--Original published at LivsCollegeBlog

A popular question among society today is whether to stay in a relationship even if it makes you unhappy. Everything that you once loved in your significant other is now what’s driving you away. You complain to your friends and only think of the negative aspects of your relationship, but for some reason you can’t leave. Why? A recent study conducted by University of Utah’s Samantha Joel and colleagues provides insight to this nature. Joel and her colleagues began by questioning the usual assumptions, which state that being single is worse than being in an unhappy relationship or that leaving an unhappy relationship would be a waste of the time and effort invested. Perhaps, then stay/leave decisions are made based on what is in the best interest for the partner. According to Joel and her colleagues, this selfless nature is due to the interdependence theory. The interdependence theory states that in any interaction, people have the choice to maximize the outcomes that benefit them but will actually transform these selfish gains to include their partner and the relationship as a whole. Joel and her colleague conducted two studies to test these propositions. In the first study, 1,281 participants provided the researchers with data that allowed them to determine whether the perception of the partner’s dependence on the relationship predicted lower breakup rates. The participants filled out questionnaires that included various questions about their partner and the relationship itself. Over the course of 10 weeks, researchers assessed the relationship status of participants, enabling them to make predictive observations. As predicted at the beginning of the study, participants that perceived their partners to be highly dependent on the relationship had low chances of breaking up. The second study dived in more closely to take a look at the specific ending process in couples who were contemplating a breakup. Participants were invited to participate in the study through ads on various social media platforms. This led to an initial 4,106 participants who were then screened to narrow it down to 500 total participants. At the beginning of the second study, 442 participants were actively considering breaking up with their partner. Over the course of two months, Joel and her colleagues once again found that the chances of a breakup were lower if the partner seemed highly dependent upon the relationship. The study conducted by Joel and her colleagues was one of the first documentation of the prosocial nature of humans. This explains why you might be in, or have stayed, in an unhappy relationship. Although the findings answer this common question, they leave several other questions unanswered such as “Is it a wise decision to stay in an unhappy relationship?” or “How long is too long to stay in an unhappy relationship?” Joel and her coauthors state that further research is needed to provide additional information to answer these questions and more. For now, Joel and her colleagues suggest that people in relationships take their partner’s feelings into account when deciding whether to leave or stay. Perhaps this sense of security within the relationship will inevitably make it stronger.

Reflection

When I was writing the summary of the Scholarly Article, I found it difficult to decide how much information was “too much” and how much was “not enough.” I wasn’t sure what details were important to include and which ones I should leave out. I felt that if I left something out, the reader would have no clue what I was talking about. Through this process of summarizing a 20+ page article, I have gained a new respect for journalists. Kudos to you journalists! I had to take into account the lingo of today’s society. So I had to leave out some of the fancy science words and put it in terms that everyone will understand. I will admit that I put this off until the last minute as usual, so going back to write this summary was…interesting, to say the least.

Pop Culture Article

Scholarly Article

--Original published at Chey's Blog

Researchers have been studying the differences between cultures and the effects that those cultures have on the brain. It was hypothesized that in Western cultures there is more of an independent self-identification and in Asian cultures there is an interdependent self-identification. Researchers Ying Zhu, Li Zhang, Jin Fan, and Shihui Han put their skills together to come to a conclusion for this hypothesis.

Tests were performed on paid volunteers. Thirteen volunteers were men and women from a Chinese college and the other thirteen were men and women from a Western college. The researchers used fMRIs to measure brain activity of the participants. The participants were asked to judge words shown to them on a screen and describe whether they were accurate descriptions of themselves, their mothers, or others. An example of a word would be the names of the presidents of both countries. They were also asked to judge the font of the words. The results were that the medical prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activated more with self than other identification for both parties. However, the MPFC was activated with both mother and self in Chinese subjects and just self in Western subjects. This shows that the MPFC of Chinese individuals represents both the self and the mother, while the MPFC of Western individuals exclusively represents self.

By studying both of these cultures it found that there are varying cultural differences in brain activity with self representation. Asian cultures have more of a group identification while Western cultures have a self identification. Because of the dynamic of Asian cultures there is no mental separation of identity. It is normal in Asian cultures for families to live together continuously. This is almost unheard of in most Western families. It is normal for children to move out when eighteen and not move back in. This helps to forge a self identification in Western individuals.

