could not settle into. Part of his difficulties stem from being raised in a small town, while some of his other difficulties come from his PTSD.

According to McMillan and Chavis (1986), there are four elements that help someone to develop a sense of community. The first element is membership. Membership is easy to gain, as it is simply the idea that you can determine membership based on boundaries. However, my husband doesn’t feel membership in our current community. We lucked out and made friends with someone who happened to be preparing to rent out their home that was two blocks from my parents. This put us into a neighborhood that had people who general come from a higher income bracket. So although we live in this community, my husband struggles to feel membership because of the disparity of income between the majority of our neighbors and ourselves.

The second element is influence. This refers to how much the individual feels they have an impact on their community. There are ways to get involved in my community, but it is difficult. We have put our children into a charter school, so our children go to a different school than most of those in our neighborhood. We are not members of the Homeowner’s Association (though our landlord is), so we cannot recommend or have much impact on any change through that association. We have a very anal retentive Homeowner’s Association, and have already received notices for little things like leaving our trash bins out an extra night. This adds to us both feeling as though we have little control within our community, which makes this element very difficult to have.

The third element is the integration and fulfillment of needs. This relies on the members of a community being interdependent. Our community is full of large houses with attached garages. Most of our neighbors come and go through their garages. Because it is in the desert, there isn’t much as far as gardening, so we don’t see our neighbors outside. Most of the kids in our neighborhood are involved in extra-curricular activities, so we don’t even see them out playing. This makes integration difficult. There are events that the Homeowner’s Association has to help create opportunities to develop that sense of community, but unfortunately, those are few and far between. The only place where I have felt a sense of community is through social media. There is a Facebook group for my community that allows people to communicate about events, post business ads for local businesses, post about crimes, and for people to rant about things in the neighborhood. It is through this format that I have developed a small sense of integration. My husband doesn’t pay attention to these, and therefore has missed out.

The final element is a shared emotional connection. There is a cohesive bong between members of a community. As I described with the integration, it is difficult to build that bond with the limited interaction between community members.

I have found a community connection within my work place. There I have a membership, I feel as though I have an influence, we share values and integrate well with each other, and we often share emotional connections. My husband struggles with relationships. He struggles to find these communities. When we lived in California, we were in a very strong community. It was easy to feel member ship because everyone used the same grocery store and saw each other there. Everyone was able to make an impact in the community. I was able to make my impact by working at the local school. My husband made an impact in the ranching community by breeding ducks and rabbits. There was a lot of interdependence within our community. People shared “hand-me-downs” as well as home-grown fruits and vegetables. When a young girl was killed within our community, the community drew together and mourned, even those who did not know her. It was during that event that I saw how tight the community was, but we were part of it.

A sense of community is important. Research suggests that finding a place that develops that sense of community helps a person to develop their identity. The place that we live can affect our identity through effecting whether we feel unique in our living space, in control of our living space, if our living space makes us feel good about ourselves, and if where we live is consistent with our ideals of our own personality (Anton & Lawrence, 2014). These four principles of identity that our living space can effect are guiding principles of the identity process theory.

References

Anton, C., & Lawrence, C. (2014). Home is where the heart is: The effect of place of residence on place attachment and community participation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 40, 451-461. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.10.007

McMillan, D., & Chavis, D. (1986). Sense of commmunity: Definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14, 6-23.

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology (Second Edition ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE publications.

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20
Mar 16

Social Media and Political Views

In this day and age, people are relying more and more on social media to provide them with information.  As we approach the presidential election, there is an increase in social media interaction with regards to the differing candidates.  Memes with quotes and images of the candidates are shared and re-shared.  What effect does this have on people’s relationships with each other as well as their political beliefs?

I know for me, I have found some people who I avoid their posts because I am afraid of making a comment that would upset them because of my differing opinions.  There are other people on my social media that I have come to realize I have more in common with them because of the political views they share.  This is in line with the suggested view that people use media to increase positive feelings towards members of similar affiliations (Ponder & Haridakis, 2015).

Social media also removes the person’s ability to waver between two or three candidates because it established a herd mentality that motivates a person to choose between political positions.  They constantly are exposed to their friends and families posting for or against candidates, influencing their opinions.  The need to be involved in a cohesive group causes the person to become involved in Groupthink conditions.

