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One concept we learned about recently was social loafing. This phenomenon regards how individuals will put in less effort towards a goal when they are in a group, versus when they are tested individually. For example, in a study where participants were asked to pull on a rope, they put in less effort when they thought they were on a team, compared to when they thought they were doing it alone.

I think social loafing occurs quite a lot in the every day world. I have found that almost every single time I have been part of a group project, most people have tended to slack off, as they believed other people would carry the extra weight. In particular, in one of my classes last semester, I was in a group of five, working on a presentation for a history class. Because there were five of us, not everyone put in a fair amount of work, and some people simply stood idly by while others hurried to finish everything. When one knows they are not alone in working on a task, it makes sense that they would naturally put in less effort than usual. Sometimes it works out, as when one is in a group and people pool their talents. However, sometimes it results in people taking advantage of the fact that there are others to shoulder the burden.

We discussed in class the relationship between conformity and obedience within the human mind. For starters, almost obvious, behavior is contagious, people follow other people’s behavior in order to fit in and conform with the group. We discussed in class the experiment done by Solomon Asch and the group of people in an elevator. Whenever a group of people that were a part of the experiment changed positions or were standing facing away from the door in the elevator, nonparticipants followed the group, changing their behavior to match the group (conformity). Obedience is a little different, people comply with social pressures like conformity, but obedience adds in commands of an authority figure, which makes people even more pressured to conform. We also can discuss the Chameleon effect, which is unconsciously mimicking other’s expressions, postures, and voice tones.

All throughout high school, I was always a leader, specifically on my varsity sports teams I was captain. Of course, when you are captain, you want to lead by example and show the rest of the team how to act and work hard. By me always working hard, listening to my coach, having a positive attitude, etc. it got others to follow me, and most of the time the entire team to conform to this behavior. No one wanted to be the odd man out, or risk getting in trouble by our coaches, so if I led by example, my teammates were likely to follow this behavior since behavior is contagious. The Chameleon effect is a big deal on sports teams. If my teammates see me talking back to my coach, having a bad attitude or acting like I do not care, they will follow these expressions, postures, and “voices” themselves; therefore, I needed to make sure at all times these three aspects were always positive because I never knew who was watching me at any time. Even though I always tried my best to get my entire team to comply with similar attitudes and actions like mine, not everyone always would follow, which is where obedience comes into play. Some people needed that higher authority figure like my coach in order to behave, or the social pressures of fans and the other team and games in order to comply. As you can see, conformity and obedience play a big role in places like school and sports teams, especially at levels like middle and high school with many social pressures.

During lecture 24 of our Psychology 100 class, Dr. Wede explained the idea of “In-group Bias” to us. After learning about this and thinking about it in more depth, it is something that is prevalent in all types of groups around the world. Whether it is a group of friends in school, or a band, or a sports team, whichever group you are in you are going to always believe that is the best group to be in. The actual definition of in-group bias is, “The in-group bias is the tendency that people have to favor their own group above that of others. This bias can have a powerful influence on both individual and group behavior.” Everyone always will feel more comfortable in their own group, and as great as the bond might be, there are also some negative effects that this can have on a person/group.

In-group bias can have an effect that causes something such as deindividuation. What this means is when you are in a group you might lose your sense of self-awareness and just do as the group does. This can be dangerous especially when it comes to rioting and things of that nature. Another example of in-group bias would be to think of any of the gangs that are out there. No matter what other gangs are out there, whether they are bigger, stronger or anything like that, the people in their specific gang will always think they are the best. The deindividuation comes into play when there is a gang fight and someone is killed, even if they were not even doing anything wrong. It is always nice to be considered apart of a group, although, I believe it is prudent to know when it draw the line when it comes to what you should or should not do for your group/team. If you are not careful group power is very contagious and can cause you to do things you did not think you were capable of doing.

