Spotlight: Social

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Peer pressure is such a prominent issue in today’s society, especially with children at school and in a social setting. Pop culture today idolizes doing drugs and drinking alcohol which ultimately increases the amount of peer pressure that people experience. Different groups all experience peer pressure. I chose to research children, college students, and athletes. Though college students and athletes experience similar peer pressures, dealing with being pressured to drink alcohol underaged as well as take/do illegal drugs the intensity of these peer pressures vary.

Peer pressure often works because it is hard to make the right decision without thinking about it in advance. In order to help a child to deal with peer pressure it is important to talk with them about peer pressure in general is important and can be helpful when dealing with it. This article discussed five things to teach your child to deal with peer pressure. The first step is to take a deep breath, this is important for your child to know because it is okay to take a minute before making a decision about the suggestion that was made. The second step is finding the right words to say to the person making the suggestion. This is important because it is directly saying “This is not safe” or “This is not right”, this is naming the action. The third step is thinking it through, it is important to ask the child to think the situation through fully and decide the repercussions for everyone involved in the decision they may make. The fourth step is asking what they could do instead. Listing reasons not to do it may be bad because this can be counteracted with reasons that they are not bad but suggesting another activity to do instead can be beneficial. The fifth and final step is learning to walk away. If the other methods of peer pressure do not work and the child’s friends still persists then they must learn to just walk away. This website provides examples that can be helpful when dealing with peer pressure as a child. Providing ways to deal with it in the case of the other ways do not work is very important because it is useful to have multiple strategies to stay away from peer pressure.

Peer pressure for college students begins focusing on drinking and drug usage more than anything else. Once you enter college it is an unspoken, but well-advertised expectation for college students to go out with their friends and party while drinking underage and partaking in illegal drug use. This means it is important for college students to learn ways to combat caving into peer pressure. It is also harder to avoid peer pressure because you are in college without parents or other adults there to remind you about correct decisions. A good way to avoid peer pressure in college is to find a group of friends who have similar interests and goals. It can also be beneficial to join a sports team or clubs; this group of people will assist in keeping a college student away from illegal activities and substances and peer pressure. If you find yourself in a situation whether it is being pressured to drink alcohol, do drugs, or complete sexual activities when you do not want to, it is important to learn to say no and walk away. This article was insightful but was not very extenuous. This article would be less likely to help cut down on peer pressure then the first article because it lacks alternative methods of denying peer pressure.

There is a heightened amount of peer pressure in athletes, especially in men. There is a high expectation for athletes in the classroom, on the field, and at home and they must balance school work, at home responsibilities, as well as practice and games all while upholding a social life. With all of this stress it is easy for the child to become peer pressured to use alcohol and drugs as an outlet to escape this stress. It is common for sports teams to celebrate their success or deal with their loss using alcohol and drugs, so as a parent of an athlete it is important to talk to your child about these possible problems and make it very clear that as a child, you do have a choice on whether to say yes or no. It is also helpful to become as involved as possible so as a parent you are able to see first-hand whether or not there is negative peer pressure on the team. It is also important to look at the team’s coach, some look the other way, others promote the use of alcohol, and in rare cases they may supply it. If you are aware of this, it is important to contact the school so they can proceed accordingly. This article was helpful in addressing peer pressure among college students, but like the previous article it does not offer alternative methods of dealing with peer pressure.

Resisting peer pressure for children:

https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/5-steps-resist-peer-pressure/

Resisting peer pressure for college students

https://www.bestcollegereviews.org/dealing-peer-pressure-college/

Resisting peer pressure for athletes:

https://www.livingfithealthyandhappy.com/2010/03/negative-peer-pressure-among-teen-athletes.html

