Spotlight #3

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

Parental Peer Pressure: https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/life/2017/01/20/8-ways-cope-parental-peer-pressure/96835714/

According Grande to not succumbing to peer pressure involves an inner strength, a strong support system, trusting your gut, being assertive, avoiding debates, practicing self-care, gaining respect, and increasing family time. I think these methods for avoiding peer pressure are adequate but not perfect techniques in avoiding peer pressure. Much of peer pressure can stem from a desire to “fit in” with the group and this can happen across any age. Thus, Grande’s advice of having a supportive social system is good advice. Having a trusted and genuine support system can facilitate positive peer pressure as well.

Grande’s tips on spending time with one’s own family also fits in with a strong support system. Grande reasons that when one spends time with their family, they will be able to discern the unique values they possess. This advice is good because having a strong relationship among family can remind the person and ground them in their own beliefs since the influence of peers would not be present. Furthermore, there is no outside audience when one spends time strictly within their family and thus judgement would not be present. This could also help with conformity since one would just be with their family and thus there are no outside forces that facilitate feelings of conformity.

The first tip Grande provides, however, is not the best strategy towards combatting peer pressure. Though an individual’s willpower and own strength can aid in avoiding peer pressure, willpower throughout the day decreases and insecurities can seep in at any time, especially if one lacks inner strength. Likewise, inner strength can be hard to automatically turn on especially when one feels peer pressure and the pressure to conform.

Adolescent/Teenager Peer Pressure: https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/peer-pressure.html

This website argues coping with peer pressure necessitates a balance between one’s own morals and fitting in with the group. The argument that one needs to have a strong sense of self can backfire though. One’s sense of self can be diminished if they are present within a large group of people and feel the pressure to conform to what the group is doing. While inner strength and self-confidence are both important, these skills can be spotty when in the midst of peer pressure.

Another tip offered by the website is to join forces with another peer and stick to a decision together. This may be a good strategy because the person would not feel alone in their decision. They also suggest joining a peer and simply leaving the situation together. Since two people would be together in their decision their combined confidence may help in escaping peer pressure.

One of the tips is to “choose your friends wisely,” however, this does not guarantee that someone will or will not experience negative peer pressure. The urge to conform to what others are doing still may be present.

College Peer Pressure: https://caps.ucsc.edu/counseling/aod/peer-pressure.html

UC Santa Cruz’s Counseling and Psychological Services provides a few methods to avoid and navigate negative peer pressure. The first few tips highlight one’s recognition of their own morals and values. While this could be helpful in discerning whether an individual feels they should or should not do something, it may not aid with peer pressure since with peer pressure there is an urge to conform or “fit in.” One of the specific tips is to weight the pros and cons of the situation at hand. This may help an individual to look at the situation rationally rather than through a peer pressure perspective.

Another tip that may prove helpful is the delay tactic. This tactic may be helpful because the individual withholds their morals and values and politely declines. The individual could still be in their friends’ company but would not partake in activities they do not approve of. Some helpful phrases the website suggests replacing “no” with are “not today” and “maybe another time”

Like the previous website, UC Santa Cruz suggests taking a friend who supports you. This was the tension of conformity is mediated by someone who possesses the same perspective on the issue at hand. Having a person “in your corner” may help to alleviate peer pressure because of the increase in confidence to say “no” and stick with your decision.

Finally, the website suggests removing yourself from the situation. While this may alleviate peer pressure in the moment, if the individual continues to spend time with the same group, negative peer pressure could arise again.

Media Production Project

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

ARTICLE SUMMARY

Talking to a stranger is generally uncomfortable, and full of awkwardness on both ends. While the general belief and consensus is talking with a stranger is awkward and not the best quality interaction, this belief may not be true. In a recent 2018 study, it was found that people are much harsher on themselves regarding their conversation performance with a stranger.