Pop Culture: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/201701/how-culture-wires-our-brains

Scholarly: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ynimgNeuroImage 34 (2007) 1310–1316

http://www.paper.edu.cn

Reflection:

I chose to include how the research was conducted and how participants were elected. I did not explicitly answer the five critical questions because I believe that if you are reading a summary of information those questions should be able to be answered in the summary. Overall the news article was lacking in information provided in the scholarly article. The news article focused on explaining what cultural neuroscience was and not on the research done to find cultural effects on the brain. The news article was not reliable and did not speak about how volunteers were found and how the experiment was conducted. I learned that journalists write to their audience. The scholarly article would not be easily understood by someone with no background in psychology. The news article explained a small portion of the scholarly article and then explained neuroscience in the way that most people could understand. The scholarly article writers aimed their writing towards other psychologists that could understand their experiments and work. When I was writing this I was trying to break down what I read in the scholarly article and make it easier to read for someone who does not have that much of a background in psychology. Unlike the pop culture article I stayed along the lines of the actual experiment happening in the scholarly article. It was fairly difficult to decide what I wanted to include in my summary of the article. A lot of what I read would not make sense to somebody who has not been doing research in psychology.

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Research completed by Jarrod Brock and Melissa Burkley about the sexual violence apparent in society, especially in pop-culture. On the Prowl: Examining the Impact of Men-as-Predators and Women-as-Prey Metaphors on Attitudes that Perpetuate Sexual Violence is the research behind this problem. This research also identifies potential consequences of the metaphors about men being predators and women being their prey. “In 2017, reports of widespread sexual harassment kick-started a global-wide discussion on sexual misconduct and shined a light on the #MeToo movement.” (Bock & Burkley. May, 2018) Pop culture today is full of women being depicted as men’s prey in the form of metaphors in both movies and music. In Melissa and Jarrod’s research they discuss their metaphor theory: this is the theory that metaphors and their implications are engraved into someone’s brain and it then becomes part of their unconscious thoughts, which ultimately alters a person’s attitudes and behaviors without them realizing the change. In this case, it alter’s a person’s attitude and behavior towards rape and sexual misconduct. One metaphor that the article discusses is animal metaphors is the most common form of metaphors used in pop culture today. Women are more likely to be referred to as animals then men. This is linked to attitudes that increase sexual violence, including sexism, rape, sexual harassment and attitude towards rape victims. Brock and Burkley describe these metaphors as men as prey and women as predators, which like it sounds refers to women being preyed on by men in songs and movies that society hears and sees everyday.  There were two studies conducted on this metaphor with different groups that participated. In study 1, there were 120 women and 82 men from different ethnic groups ranging from 18 to 36 years old with a undergraduate education. They were randomly assigned to the two groups, the metaphor reading or the control reading. They used the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance (IRMA) which measures one’s attitude towards rape and rape victims. As well as five items from the Attraction to Sexual Aggression Scale (ASA) which assesses the participants proclivities towards consensual rape and sex. In study 2 they used the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for their data collection, and in these samples the participants are younger, more liberal people that are less racially diverse. These samples are still reliable and the results are extremely similar to those of the other sampling methods. Both studies were asked to read a story about a man on a date with a women, and there were predator/prey metaphors throughout and then there was a second version, the control, where there were no metaphors. In both of these studies the results showed that men’s attitudes towards rape were affected by the metaphors, but did not see a change in women’s answers. These results are consistent with each way to collect data. After researching this study is has become more prominent that sexualizing women and looking at them as prey is apparent in society. As this research continues and more studies are conducted, there are hopes that the people of society acknowledge this problem and evaluate if you, yourself are an offender of looking at women as prey. Awareness of this problem is the most important part of solving the problem and reducing its effects.

Reflection:

After writing this summary of the research, I have a new found respect for journalists. It is not only difficult to have specific parameters for the word count, but it is also difficult to use enough quotes and direct information from the research article while not plagiarizing. I also learned that it is more time consuming to read the research decide what is most important then the actual writing of their summary is. Not only is it time consuming, but also stressful for the journalist to pick apart these extenuous research studies all while working under a due date. The first assignment evaluating the pop culture article was easiest because the author had already put the research into words that were easier for me to understand, but I still struggled with avoiding plagiarism and writing things too similar to the original article. The research article critique was by far the hardest, even though I had an easier study to write about. My biggest challenge was deciding which information was important enough to include in the summary and what information was not needed to help the reader fully understand the research study. The media production project, where I had to write my own interpretation of the pop culture critique using the research article was my favorite because it allowed me to decide what needed to be included and what did not. Though I did worry that what I chose and wrote may be too similar to the original pop culture article. Overall this project shed a new light on both journalists and the people that conduct research and I will now pay more attention to the little things, like metaphors in a song so I am more aware of how it is effecting myself and the people around me.