Media Projection Project

--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

Bonus Posts: Personality

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

When completing my Johari Window it was difficult choosing five traits that describe me. I did not think it would be difficult to describe myself because I live with myself everyday so it should be easy but when it comes to defining yourself and your personality in five words it is harder than you would think. This process was difficult to choose only five, I do see myself as having a big personality so it was also a challenge to consolidate myself into such a few number of words. When sending it to the people who are very close to me, only four characteristics to describe my personality overlap. There were far more words used to describe me chosen by other people that I did not think to choose for myself. This either proves that I do not know myself as well as I thought or that the people who completed my Johari Window do not know me as well as they thought. After seeing the words that they chose, I do understand why they used them to describe me, but it makes me wonder why I did not choose some of their words myself. I think that this measure of personality is valid because even though not many of my choices are the same as others, most of the people who completed this did answer in the same words. This shows consistency and I agree with most of them which shows accuracy. I learned a lot about myself because there are things about my personality that are easier for others to see, instead of me seeing it myself. This shows me things I can look at that I saw already and new things that were shown to me through my friends and families’ answers. https://kevan.org/johari?view=Cecilia

Spotlight: Stress

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Stress is such a difficult thing that almost everyone in society experiences it, more frequently then we probably should. Though there are many developments on how to deal with this stress. Each group, age, and type of people experience different kinds of stress. Three groups of people that I chose to research on ways to manage their stress are college students, athletes, and parents. I chose athletes and college students because I am a part of both of these groups so researching ways to manage the stress they experience will be helpful for my own life. And parenting is close to me because I am very close to my mom and I know that I cause her a lot of stress on top of other stressors in her life.

The first article I read was 10 ways that a college student can reduce their stress, it was written in 2010 so some of these strategies may be outdated or no longer as effective. I think that a few of these strategies are useful, they discuss get an adequate amount of sleeping, eating well, and exercising (Scott, 2010). Exercise is linked with both physiological and psychological benefits consistently. It also discusses seeking emotional support, which is very important because it brings someone resources and hope that things will get easier/better. Though there are some coping mechanisms that I think would be considered self-indulgence, such as getting a massage, yes this is relaxing but when the massage is over you will still have just as much on your plate. Overall, reading this article will bring you some success in reducing your stress.

The second article was focused on how athletes can manage their stress. This article only discusses five stress management tips: get adequate rest, engage in fun activities, manage your time, check your attitude, and get support (Barron, 2017). From an athlete’s point of view I think that all of these coping mechanisms would be useful. Getting support is something called self-disclosure, which allows you to talk to someone about what is stressing you out, which in some cases lifts a burden off of your shoulders. The only one that I would critique is checking your attitude, it is important to have apositive attitude, but in some cases it is very hard to uphold this attitude all the time. Though I do believe with using other constructive strategies for coping with their stress, the positive attitude will be easier to uphold. After reading this article I think it would be very successful in helping athletes find ways to reduce some of their stress.

The last article I read was four tips that help manage parenting stress. Similarly to the previous articles it discusses using a support system, friends and family. In this article, it discusses for the first time in my research, seeking help from a professional when things become too much for you to handle. I think this is important to put in writing because in many cases people do not want to see a professional because of pride, but I think reading this article it will help people to make the decision to seek help for themselves. Turner also discusses making time for yourself, which I see as very important because parents are so caught up in their child’s life and in their significant other’s life. So it is important for a parent to take a step back and have a night or a few days for themself, which in my opinion would reduce a lot of stress. “It is okay to take a break for yourself. It’s actually healthy and more beneficial for you and your child to have some time apart” (Turner, 2013). This article would be very successful in helping reduce a parent’s stress because it points out that it is okay to take steps to help yourself, which I think many parents forget this once they become a mother or father.

Ultimately I think that these article did a fairly good job in providing ways to reduce stress levels in different groups while following the correct psychological ways to cope and reduce stress.

Stress Management for College Students:

Scott, J. (2010). College Life: 10 Ways to Reduce Stress. Everyday Health. Retrieved from https://www.everydayhealth.com/college-health/college-life-10-ways-to-reduce-stress.aspx

Stress Management for Athletes:

Barron, C. (2017). The Stress Management Tips For Athletes. NOVA labs. Retrieved from https://nova3labs.com/five-stress-management-tips-athletes/

Stress Management for Parents:

Turner, E. (2013). 4 Tips for Managing Parenting Stress. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-race-good-health/201306/4-tips-managing-parenting-stress

First Impression: Personality

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

After completing all four personality tests, I got similar results from three of the four. And though I did not think to describe myself in the ways that the results did, they do make sense. The first test, Jung Typology Test described me as a ESFJ, the E means extravert, the S is for sensing, the F is for feeling and the J is for judging. I am 53% extraverted over introversion. The test rated me 9% sensing over intuition, 16% feeling over thinking and 12% judging over perceiving. This test is credible in my opinion, for the most part but there were some questions that I did not quite have a full understanding of in order to answer in the best way possible.