The 2018 study, conducted by Erica Boothby, Gus Cooney, Gillian Sandstrom, and Margaret Clark, found when strangers conversed for the first time, conversationalists were not as judgmental as they were believed to be. Individuals were paired together to become conversation partners for a different lengths of time and after their conversation rated two aspects of the conversation. First, how much they liked their conversation partner and second, how much they thought the stranger liked them.

In a majority of cases, individuals rated their partner with high regard but rated themselves with low likability. Participants believed they were less likable when in reality, they were more likable than they believed. This phenomena was dubbed “the liking gap” by Boothby et al. and was operationalized through the score given by participants on how likable they were and how likable their conversation partner was. One’s likability score was produced using a seven question scale that had a range of strongly disagree to strongly agree. The seven questions were: 1) “I generally liked the other participant,” 2) “I would be interested in getting to know the other participant better,” 3) “If given the chance, I would like to interact with the other participant again,” 4) “I could see myself becoming friends with the other participant,” 5) “The other participant generally liked me,” 6) “The other participant would be interested in getting to know me better,” and finally 7) “The other could see himself/herself becoming friends with me.”

The initial results of a five minute conversation showed that the “liking gap” does appear in conversations and both participants rated their conversation partner as more likable than they thought. Both participants were experiencing the same phenomena, the “liking gap.” Boothby et al. showed that participants possessed lower perceived levels of likability. In reality, the participants’ actual likability showed the participants were more liked than they believed they were.

In follow up studies, the “liking gap” persisted in five and forty-five minute conversations and was even seen to appear with college roommates over the course of nine months. Only after a significant amount of time, nearly a year, did the “liking gap” diminish according to Boothby et al.

Boothby et al. also conducted workshops named “How to Talk to Strangers” where they tested their experiments in public. The results were the same in their research participants, college students, and general public. Individuals still thought their conversation performance was worst and believed themselves to be less likable than they were actually rated by their partners.

So why does the liking gap occur? Boothby et al. theorized that in general, people are very harsh and believe themselves to be bad regarding their ability to communicate. Boothby et al. offer three explanations. First, that people scrutinize their conversational mistakes and while they intend on getting better, they are critical of the way they spoke. Their conversation partners obviously do not have access to these criticizing self-thoughts and thus do not think their conversation partner made mistakes. Second, Boothby et al. observe that people held higher standards for themselves than others because they know how they can best perform. When people do not perform their best, for example tell a story perfectly, they indirectly believe this affects their likability. Individuals know the best version of their story and believe this is the most likable version of themselves, thus when their best self or story is not shown, the perceived rating of likability decreases. Lastly, Boothby et al. theorized the “liking gap” occurs because people overestimate how bad their behavior and mannerism were. Boothby et al. explain that individuals believe their unlikable qualities show through when in reality, their conversation partner does not know their self-conscious thoughts.

Overall, the “liking gap” was observed to be a very real phenomena.

REFLECTION

Writing this last section, the media production project, allowed me to put myself in a writer’s position. While the process of writing a summary of the article was fairly easy, it was not a piece of cake. A true understanding was necessary to write about the article; this complete understanding necessitated careful reading and comprehension of the research study and its results. It was easier with the scholarly article I had as the math behind the results was fairly simple to comprehend. I could understand, however, how difficult this task could be if the statistical analysis was extremely mathematical and involved or required more information to understand the results.

Similarly to the pop culture article I chose, I provided the reasoning of why Boothby et al. believed the “liking gap” exists. The language I used to write the summary was chosen so that younger and older readers could all read and comprehend the information.

Unlike the pop culture article, I named the researchers to give proper credit and included more detail about what the “liking gap” was giving an operationalized definition. I think it was important to include how the “liking gap” was measured because it provides a better understand of what it is and how it can be observed in public situations.

I learned that when writing a pop culture article it is important to balance both the empirical information and entertainment factor. Writers obviously want to maintain the interest of their readers and thus including all the scientific and monotonous details can cause the audience to lose interest. I also learned the importance of writing with both accuracy and precision in order to capture the meaning of the article.