Resources

Pop Culture Article:

Burkley, M. May 25, 2018. New Study Shows Pop Culture Encourages Men to Prey on Women. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-social-thinker/201805/new-study-shows-pop-culture-encourages-men-prey-women

Research Article:

Bock, J. & Burkley, M. May 25, 2018. On the Prowl: Examining the Impact of Men-as-Predators and Women-as-Prey Metaphors on Attitudes that Perpetuate Sexual Violence. Springer Link. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-018-0929-1

--Original published at Marisa Psych Blog

Marisa Krinock

November 26, 2018

Professor MacFarlane

Media Production Assignment

Over an extensive period of time, researchers have pondered and looked for answers connected to the topic of A.D.H.D.. In this case, the research was focused on preschoolers as well as comparing and contrasting of brain scans of ones who do and do not possess attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This type of study carries a goal of creating a better understanding within data, research and results. Throughout the process of this study, it would be educational to parents in what to look for in their child’s, early childhood behavior.

This study started with a group of researchers, participants, a question, and an outline of the study about to be conducted. The senior author of this study, Dr. Mark Mahone, created this study to share knowledge to the public, identifying both the biological and behavioral differences seen through the early childhood of children. By observing this topic with his colleagues, they were able to complete a list of qualifications a child must possess to participate in the study, allowing families to benefit from the results in learning more about their child’s make up. Factors from other research and studies show data of changes occuring in the brain at a early stage of a child’s life.

Stemming from the department of neuropsychology at the Kennedy Krieger Institution in Baltimore, director Dr.Mahone as well as several of his colleagues began the basic of their study with advanced brain scans  on children. The age of the children ranged from 4 and 5 years olds. All of the children partaking in the study possessed similar societal components such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, I.Q., and established language ability and function. Keeping the children’s traits similar allows the researchers to focus on an alike group of individuals, controlling who participates. After the scans, the director as well as his colleagues were able to establish similarities and differences of the scan results. A total of 90 children received scans.This study used M.R.I. scans to conduct and find their results.  Of the 90, 52 of the children’s brain scan showed signs of A.D.H.D., and 38 did not. Of the one’s who did possess symptoms of A.D.H.D., the results were very mixed. Differences were mostly found in specific regions of the brain, and results even showed a popular result of a smaller brain overall.

An A.D.H.D. diagnoses for a child is made easier at a young age. Allowing parents to know what their child’s disorder is and how to grow and deal with it, having it affect them in the least harmful way possible. These “difference” are said to visible by the time a child reaches the age of 4 years old. Creating a study for a major disorder that seems to be growing in popularity gives the public knowledge on what to look for in connection to A.D.H.D..

Attention deficit hyperacttivity disorder is seen as to be a considerably normal development in young children due to various behaviors that connect with not only normal behaviors of a child but also are seen as factors of this disorder. Being able to pinpoint patterns in ones behavior creates data and may be watched to review any changes over time. This is a disorder that is very clearly developed and onset when a child is in their early childhood years. A.D.H.D. is categorized as a biological disorder. This is a disturbance of one’s genetic material connecting to the structure of ne overall. The study allowed certain patterns and behaviors to discover this. Not only that, but an explanations of the symptoms that many many children experience were revealed as the scans came to an end. Knowledge like this gives parents a sense of direction in what to look for as their child goes through early development.

REFLECTION:

While going through the process of writing another summary of the first research article I used, I have learned alot about this topic. Not only do i have a better understanding of A.D.H.D. as a whole, but am confident enough to say I could accurately write more about it. The amount of work that was done during this project gives you alot of time to review the material, making sure you don’t miss any key points through the text, relating back to the data and the looked over study itself. While doing this assignment, I kept the five critical questions in the back of my head as I reviewed the text again. The article seemed to answer the critical questions, some more detailed than others. The study was aimed at a select group of children, with elements and qualifications that needed to be met in order to partake in the testing. This showed a sense of control, making sure the children has similarities through all aspects of their early childhood years.The way the participants were chosen, as well as how they were was written quite clearly. It was directed toward a specific age group in order to produce results, seeing the similarities and differences in each brain scan. The variables of this test were laid out in terms in which anyone would be able to accurately interpret them.