 

Source: https://www.explorepsychology.com/ingroup-bias/

Throughout lectures for exam 3, we have been discussing topics including different types of conditioning, disorders, and types of therapy. For this blog assignment, I am going to go further into depth with the topic of conditioning and more specifically something known as operant conditioning. With operant conditioning, an association is formed between behaviors and resulting events. A response causes a consequence and then that response continues to be strengthen. When training an animal to do new tricks such as lying down or rolling over or shaking their paw, it as known as shaping. People guide a behavior closer towards the desired action. Like the example in class, to get a dog to roll over, you take it step by step. You give it a treat when it sits, then when it lies down, then finally when it rolls over. Each step of the way is called successive approximations. People use positive reinforcement by giving dogs treats when they succeed in the action. They are adding a desirable stimulus.

This type of conditioning can be related to how I trained all of my cats to use the litter box. My family would use the technique of shaping in order to teach each of our new kittens to properly use the litter box. We would begin by placing them in the litter box and we would give them a treat and give them lots of love for just stepping into the litter box. Then we would place a potty pad underneath the litter box and every time they would step onto the potty pad or into the litter box,  we would again positively reinforce their actions with treats and love. We would then again positively reinforce their behavior once they began to use the bathroom on the potty pad or in the litter box. And finally, we would take away the potty pad and we would positively reinforce their behavior once they used the litter box properly. We would continue to give them treats and love until we felt as though the behavior was sufficiently strengthened. However, we would also use positive punishment as well when our cats would use the bathroom in the wrong place. My mother would give a slight tap on the bum and a stern yelling whenever they would use the bathroom on the rug or on the bed, they would receive this positive punishment. A combination of shaping, positive punishment, and positive reinforcement is how my family has effectively trained my cats to properly use the litter box. This method has yet to fail us.

A core concept learned in this unit was that of observational learning. The name is pretty straightforward and self explanatory, as observational learning occurs when humans and animals of a higher intelligence learn through observation. This is partially due to mirror neurons in the brain, that are activated during this. There are four specific elements that comprise observational learning. The behavior must be noticed, remembered, imitated, and the subject must be motivated to copy the behavior.

In a well known experiment, Albert Bandura conducted a test with a Bobo doll to study this concept. He had children watch adults interact with a Bobo doll, with one group observing the adult be polite and amicable, and the other observing the adult be aggressive and physically abusive towards the doll. Afterwards, he placed both groups in a room with toys. The children in the second group were far more likely to display aggressive tendencies, which supported the concept of observational learning.

However, it is important to remember the difference between correlation and causation. Studies have been conducted linking screen time and violence, but they were proven to be correlational.

When my little brother was younger, around the age of six or 7, many of his behaviors were learned through observational learning. One example in particular was when he watched my father reading. He would put on his reading glasses and settle into his armchair while swiping through a newspaper. Although my brother at the time arguably had no interest in everyday news and politics, he developed a habit of sitting in the exact same spot and pawing through the newspaper, just as my dad did. He learned this through observational learning, which supports the theory that children learn many things through simply watching others.

Classical conditioning has a fairly simple and straightforward definition as an automatic response to a stimulus which is derived from a process in which an organism learns to associate new stimulus from their environments. Classical Conditioning is comprised of 4 main parts: an Unconditioned Stimulus (which naturally elicits the response you are trying to condition), an Unconditioned Response (that is a naturally occurring response in response to an Unconditioned Stimulus), a Conditioned Stimulus (which was originally irrelevant as a stimulus until it is used), and a Conditioned Response (which is learned from conditioning). These 4 parts are the bread and butter of Classical (and even other forms of) Conditioning. Classical Conditioning can be applied and used in a variety of applications. Classical Conditioning has the ability to shape one’s behavior, and this can be used to elicit certain responses to certain stimulus.