As people watch their friends and family post about political views, they tend to rationalize the opinions of others as being good and true based on their relationships with those people.  They strive to have similar opinions and create a unanimous front, often to the point of censoring their own doubts or frustrations.

Groupthink can be a difficult problem to overcome and can raise many difficulties.  It negatively effects the person’s ability to make decisions.  Some of the negative consequences listed by Schneider et al. include an incomplete survey of objectives and a failure to examine the risks of the preferred choice. (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012) Another risk of Groupthink is that people will stop researching alternatives and will develop an uneducated bias towards a political ideal or candidate.

This election provides a very interesting selection of candidates and some very strong moral objections to many of them for many people.  This is causing people to become very outspoken in their political ideas.  People are eliminating friends on Facebook in an effort to create a more unanimous front on their Facebook feed and eliminating the possibility of receiving alternative viewpoints on the candidates.

Hopefully the almost “herd mentality” caused by this Groupthink will not cause there to be a President that will lead our country to misfortune.  I am not writing this in favor of any political candidate or to cause a political debate over the candidates, I am only interested in the social aspects that social media has had on this election.

 

References

Ponder, J., & Haridakis, P. (2015). Selectively Social Politics: The Differing Roles of Media Use on Political Discussion. Mass Communication and Society, 18(3), 281-302. doi:10.1080/15205436.2014.940977

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology (Second Edition ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE publications.

 

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28
Feb 16

Prejudice and the internet

Prejudice is a very popular topic in the news and on the internet.  The negative and hostile feelings toward people of the Muslim religion, the hatefulness people are expressing about police officers, the negativity towards the Syrian refugees, and even the frustration people express over the reactions and prejudices being expressed are prominent in social and broadcast media.  People are using social media to either support their stereotypes and discrimination, or to attempt to disprove those who hold those prejudices.  Unfortunately, those who are attempting to disprove are often doing so by showing articles, numbers, images, or videos that also have a bias, just an opposing one.  It seems that most of the media “chooses sides” in either supporting the stereotypes and encouraging the negative behavior and feelings toward the groups or attempting to portray the group in only positives and vilify those who have those stereotypes.  It has become a vicious cycle of blame and hatred.

 

I have recently become enthralled with the jigsaw classroom. The jigsaw classroom struck a chord for me because I am a teacher who works in a very diverse school.  Our school has a policy of using cooperative learning structures.  These structures create the jigsaw classroom environment. For more information on the jigsaw classroom, you can go to: https://www.jigsaw.org/. So, the next question would be as to whether or not something similar to the jigsaw classroom could be implemented using the internet.  The difficult situation arises when attempting to use the internet to create mutual interdependence.  Unfortunately, the internet allows a lot of independence and lack of accountability towards fellow members of various groups.  The other situation arises when creating a common goal.  There is often equal status online, so that would not be a difficult achievement, although some like to try and create a status like being a moderator or leader.

 

As the world continues to turn more toward technology, so have the educational systems.  Although many people take online courses, they aren’t forced to interact much with others within the classes they take.  By creating 2-3 jigsaw type assignments throughout the class, with the last possibly requiring the use of a Blackboard collaborative learning application in which they use video, this may help to create opportunities for people to overcome prejudices.  It would have to be done for every class in order to create multiple opportunities to interact with people.  In an effort to prevent stereotypes based on names, the group member would need to be assigned anonymous tags.  The all interactions prior to the video conference should be geared to create communication, a common goal, equal status, and mutual interdependence.  By preventing personal information to be shared and only the quality of work presented by each person, it will allow each person to develop opinions about each person based on their ability as a person and not a social, religious, or other group.  By requiring this in all classes, this would create repeated exposure to prevent people from being considered to be “exceptions” to the rule.

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13
Feb 16

The Possible Psychological and Health Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet

In taking a holistic approach to the human body, mind and environment all effecting each other, one must especially take into effect the influence that diet has not only on our body, but also on our minds. I wanted to research information that may be of use to me as I work towards becoming a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with children with developmental disabilities and disorders. So, in attempting to research the effects of diet on people with autism, I found some interesting articles regarding a ketogenic diet. A ketogenic diet consists of low amounts of carbohydrates and higher amounts of fatty proteins. By providing less carbohydrates for the body to convert to energy, the body begins to use the fats instead. Although this seems like a nice way to lose weight, it also has some beneficial effects for some psychological disorders.