As I was summarizing the first research article, I did not feel the need to overwrite about details connecting to the study, in which I felt this author did. They were a few parts in the text where the information felt repetitive and seemed to be said multiple times, just in different wording. It was a little complicated trying to find what you think is most important to use in a summary because overall you are just generalizing all of the information and data given to you. In the summary I wrote, I tried to stick to the main point the test was trying to get across, not allowing any room for possible wrong interpretation or wandering questions. Being able to step inside the shoes of a journalist had its difficulties, but overall the main goal is to find the most informative and correct aspects of the research infront of you. Being able to not just understand what you are reading, but being able to find the key aspects of the article overall. I have learned from being a journalists throughout all three of these assignments, that authors write how they want their work to be interpreted. Making the reading grab your attention and have you focus on different aspects of the article as your personal interest in what you are reading will continue to grow. This opens people up to the topic, and hopefully interests them enough to look deeper into the content. Keeping the information direct and focused, but at the same time not limiting the future audience of who will read or be interested in the article is something that I believe is very important in journalism. Allowing an individual to learn about a topic while incorporating main ideas and key points of the study and research, this is what journalism is all about.

--Original published at HannahsCollegeBlog

Bullying does not just happen in school by peers; but in the safety of a child’s own home, is they can suffer from the most aggression by their own sibling(s). Due to this at home bullying, it has shown to increase the likely-hood of young adults developing psychotic disorders. The University of Warwick, located in the UK, found that through one of their studies, sibling bullying is linked to mental disorders such as schizophrenia. The study also showed that it is not just the victim who is susceptible, but also the perpetrator, both sides of the act are affected.

The researchers wanted to go more in depth on this topic, looking for a correlation between sibling bullying and the development of a psychotic disorder. The study was conducted to answer four questions: is an association between experiencing sibling bullying (victimization or perpetration) at 12 years and the development of psychotic disorder by the age of 18; is a dose-response relationship between the frequency of experiencing sibling victimization or perpetration and psychotic disorder; whether the role taken in sibling bullying (victim, bully, bully-victim) is differentially associated with the psychotic disorder and whether being the victim in more than one setting is cumulatively associated with the development of the psychotic disorder.

The participants involved in this study were selected from a birth cohort. Once the children from the cohort reached twelve years, they took a sample of 3596 children who had previously filled out questionnaires. These participants were then separated into categories based on their results from the questionnaires; the categories consisted of the victim, the bully, the “bully-victim”, and non-involved. The results showed that out of the sample size, 664 came back as being victims, 486 were bullies, and 771 were bully-victims.

Once the participants were around eighteen years of age, the researchers conducted another test to show any symptoms or development of psychotic disorders. The results showed that out of all 3596 participants, 55 of them developed a psychotic disorder by the age of eighteen. The data collected from this study shows that victimized children have around three times the likelihood of meeting the criteria for a psychotic disorder. The data also shows that both sibling bullying and peer bullying can increase the risks of developing a psychotic disorder.

Results from the study indicate that any type of involvement in sibling bullying will increase the chances of acquiring a psychotic disorder; although, the strongest correlation was found with children who were pure victims or bully-victims. Based on the results of this study, parents and health professionals should become aware of the negative long-term effects of sibling bullying.

Word count: 429

Pop culture article word count: 440

Link to full study: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/sibling-bullying-in-middle-childhood-and-psychotic-disorder-at-18-years-a-prospective-cohort-study/4B750A1729BA23DFA0CFE96B3F01A9E9/core-reader

Link to pop-culture article: https://www.studyfinds.org/children-bullied-siblings-more-likely-devleop-psychotic-disorders/

Reflection

When creating my own pop culture article, I did find it a little challenging to decide what to put in the article and what to leave out. This was a very difficult task because the study contained a substantial amount of information. But, deciphering which details were just little details, important to the psychologists, and which were larger details important to the broad topic of the study was the most challenging part for me.

When writing this article, I tried to fit all the five critical questions into the paper without going over the word count. The first question I included by letting the reader know what the independent and dependent variable were without straight out stating it. I included the second question by letting the reader know where the original study selected their participants from. The third question was included by stating how the researchers assigned the participants to different groups. For the fourth question, I included in my article, the casual claims that were made in the study. For the last question, I did try to aim my writing to the general public, by keeping the wording simple for people who do not know much about psychology, to understand.