The second personality test was called the Personality Test Center (Type Theory) which also resulted in the ESFJ which this site called the “seller”. This test described ESFJ as the most sociable of all the types, this type of person makes an outstanding host or hostess and would excel in jobs with personal contact. 13% of the population are this type of person. This matches my personality pretty well in my opinion because I am outgoing and excel in areas where it requires personal interaction. This sight is as credible as the last one, it better described watch type of person with a paragraph distraction instead of just a few words. Though there were some misspelled words in the questions throughout the test.

The third personality test was the IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers which provided me with five personality traits with the percentile that I was in: extrovert (98th percentile), emotional stability (11th percentile), agreeableness (friendly/optimistic, 80th percentile), conscientiousness (diligent, 92nd percentile), and intellect/imagination (70th percentile). Though this was a real study from a .org source but it does not match as closely to the other two tests. I also do not think it is as credible because it does not have much description at all on what each five factor markers mean.

The final and least credible personality test is the Color Quiz, this was the showing of eight colors and I was asked to pick the colors in an order that made the most sense to me, and then I was asked to do it again, not necessarily in the same order. I think this is the least credible out of the four tests because there were no questions asked, just colors that I chose. It did go very far in depth in describing my results, so in depth it discussed my current situation, my stress sources, restraining characteristics that I have, desired objectives that the test said I have, and the actual problem that was all revealed by the order in which I chose the colors. Though some of the explanations were spot on, it is hard to believe it is because of actual science from colors alone rather than luck.

Overall, I think that for the most part these tests and their results that I got, they are pretty accurate on what I would describe myself as in terms of my personality.

First Impression: Intelligence

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

I think that as important as your genetics are to determine your level of intelligence, there are many other factors. From the time you enter school, your intelligence is measured by tests and grades. You establish a reading level, you take tests that determine your math and science competencies. This continues throughout the rest of your school career, and you continue to take exams that evaluate your progress in all subjects. One thing that has huge effects on a child’s level of intelligence especially during the prime developmental years, is parents, teachers and how they do in school. If children have teachers that talk to their students in a degrading way, even if it is unintentional, this affects the way the child looks at their intelligence and their ability to learn. Another huge determinant of a child’s intelligence and their ability to learn is their environment at home, if the parent or guardian’s do not promote doing well in school and working hard this will reflect in the way that they perform in school.

My mom is a teacher so before entering in to school, my education, grades, and level of intelligence was expected to be very high. I went to school where my mom taught, so the teachers that I had all throughout school knew what I was capable of and did not allow me to miss these expectations. I was lucky enough to have supportive teachers who used positive reinforcement and did not have to experience “mean” teachers you hear about in movies. Though I am sure some children to experience this and to help children in the future when they go through school, I think some changes can be made. For example, I think it would be beneficial to have more individualized evaluations of their knowledge because not every child learns in the same way and not every child can perform accurately and as well as they do in the classroom, on tests. I myself struggle with tests because I perform well in class, on projects, and presentations, but when it come to tests I face a problem recalling information even when I am confident in knowing it. I think this small change would change the performance of students’ in the classroom because assessments weigh so much in the academic world on measuring intelligence and getting into college that it places a lot of pressure on students. This ultimately lowers performance rates so if the way assessments are done or how they are weighted is changed, I believe that will improve the performance of students because they are focused more on learning and deepening their intelligence instead of memorizing information long enough to put it onto a test.

First Impression: Emotion

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Communication is very non-verbal, more than people realize. You may have heard the saying “you wear your emotions on your sleeve”, but people should say that you wear your emotions on your face. Your facial expressions can tell a lot about what you are feeling, even when you do not realize that you are showing so much. Some people are better at detecting what people are feeling by looking at their facial expressions than others. I feel as though I am very good at reading people’s emotions without them saying it directly.