Johari Bonus Blog

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

Doing the Johari window was a fun and informative process. I sent the link to my close friends and family to see if there were similarities or differences between the adjectives people chose. For the most part, the adjectives I chose for myself were not very similar to the ones my friends and family chose for me. I chose more serious attributes like observant and mature but was reminded I have a warm and silly side too. The adjectives known to me and the respondents were: independent, knowledgeable, witty, and organized. It surprised me to see that many people chose the same adjectives. One of the most frequently chosen adjectives I did not select was caring and trustworthy. While I believe myself to be both these things it was interesting that in each case 72% of people chose these descriptors.

I thought the Johari Window was a relatively accurate measure of personality. I thought the adjectives chosen for me by my friends and family were very accurate. It is not always possible to see yourself through others eyes but, using the Johari Window gave me a chance to see what others think of me. I think the Johari Window was especially helpful to those who sent it to their close family and friends since these people would likely know their personality the best. Though it is not a psychometric test of personality, I think it does give true insight to a person’s general behavior and personality.

I learned that a majority people think of me as caring, trustworthy, and intelligent. I also learned that I possess a lot of amicable traits such as warm, kind, and silly. The Johari Window both taught and reassured me that I treat my friends and family the way I want to be treated.

Link to Johari Window: https://kevan.org/johari?view=Rachel%20Bickelman

Chapter 13 Personality – First Impression Post

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

The Jung Typology Test assigned me INFJ which stands for introvert, intuitive, feeling, and judging. When reading the description I thought it was quite accurate especially the part about being both detachment and involvement in friendships and with humanity as a whole. It was interesting how nuanced but capturing the description was. I am unsure about the credibility of the website. While it provides the same results as the Meyers-Briggs test, it does not have any affiliation with Meyers-Briggs. The personality test is only based on Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs-Meyer’s but does not go into detail how the results are calculated.

When I took the second test I got an ESTJ what the website describes as a “Field Marshall.” While I do like to take on leadership positions and help make decisions. Again, the credibility fo this website is unknown. While it is based on Jung’s type theory it does not describe much information about how the personality test is scored. I think it can provide a general idea of an individual’s preferences but cannot be completely accurate.

The big five personality test already seems more credible because it gives background on the personality test itself and how the results are calculated. Additionally it uses a test from an actual international’s study called the International Personality Item Pool. Finally, the test cites legitimate sources. I thought the results I got were relatively accurate. I thought it was interesting I scored over 50 on extroversion because I like to spend time by myself to “recharge.” The score I got on agreeableness and conscientiousness though I thought were accurate, they were both above 50 meaning I am friendly and optimistic, and also, careful and diligent.

Last I took the color personality quiz. I thought this quiz was relatively credible. I do not know much about color psychology but because the website explains a little about it’s relevance to the test and the studies done it seems more credible. The test is said to be accurate but the writers in the “About” section still are unsure if it is reliable. Thus, the credibility of this website decreases since it is not possible to be accurate without being reliable. Finally, when taking the actual test, the results claim they are accurate but not a diagnosis of personality which is contradicting. My results were surprisingly accurate and highlighted my fears and stresses about life.

Spotlight #2

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

Website 1: Athletes – https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/perfect-method-reduces-athlete-stress