My summary of the study and the news article are very similar, but also have a few differences. Both articles include the basics, where the study was done and what it was about. As well as including the number of participants involved and the results from the study. The news article, unlike my summary, includes a lot of quotes from psychologists and organizations, that I feel, are just extra information that is not vital to the study. The pop culture article also did not include the main points of what the researchers wanted to find by conducted the study. My summary included all four points the researchers wanted to answer by the study.

By experiencing these different projects, it has largely opened my eyes to the scientific side of the journalism world. By doing the first assignment, the pop culture article critique, it made me realize that maybe every article is not as scholarly as you might think. The pop culture article left out some major details about the study, but included quotes from psychologists, that the article could do without. The scholarly article critique made me realize how much work, information, and detail go into a scholarly article. Lastly, the Pop media project helped me put myself in other writers’ shoes and realize how hard it is to pick out details from a very large amount of information that is in front of you.

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

Media Article

Feeling out of the loop is a feeling people of this generation know far too well. Why do we feel the need to know everything about people that are “famous?” What makes them famous in the first place? Why is this feeling considered to have the same psychological effects of partial ostracism? Questions like these and more are addresses in the studies examined in ““Who’s That?”: The Negative Consequences of Being Out of the Loop on Pop Culture.”  by three different psychologists. The psychologists looked at how the feeling of being out of the loop was mediated by the relationship between familiarity of musicians, celebrities, logos, and other pop culture stimuli and need satisfaction as well as negative moods.

Each study conducted asked undergrad students, who were required for a course or extra credit, to view different photographs of pop culture stimuli. The first experiment focused on musicians. The participants were informed that most people knew who this musician was and then they were asked to identify them. Following the viewing, participants were asked to rate how out of the loop they felt as well as need for satisfaction. The results showed that viewing musicians that were said to be very famous, and not knowing who they were, lead to a greater feeling of being out of the loop as well as less need satisfaction and increased negative mood. The second study confirmed the results of the first using a greater number of students. The same steps were taken to collect data.

The third experiment used the same type of participants but used pop culture logos instead. The same results were found when participants were unfamiliar with the logos that were said to be recognized by many. The final experiment was not exactly the same as the first three. Instead of being shown a picture, participants were asked to take a quiz to show their interests and preferences on certain pup culture subjects. While some took quizzes about more familiar pop culture subjects, other took a quiz on pop culture subjects many do not know about. It was found that the people taken the more unfamiliar quiz reported results of lower need satisfaction and a more negative mood.

Following the study, it was found that being unfamiliar with elements of pop culture leads participants to feel more out of the loop, lower need satisfaction, as well as a more negative mood for college aged people. It was concluded being out of the loop is also a form of partial ostracism and it effects humans’ basics need satisfaction and mood. The results of this study suggest being out of the loop, in concerns to pop culture, may be worse compared to other information.

Pop-culture article : https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/05/01/even-those-participants-who-claimed-pop-culture-is-unimportant-suffered-psychological-ill-effects-from-feeling-out-of-the-loop/

Scholarly article : http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-32098-001

Reflection

I found writing a new article to be very challenging. Honestly, starting the summary was quite difficult for me. I knew that I had to writing something that would catch an audience’s attention and I am honestly not sure if I even did that. Information such as the actually data had to be left out. I chose to do this because I thought that an audience wouldn’t really care about the numbers but not the overall concepts of the study. Throughout the entire psychology in the media project, I have gained a new perspective of journalists over each different assignment. To being, after reading the initial article in the pop culture article assignment, I felt that the journalist job was probably pretty easy. You just have to write a summary of an article and make it interesting how hard could it really be. Following the scholarly article critique, I thought simply the journalist that wrote my pop culture article was just not very good. They left out a bunch of information I thought would be necessary as well as assumed some things that were not stated in the scholarly article. Finally, after writing my own article, I realize just how difficult it is. Between not knowing what information may be important and not wanting to be redundant when the study repeated itself many times, I found that I had a great deal of trouble. My perspective of journalists has changed for the better. I have a new-found respect for what they do.

Citation

Iannone, N. E., Kelly, J. R., & Williams, K. D. (2018). “Who’s that?”: The negative consequences of being out of the loop on pop culture. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 7(2), 113-129.http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000120

Witkowski, Tomasz. “Even Those Participants Who Claimed Pop Culture Is Unimportant Suffered Psychological Ill Effects from Feeling out of the Loop.” Research Digest, 1 May 2018, digest.bps.org.uk/2018/05/01/even-those-participants-who-claimed-pop-culture-is-unimportant-suffered-psychological-ill-effects-from-feeling-out-of-the-loop/.