While this concept may seem to affect a very small portion of our understanding and learning, the potential that classical conditioning has is that we can teach and learn in a much more diversified and unique way. The reason that Conditioning works on us humans, in addition to a variety of other species as well, is because we learn by association. Our brains are made up of billions of interconnected cells known as neurons, and many of our formative and sensory memories are entangled in this web of neurons. Many of our intrinsic capabilities such as memory work in the same way, which makes sense for us to use conditioning to our advantage. Classical Conditioning has the ability to shape one’s behavior, and this can be used to elicit certain responses to certain stimulus. An example of an experiment that successfully used conditioning would be Ivan Pavlov’s experiment, where he trained dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell. In the context of Pavlov’s experiment, the conditioning of food (Unconditional Stimulus) produced salivation (the Conditioned Response). Classical Conditioning requires a neutral stimulus to produce its effects, and this can be anything that does not produce an Unconditioned response already. For Pavlov, he used a bell as the neutral stimulus and this bell was   consistently used in the same way throughout the experiment: to signal to the dogs that food was on the way. During conditioning of the dogs, the bell is paired with the food and this eventually creates (after a few trials and errors). The bell was eventually paired with the signaling of food, and this eventually led to the dogs salivating to the sound of the bell under the preemptive impression that food was on the way.

While Pavlov’s experiment demonstrated the positive effects of classical conditioning, the potential of using classical conditioning to shape behavior in other applications seems very plausible. John Garcia did a later experiment where he exposed rats to radiation but first warned them by using taste, sound, and sight to signal the start of the radiation. Garcia later learned and proved the concept of taste aversion, and this happens when an organism associates a bad taste to something (in this case, the radiation). Inherently, classical conditioning enables researchers to test and prove behaviors in a controlled environment with proven results. Humans can also be classically conditioned in the same ways that dogs and rats can be classically conditioned, as long as the stimulus is regularly present. A loss of the stimulus may lead to extinction, which can cause the Conditioned Response to diminish over time. An example of this happening in my life would be when I smell rubbing alcohol in the first few weeks after getting a vaccine, I wince because of my fear of vaccinations. Throughout my childhood, the doctors would wipe rubbing alcohol on my skin, and I was conditioned into believing the smell of rubbing alcohol meant that I was getting a shot, similar to how the bell signaled to the dogs that food was on the way. This is something that only affects me in the first few weeks after getting vaccines, indicating that while I am also able to be conditioned, it can go away over time. Perhaps further down the road, we could condition humans to help guide their behaviors and decisions throughout their lives with the purpose of bettering everyone’s lives in the process. We could condition subjects to avoid drugs, smoking, and any other behaviors that might be detrimental for their own good and for the good of society as a whole.

 

Firstly, schizophrenia is a mental disorder that usually appears in late adolescence or early adulthood and is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, and other cognitive difficulties. There two categories of symptoms that a person who is diagnosed to have schizophrenia will present with. Those categories are positive and negative. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are when a symptom is added to a person’s current state. This would include delusions, inappropriate emotions, disorganized thinking, and hallucinations. These behaviors are abnormal and are because of an individual’s schizophrenia. Positive symptoms are often found to last longer than negative but are easier to treat. This differs from Negative Symptoms which are behaviors that have taken away from their usual self. A person who suffers from negative symptoms of schizophrenia would present with rigidness, monotone voice, being mute, and emotionless behavior or apathy. Simply, negative symptoms take away and positive symptoms add. Positive symptoms are behaviors that should not be present in an individual, while negative symptoms are behavior that are expected of a person. A person with schizophrenia may present with all the symptoms, some of them, or only negative or positive symptoms. Most individuals would present with a mix from both types of symptoms.
An example of these symptoms would include an individual with schizophrenia that exhibits racing thoughts, delusions, apathy, and a monotone voice. This individual presents with both types of symptoms, which is most commonly found in individuals with schizophrenia. The positive symptoms would be delusions and racing thoughts. The negative symptoms would be apathy and the monotone voice. While these symptoms are common, each individual person will present with a different mixture of symptoms. To treat these symptoms, a doctor will likely present them with medications such as and various therapies. Schizophrenia is lifelong struggle and affects one percent of the population.