The first website provides stress management tips for athletes using the “P.E.R.F.E.C.T.” acronym. This method os stress management targets building one’s self-esteem and managing the pressure athletes may feel from their coaches or selves. The P.E.R.F.E.C.T. acronym is as follows: positive self talk, embracing adversity, reverse engineering, focusing on the now, evolve, chill out, and talk it out. Positive self talks and embracing adversity are important because each can affect secondary appraisal, if athletes build up their confidence towards handling stress and having the belief they are capable of reaching their goals, stress will diminish. Secondary appraisal is key in combating stress because the belief in oneself to overcome stress has a key impact in how stress plays a role in everyday life. Those with low secondary appraisal will not manage their stress as people will high secondary appraisal because they will feel incapable, hopeless, and weak. Reverse engineering could also manage stress, this tip is a problem-approach to stress meaning it logically tackles the root the problem and finds different solutions to the stressors. While the problem based technique works psychologists highlight the importance of tackling the emotional repercussions of stress. This emotion based stress management is incorporated through the “chill out” and “talk it out.” These techniques are helpful for when athletes may get in their head and rather than tackling the stressor logically, may need emotional support to help them cope. It is known that self-disclosure to trusted peers and mentors is important in stress reduction. Additionally, everybody has a different way of dealing with stress, so the website also suggest evolving, trying new hobbies. By doing so, the website states having different endeavors can help diversify your life, i.e. get away from stressors, and allow athletes to grow. While finding something one is passionate about and enjoys may aid in stress management, it could also add to the stress if the athlete is continually ignoring the stressors and simply substituting it for different activities; thus, they would not fix the stressor itself. A majority of these strategies are both cognitive and behavioral; all are adaptive as they do not add in complications or stressors.

Website 2: Children/Parents – https://psychcentral.com/lib/7-tips-for-helping-your-child-manage-stress/

PsychCentral presents 7 tips to reduce stress in children. These tips highlight problem-focused coping to teach children how to problem-solve and approach stressors in a healthy manner versus maladaptive coping strategies like food, drugs, alcohol, or self-harm. By doing so, children can learn primary appraisal, how to quantify and understand the stressor. These tips are problem-focused coping because it effects the stressor at its source; the website suggests avoiding over scheduling children and allowing them time to play. The emotion-focused coping suggested includes talking to children and ensuring they know mistakes are not setbacks. This could increase secondary appraisal, and foster kid’s belief in themselves to cope with stress and overcome stressors. An additional tip is just for parents recommending they show as little stress around their children as possible to prevent both lashing out, unhealthy self-disclosure, and observational learning. If children see their parents coping with stress in unhealthy ways, observational learning will take place and children will mimic the parent’s ways. Finally, the website suggests reminding children to assess how they are feeling. It is important to remember the physiological and biological consequences of stress especially because of its correlation with future health status.

Website 3: Students – https://campusmindworks.org/help-yourself/self-care/managing-stress/

The University of Michigan has a website page dedicated to stress management and coping. Again they offer mostly problem-focused coping strategies and while problem solving is important in coping with stress, usually a mixture of both problem and emotional strategies are necessary. The webpage does include self-disclosure, or “venting” to friends and family. They incorporate optimism into many of their strategies, which is a good tip. Optimism has shown to be a quality of those with better quality of life and longer lives. The webpage also highlights to avoid pushing yourself too hard, this is important when considering general adaptation syndrome. When the body is exposed to stressors for too long, it reaches exhaustion since its resistance has been depleted. Another coping strategy the webpage includes is meditation, breathing exercises, and visual imagery. Visual imagery has its benefits; because the brain is so easily influenced, imagining relaxing sceneries and engaging your senses with those relaxing environment can help in temporarily reducing stress. This type of stress coping strategy is part of the mindfulness based stress reduction technique. While the strategies suggested are all good, they mostly focus on problem-solving tactics and do not highlight the importance of regular exercise and social support.

Chapter 9 Intelligence – First Impression Post: Option 1

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

The educators I’ve had throughout school were the ones who foster my love for learning. Each year, especially during high school I grew more appreciative and inspired by the teachers I had. They made a huge impact on my attitude towards school and definitely were influential and helpful in fostering my education and passions.

Though I had a wonderful experience in high school there are a few things I would change. I liked that in my courses we always were studying relevant literature and topics. At times I feel that school emphasizes important authors and figures but fail to highlight the bigger picture and allow students to form their own ideas and worldview. I felt like I never knew what I though about the material we were learning rather, the only viewpoint I had was the teacher’s or an objective textbook standpoint. Something that really helped me improve my performance in school was talking to my teachers asking them questions about both life and academics. This helped me to think critically and also gain new perspectives on life.