I took a quiz with people making different faces, with different emotions that you have to pick which one they are feeling. I scored 12 out of 20 correct, which means I got 8 wrong. The results summary said that I am not bad at reading emotions and my score reflects an average ability to read emotions. I thought that I would score closer to perfect, sp the results are slightly surprising to me, though I did not realize how many emotions their were. When I was evaluating myself on how well I can read emotions, I only thought about being able to identify happiness, sadness, and anger. I did not take in to consideration emotions such as politeness and shame that were asked to be identified on the quiz. The easiest emotions on the quiz were happiness, anger, and pain. The hardest ones to identify were embarrassment and compassion in my opinion. I think that this test is credible for the most part, but I also believe that emotions are shown differently from person to person so it is hard to generalize facial expressions with their meanings.

First Impression: Stress

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Stress is extremely prominent in college students because of the difficult classes, rigorous schedules, and the want to succeed brings a lot of stress on a student. A large number of college students do not know various stress management strategies that are healthy and helpful. I have a lot of stressors in my life because of sports, school, and high expectation of myself as well as from my family. This causes high stress levels almost all the time. In order to cope with this stress I do not have the best strategies, I usually just go to sleep and ignore my problems for a few hours. Other times, I make lists whether it just says to do my laundry or I sometimes go as deep as saying I need to study a certain chapter in a certain course. These lists allow me to feel like I have accomplished something, even if it is a small, easy task, at least I am being productive in some way. I think that sleeping is not working at all because it is just a way to procrastinate and avoid my assignments and studying. Making lists is very helpful in my opinion because it lays out what I need to do and shows what I have already accomplished and what I still have to do. In the future there are much more realistic and effective ways of dealing with stress. I will try to incorporate eating healthier and going to sleep at an earlier and more consistent time, without taking as many naps. These will hopefully help alleviate some of my stress, which will ultimately make me a happier person.

First Impression: Sleep

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

Sleep is the periodic, natural loss of consciousness. It is so common for college students countrywide to struggle with sleep deprivation. There are many negative effects of sleep, including worser work ethic, negative moods, and lowered efficiency. I, as a college student and an athlete, struggle with juggling practice/games, homework, and studying all while having time to eat, go to class, and sleep. I would say on average I sleep between 5 and 7 hours a night. This is not a sufficient amount of sleep for someone of my age to wake up and feel energized, at my full potential for school and my athletics. I sleep so little because I have practice till 8 or 9:30 and we sometimes have away games that we return to campus at as late as 12:30. This means that studying and finishing homework takes place later because practice ends later. Often times I am up studying in my room or working on assignment in the library till 12:30-1.

A realistic amount of time I spend sleeping that I hope to reach is 8 hours. I am planning to achieve this by getting as much studying and homework done before practice so that after practice I can focus on unwinding and going to sleep much earlier. Another way that I hope to improve my sleeping habits is putting my phone on my desk before I get in to bed because I have read that the screen time you spend on your phone can keep you awake for thirty minutes after looking at it. This is in hopes that I will be able to fall asleep faster, ultimately providing me with longer amounts of sleep.

First Impression: Drugs

--Original published at Cecilia's Thoughts

The debate on whether to legalize marijuana across America has been very controversial for quite some time. There is an argument on both medical marijuana and recreational marijuana and whether it should be allowed to be used in all 50 states. There is arguments for both legalizing marijuana and the use of it remaining illegal. Medical marijuana is becoming more and more popular and is prescribed by healthcare workers to treat various diseases and conditions, such as cancers, seizures, and multiple sclerosis (MS). I think that medical and recreational marijuana should be legalized country-wide because it is not only used effectively for medical conditions, but it also can reduce stress and anxiety. Medical marijuana helps with medical issues, but it may lead to negative consequences if a person’s tolerance strengthens, which would cause a need for more of it or even a harder drug necessary to help with this same disease. Another negative effect could be the misuse of medical marijuana, especially if recreational use of marijuana is still illegal. Recreational use of marijuana becoming legalized would lead to a huge decrease in arrests, lowering overall crime rate. Though, the legalization of marijuana could cause an overuse of the drug. The legalization of marijuana could become economically beneficial because it would produce a huge profit for the country. In my opinion, I think that both recreational and medical marijuana should be legal everywhere because I believe that the pros outweigh the cons and it would be good for the country if it was legal.