 

In 1924, Dr. Russell Wilder of the Mayo Clinic recognized that this diet was very effective at treating symptoms of epilepsy. (The Charlie Foundation, 2014) The diet creates a higher amount of ketones and reduces the number of epileptic seizures. There are many benefits to this diet for people with epilepsy. There is also research being done to see if this diet has a positive effect on other disorders.  The Charlie Foundation is a group that specializes in educating people and providing support for people who choose to control seizures with a ketogenic diet. You can find more information at: https://www.charliefoundation.org/explore-ketogenic-diet/explore-1/introducing-the-diet

 

In 2015, researchers attempted to find a beneficial link between a ketogenic diet and autism spectrum disorder. They were unable to find evidence that it is a treatment for the disorder, but research did indicate that it was a promising therapy option. (Castro, et al., 2015)

 

In people with a genetic predisposition to cancers, depression is often easy to feel. They feel helplessness due to an inevitability of being diagnosed someday with cancer. I understand the feeling because there is a family history of breast cancer on my mother’s side of the family. However, recent research indicates that a ketogenic diet may suppress or delay the emergence of cancer (Klement & Kämmerer, 2011). By providing hope and preventing the feeling of inevitability, it can decrease the feelings of depression.

 

This diet is only one of many different diets, each with its own merits and uses. Although research is still being conducted as to alternative benefits of this diet, it may be a diet worth considering in order to promote physical and psychological health.

 

References

Castro, K., Faccioli, L. S., Baronio, D., Gottfried, C., Perry, I. S., & dos, S. R. (2015). Effect of a ketogenic diet on autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 20, 31-38. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1016/j.rasd.2015.08.005

Klement, R. J., & Kämmerer, U. (2011). Is there a role for carbohydrate restriction in the treatment and prevention of cancer? Nutrition & Metabolism, 8, 75. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1186/1743-7075-8-75

The Charlie Foundation. (2014). Explore Ketogenic Diets: Introducing the Diet. Retrieved from The Charlie Foundation: https://www.charliefoundation.org/explore-ketogenic-diet/explore-1/introducing-the-diet

 

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20
Sep 15

Why Our Environment Does Not Change

In my family group, we attempt to leave as small of a carbon footprint as possible. Teaching lessons in conservation and protecting our resources is rather important.  With this said, I found myself in quite a dilemma the other day while driving to the store with my seven-year-old son.

The conversation went like this:

Son: Mommy, what is the black stuff coming from that truck?
Me: Well, it depends on the truck as if it is a diesel truck, it is the “normal” exhaust. If it is a gasoline truck, it could be an issue within the engine.
Son: Is it bad?
Me: Yes, it is bad for our air.  It is called pollution.  Remember?  We have talked about pollution and you learned in class.
Son: I remember. Why can’t we tell the person they are wrong and to stop?
Me *can not form words*

How does a parent explain to their child that you cannot simply walk up to another and inform them they are polluting the air we all have to breathe?  Life does not work in that manner nowadays.  However, when you think about it the way my son did, someone should in fact make a comment to the individual.  Too many individuals today are so nonchalant when it comes to the limited resources we have on Earth.  I am not sure if it is simply for the reasons they do not care or if they are not informed.  It reminds me of trying to persuade an individual to be energy conscious or to recycle.  One cannot be forced, they must understand the benefits and have desire to make a change.

The social dilemma here is too many individuals are not venturing to make a change.  Many times an electric car limits the individual to short driving, i.e. staying in the town they reside as there are not areas for them to charge.  When it comes to recycling, all too often smaller towns do not have a recycling program (such as the town we reside) therefore if an individual desires to recycle, they must drive a few towns away.  Whether it is simply for the reason that electric cars are not feasible or implementing a community/city wide recycling plan is too costly, the problem will not change until someone or group begins the process.

Many groups have come forward over the years to inform the public of the many issues we can face down the road if change does not happen soon.  At times, individuals hear what is being said and decide this is something they want to do, although they are unsure how much time, effort, or even money it will take to contribute to the campaign.  If they do make the decision, they may begin the campaign, stick with it for some time, but then stop as they are becoming overwhelmed with the extra effort they are giving when they do not see others doing the same.

Our environment has given the individuals of this world so much bounty; however, this bounty will not last forever.  It is time to stand up and make a change.  It is election time in many local communities, therefore, make the issue known and see that change is made.

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