During high school I felt my time was very split and while I enjoyed all the activities I was a part of, it sometimes took away from academics and caused me a lot of stress to maintain good grades, grow my knowledge, but still do the things I liked. I would have changed the homework structure at times I felt I was doing unnecessary work and while I learned some great study skills a lot of my time went towards busy work. Meaningful homework that practiced skills and readings which made me think were the most helpful. I would also mimic the college structure of classes where each day is planned and the class time is used to its maximum potential.

The last thing I would change is students ability to freely speak. Often times classrooms were awkwardly silent with only a few outspoken students speaking. I know I always had to muster up the courage to speak up and put in my opinion. I think facilitating more conversations and debates would have been helpful for students to feel heard and also give them a chance to develop their own thoughts.

Chapter 10 Emotions – First Impression Post: Option 2

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

I scored a 14/20 on the emotional intelligence quiz which reported, “your score means you’re slightly better than the average at reading expressions.” I am unsurprised at these results as I have always felt, and at times been told, I have an established sense of emotional intelligence. At times I feel I am very adept at reading other peoples emotions and how they are feeling, but in other situations I feel completely clueless.

At first the quiz was very difficult since I wasn’t paying enough attention to the facial features and position of the head but at the end of the quiz I felt I could get the answers with gut instinct. I found contempt, anger, disgust, and embarrassment to be the harder ones to distinguish. The emotions love, pride, happiness, flirtatious, sadness, and pain were easy to distinguish though.

I think the test is a surface level way to get a general idea of one’s level of emotional intelligence but I do not think it is the best method. Since everybody is different and expresses emotions uniquely, giving it their own personal twist, it may be easier to recognize emotions of the people you know rather than on strangers like in this quiz. Someone might not have scored very well on this test but maybe they are really good at telling apart the emotions of their loved ones and friends. The test though it a good baseline though since it incorporates the basic features of each emotion.

I could use this in my daily life to better understand my family, friends, even strangers. By being able to tell how someone is feeling, I could offer them help or allow them to self-disclose to alleviate their stress. Having emotional intelligence could also make me better at talking and understanding how a person is feeling especially during conflict or rough times.

Chapter 11 Stress – First Impression Post: Option 1

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

Stress management is extremely important to everybody as stress can affect one’s health in major ways. I have found exercising, getting enough sleep, talking to friends, and taking breaks to be the best strategies to cope with stress.

Exercising is perhaps the most helpful and has been the most recommended way for me to deal with stress. I think it works really well because exercise helps to maintain your physical health but also allows you to take your mind off of stress and focus on something else. My dad always tells me to work out when I am feeling stressed, even Elle Woods from Legally Blonde knows how helpful exercise is. “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t kill their husbands. They just don’t!” Getting enough sleep is important it as we just learned it repairs both your brain and body! From microglia cleaning up dead cells, to allowing the brain to function properly and also get some rest. I definitely feel the difference when I get good quality sleep versus bad quality sleep in regards to how stressed I feel.

Talking to friends about stress is also helpful because it allows me to verbalize how i am feeling. I also get advice and help from friends about how to deal with stress. Likewise, taking breaks from school work, or other stressors, also helps me to cope. I like to take breaks by spending time with friends and talking, exercising, watching a TV show, or even just going to dinner. This methods helps me but doesn’t always solve my stress since spending time with friends takes away from academics and studying.

Another way I could help relieve stress is by finding a more productive or efficient way to manage my study time. Most of my stress is derived from school so working on my study habits would probably allow me to feel less stress. I sometimes procrastinate, by not procrastinating I could reduce stress form academics. Another way I could reduce stress is through sensory methods. I have often heard online about aromatherapy/scents and certain foods which supposedly help with stress. Though we can’t light candles in the dorm, I guess I could buy an air freshener or scented toiletries like lotion or perfume.

Finally, I could reduce my stress by partaking in other activities and interests I have. I love to paint and draw as well as play violin. Doing hobbies that make me happy could help to reduce my stress as well and would be easy to incorporate into my day.

Chapter 3 Sleep – First Impression Post: Option 2

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

College students are often heavily sleep deprived as they sacrifice sleep in order to study, work, and/or have a social life in addition to their academic commitments. Assess your current sleep habits and how healthy you think they are. What is a realistic goal for amount of sleep per night for a college student and how can you improve your sleep habits?

My sleep habits are not great but could be worse. I go to sleep around the same time each night, however, depending on whether I have a class at 8 a.m. or not, the time I wake up varies a lot. When my classes start later, I allow myself to sleep in. Although, sometimes, I will stay up extra late to finish assignments or study more which cuts into the amount of time I sleep. Additionally, I do not think the method I use to fall asleep is healthy. Typically, I will turn off the bright fluorescent light during the evening but before sleeping I will spend time on my phone. This bright light likely does not help me to fall asleep, I have heard before that the light from electronics interferes with melatonin production which is key for sleepiness. Overall, my sleep habits are not very healthy as I do not wake up feeling rested.

A realistic goal for college students would be to sleep around 7 to 8 hours. This means if you fall asleep around 11 or 12 p.m. you would get several consecutive hours of sleep per night. Also, since college students stay up later, 11 or 12 p.m. would be a time that students would be done both socializing and doing academic work. I think this is realistic because students will likely not be doing their best academic work during the late hours of night and would benefit from sleeping rather than doing homework only done to a mediocre ability versus the best of their ability when well-rested.

To improve my sleep habits, I can stop using my phone before bed. This would allow my brain and eyes not to be interrupted or strained from my phone’s light. I could also get on a permanent schedule where I am both going to sleep and waking up at the same times each day. This way I would feel tired at a certain time and my body would know what time to wake up rather than it changing almost every day.

Spotlight #1

--Original published at Rachel Bickelman's PSY 105 Blog

The effects of divorce have researched and debated on for decades. One side of the argument, which claims divorce has a negative effect on children, has garnered a majority of the attention in divorce literature. Despite this, researchers have found this claim to be faulty and have concluded divorce does not effect, or has a positive effect, on children.

J. E. Lansford examines effect of divorce, by considering demographics, socioeconomic status, and the child’s well being to find unique patterns of adjustment in children with divorced parents. Lansford’s puts old research to the test by examining factors such as age, demographic traits, location, and stigmatization of divorce. The research Lansford uses is from well known meta analyses of divorce from well-known scholars in divorce literature, Amato and Hetherington. Amato’s first publication in 1991 included ninety-two studies and his 2001 study was updated with sixty-seven new studies. From these meta analyses Lansford found children have worse adjustment abilities compared to children with married parents. Lansford claims this occurs due to consistently high levels interpret conflict the child experiences; furthermore, she observes inter parental conflict is detrimental. It has a positive correlation with externalizing behaviors, internalizing problems, and trouble getting along with peers. Lansford cites Amato, Loomis, and Booth’s studies which concluded children’s problems decrease in married homes. Additionally, Lansford notes how stress and lack of social support made the experience of divorce worse for children causing over anxiety in boys and poor adjustment in both sexes (144). Lansford, a Duke professor, reviews divorce research studies and literature and her review was published by the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, a peer reviewed academic journal. Since the peer-review process is rigorous, one can conclude Lansford is a trustworthy source to pull from.

A. Clarke-Stewart and C. Brentano’s book titled Divorce: Causes and Consequences was published by the Yale University Press and covers the experience of divorce from the child’s perspective. Like Lansford, the authors pull from P. Amato’s meta-analyses and other scholarly literature and research studies. Chapter two, “Effects of Divorce on Children,” promotes the negative effects of divorce on children. Records and studies comparing children of divorced parents to married parents concluded children of divorced parents struggle with behavior, emotional, health and academic aspects of life. Most notably, they are prone to poor social and psychological adjustment along with aggressive conduct. The negative effect on children is not just social and psychological, but according to the authors it manifests physically as well. Examples provided by Clarke-Stewart included, more social difficulties and a weak self-esteem in comparison to married couples’ children. Embarrassment, fear of abandonment, grief, divided loyalty, in lieu with sadness and anger also persist long after the initial time of divorce. Though Clarke-Stewart and Brentano state the difference in suffering varies, at the end of the day, children suffer from divorce.

R. E. Emery and R. Forehand argue children from divorced families do not experience drastic mental health issues in comparison to children of married couples. While Emery and Forehand do not negate the findings on the negativities of divorce, they claim children of divorcees experience resilience and successful coping. The authors observed resilience is the outcome of divorce not risk despite the dominant literature suggesting so. Children are able to “bounce back,” and are able to cope with the stressful situation. Additionally, Emery and Forehand highlight the difference in adjustment of children regarding cognitive, social and psychological functioning is not huge. The authors conclude a child’s resilience could explain why clinical and empirical research often have varying conclusions and consequences, basically a flaw in operationalizing the effects of divorce. Much of Emery and Forehand’s claims are rooted in the lack of specificity and operational definition. Lastly, Emery and Forehand discuss the presence of confounding variables in the effect of depression theorizing the struggle experienced by the child have more of an effect than the actual divorce itself. Emery and Forehand’s section was published in a larger book titled Stress, Risk, and Resilience in Children and Adolescents which was published by the University of Cambridge.

S. R. Rappaport’s article aims towards de-stigmatizing and finding if divorce is the “main culprit” of children’s troubles following their parents’ divorce. The article aims to create an operational definition so figures in legal practices can better understand divorce and see the other factors contributing to post-divorce problems. Rappaport’s article utilizes a wealth of references and was published in the Family Law Quarterly, a scholarly journal. First, Rappaport claims divorce has become less stigmatized and thus more socially acceptable in contemporary society thus decreasing the negative embarrassment or stigmatized effect of divorce on children. Additionally, while children initially experience stress this stress is not constant allowing children to adjust. According to Rappaport’s references, because children of divorcees are exposed to high stress situations, their ability to handle high-conflict situations increases in comparison to their counterparts. Divorce has a short-term negative impact on a child’s functioning but it does not mean ti cause long-term psychological difficulties. Rappaport concludes divorces themselves are not the root cause of psychological problems rather the level and severity of conflict experienced, the relationship children have with their parents, their parents’ own mental health and parenting style, and the economic status of the family which is influenced by the divorce.

I would agree with the research which finds divorce has a negative impact on children. The added stress and the likelihood of conflict the child witnessed, whether verbal or physical fighting and other types of conflict, harm the psychological, emotional, and mental well-being of the child. Also, the abundance of literature and research studies available which conclude the negative impacts of divorce are convincing as is. While I believe Rappaport makes a great argument, the fundamental distress and conflict experienced by children due to divorce is why I would believe divorce causes negative is correct.

J.E. Lansford – Parental Divorce and Children’s Adjustment: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40212308.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A7530e5c4bbf2e5a623e8a3b6ec02ef28

A. Clarke-Stewart & Cornelia Brentano – “Effect of Divorce on Children” in Divorce: Cases and Consequences: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctt1npfks.9.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ad34242b329d094bced9294d2131b5f19

R. E. Emery & R. Forehand – Parental Divorce and Children’s Well-Being: A Focus on Resilience: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=px9c4-2qHjAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA64&dq=resilience+in+divorced+families&ots=DGqvO2dSmf&sig=INAsP5lV6v7pK_m_7L_TD7sSLa0#v=onepage&q=resilience%20in%20divorced%20families&f=true

S. R. Rappaport – Deconstructing the Impact of Divorce on Children: Found on EBSCOhost.